This DOGE whistleblower is run for office
It has Chuck Borges He passed a year
In January, Borges started a new job as the Social Security Administration’s chief data officer, overseeing some of the most sensitive data systems in the federal government — including databases containing the Social Security numbers, addresses, citizenship status and benefit records of nearly every American.
Or at least that was the job description. Instead, he spent seven months trying to gain access to the systems he was legally responsible for, sometimes learning how Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) operated in press reports rather than internal discussions. By this summer, he had filed a whistleblower complaint alleging DOGE had copied sensitive US data and moved it to an unsecured cloud environment. Borges was quickly forced to resign.
Now, Borges is launching his campaign for Maryland state senator.
In his first interview since campaigning on Tuesday, Borges describes his struggles with DOGE being left out of his agency and why he thinks technologists are needed to help guide this new era of government.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Wired: Why did you decide to run for office? And how did working under DOGE influence your decision to run?
Chuck Borges: I left SSA at the end of August and the next month was very trying both personally and professionally. Congress interactions were numerous. Some media were in the process. We had a lot of documents to work with. I started to tell various local groups that they should be concerned about data privacy. This is not a partisan issue. This is a non-partisan issue where the privacy of your data should be relevant to you and there is a risk involved.
In early October, the local Democratic Party contacted me and asked if I would be interested in running for office. My reason for running is simple – I have worked at the highest levels of the federal government and through that process I have seen many interactions with Congress. Today there are many concerns in the country about the inefficiency of the government and many things are not working.
DOGE didn’t influence my decision, but the dysfunction I experienced this year in general motivated me to find ways to better serve people.
What did you expect to happen when you first heard about DOGE’s involvement in SSA?
