Crowded field of 15 Democrats jockey to succeed U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky

A former journalist turned progressive content creator, a suburban mayor and a state senator are leading a field of an astounding 15 Democrats vying for U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s seat in one of the most competitive races the state has seen in decades.

Kat Abughazaleh, Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss and state Sen. Laura Fine, D-Glenview, are the fundraising leaders in the 9th District Congressional race for a seat that hasn’t been open since 1999. Before that, the seat was represented by Sidney R. Yates, who held it for 24 terms — with a two-year gap for an unsuccessful Senate bid in 1962 against Everett Dirksen.

Voters in one of the most Democratic districts in the state will see 16 names on the March 17 ballot. Bruce Leon’s name will be on there too, although he dropped out of the race and endorsed another candidate: former FBI agent Phil Andrew. Leon, a pro-Israel Democrat, blamed “tremendous political pressure from Washington, D.C., interests” — referring to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee — for dropping out.

AIPAC is indeed playing a role in the race — with Fine accepting donations associated with the pro-Israel lobbying group. AIPAC hasn’t endorsed Fine, but an AIPAC-affiliated super PAC is running ads to support her bid.

Abughazaleh, Biss, Fine, Andrew and Skokie School District 73.5 board member Bushra Amiwala are all airing TV ads in the final weeks of the race. State Sen. Mike Simmons, D-Chicago; economist Jeff Cohen; state Rep. Hoan Huynh; former federal prosecutor Nick Pyati; veteran Sam Polan; civil rights attorney Howard Rosenblum; Evanston resident Bethany Johnson; union organizer Justin Ford; Patricia A. Brown; and Mark Arnold Fredrickson, round out the field.

Rocio Cleveland, John Elleson, Paul Friedman and Mark Su are running in the Republican primary.

The district includes several North Side neighborhoods, including Uptown, Edgewater, Andersonville and Rogers Park. It also includes several north and northwestern suburbs, including Evanston, Skokie, Glenview, Algonquin, Prospect Heights and Fox River Grove.

Kat Abughazaleh

Abughazaleh, 26, has shaken up Illinois politics with her anti-establishment run, which includes avoiding newspaper and Democratic Party endorsements, opening up her campaign office to those who need clothing and shoes — and using livestream events to solicit small-donor donations instead of begging big-time donors for cash. She’s also using that time to tell voters about her platform, which includes universal health care, protections against price-gouging, more housing with federal incentives, climate action — and removing lead pipes.

The former journalist turned social media content creator has amassed an impressive fundraising haul of more than $3 million.

Abughazaleh studied “atrocity, extremism and genocide” at George Washington University, and she calls the war in Gaza a genocide. Simmons and Amiwala also call it a genocide.

She’s also the only candidate facing federal charges of conspiracy, tied to protests outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Broadview. Abughazaleh calls the charges ”BS” and says she plans on “winning.”

“A lot of this is a psychological aspect. … And there's just the aspect of, even if we know that we’re innocent, facing possibly like eight years in federal prison,” Abughazaleh said. “It weighs on you.”

The political newcomer jumped into the race before Schakowsky announced her retirement — another populist move that has won her both supporters and critics.

“I think it’s a badge of honor to be the only person in this race that didn’t wait in line or ask for permission,” she said.

Abughazaleh moved to Illinois in 2024, and her opponents have used that to try to paint her as an outsider. Abughazaleh said her grandparents were survivors of the mass displacement of Palestinians in 1948 and immigrated to Chicago. Her grandfather went back to the Middle East and brought her dad to Chicago. She recently learned that her grandfather was an aide to Mayor Richard J. Daley, “providing oversight against financial corruption” in the late 1960s.

She calls herself “the most progressive on foreign policy” of any of the candidates, and touts that she hasn’t met with AIPAC.

Daniel Biss

Biss is a former mathematician, state representative and state senator who was elected Evanston mayor in 2021. He ran for governor in 2018 and landed a distant second behind now-Gov. JB Pritzker. As mayor, he enacted an ordinance to curb carbon emissions and came up with a comprehensive housing plan for the north suburb.

He’s endorsed by Schakowsky, and he’s also among candidates in the field who have protested at Broadview. He has amassed nearly $2 million, and he says he’s proud that he’s receiving most of his contributions locally — trying to draw a contrast to out-of-state donors for both Abughazaleh and Fine. Abughazaleh says many of her donors are giving money under $200, which don’t require disclosure of a location. And asked about the out-of-state contributions, Fine said she’s “really proud of the momentum” that her campaign is building.

“Anybody who's supporting me is supporting my record, supporting a record of getting things changed when it comes to health care, standing up to corporate polluters, making sure Illinois is a 100% pro choice state,” Fine said.

Biss paints himself as both an activist and a lawmaker, and said he thinks the dual role is what defines him in the race. The mayor got into a heated clash with Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino at an Evanston gas station last December, and later described Bovino as a “condescending, sarcastic liar.”

“What I think sets me apart is that I'm the only candidate who's fought and won inside a government and fought and won out on the streets,” Biss said. “I think we need both in this moment. I think Jan Schakowsky has been both, and I think that we can't afford to compromise on either of those capabilities.”

Laura Fine

Fine has served in the state Senate since 2018 and previously served in the Illinois House. She first ran for office after her husband was in a car accident and their health insurance policy was canceled. She became an expert in insurance policy and brought that knowledge to the Illinois House.

“If you look at my 13-year record, I've brought Illinois from a state that really favored the industry to now one of the most consumer-friendly states when it comes to health care in the country,” Fine said. “And I want to bring that those skills to Washington and support programs like Medicare for All, so we can build a better, more simple healthcare system that gives everybody high quality care.”

Asked whether she supports term limits in Congress, especially after Schakowsky’s six terms, Fine said that while “it’s up to the voters” to decide, “every once in a while, I think you need some new blood.”

Bushra Amiwala

Amiwala, a Skokie School District 73.5 board member, is a 28-year-old self-described “homegrown fighter putting people first.”

The daughter of Pakistani immigrants, Amiwala has also protested at Broadview and was tear-gassed by ICE agents in September.

“My eyes were full of pepper spray. It was hard to breathe, and these agents created chaos,” Amiwala said after the incident. “There was no justification for using such violence against peaceful demonstrators. What happened in Broadview today is an affront to our democracy.”

Amiwala supports Medicare for All, codifying Roe v. Wade into federal law, requiring full mental health parity in insurance plans and cracking down on price-gouging and anti-competitive policies.

Mike Simmons

Simmons was appointed to the state Senate in 2021 and was elected in 2022 to represent the 7th District. He’s the first Black person to serve the district and the first openly gay member of the Illinois Senate.

Simmons supports a $25 federal minimum wage, making universal free child care available to all low-income households earning under 200% of the federal poverty level. He also wants to improve housing by outlawing 11 different types of predatory renter fees and introducing legislation to ban credit checks against tenants with poor or insufficient credit histories.

Hoan Huynh

Huynh is the first refugee and Vietnamese American elected to office in Illinois. Huynh, 35, is serving his second term in the Illinois House representing the 13th District. He calls the 9th Congressional District “the Ellis Island of the Midwest.”

Huynh said he’s proud to represent both the refugee and immigrant communities — and he wants constituents from the very diverse district to understand “government should work for everyone, not just for those at the top.”

Huynh, who lives in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood, said his campaign focuses on working families and affordability. He’s also zeroing in on human rights and health care accessibility.

Voters have plenty of choices

Rounding out the field are Bethany Johnson, who worked on Angus King’s U.S. Senate campaign in Maine in 2018 — and helped to fight for an LGBTQ+ rights ordinance in Missouri. Her campaign platform includes “real consequences” for “fascist Republicans in Washington and their foot soldiers in ICE,” including losing all benefits.

Phil Andrew survived a mass shooting in Winnetka in 1988, then became an FBI agent specializing in negotiations and a gun control advocate. His platform includes protecting democracy by demanding accountability, affordable health care and child care and holding ICE accountable.

Patricia Brown is a lifelong Evanston resident who previously worked in health care, education, corporate America and for the American Bar Association. Her platform includes affordable housing, clean energy transition and education reform.

Jeff Cohen, an economist, says the country needs a “revenue-neutral income and child care bill” that would modernize both credits to allow for monthly or quarterly payments without changing eligibility criteria or benefit levels. He also wants a pilot jobs bill to stimulate training and job growth in the skilled nursing and electrical fields.

Justin Ford is a health professional and union organizer. He calls his “signature” issue a federally mandated four-day workweek, which he believes would touch upon “wages, health, family time, burnout, productivity and fairness.”

Howard Rosenblum is a Skokie native who has litigated for the civil rights of people with disabilities for 33 years. His platform includes codifying Roe v. Wade and safeguarding LGBTQ+ health care and federal investment to expand affordable housing.

Sam Polan served in the U.S. Army as a captain and later worked for the Department of Defense. His platform includes expanding mental health care and reproductive freedoms, broad-based economic growth and "thoughtful” and “cooperative” trade policies.

Nick Pyati, a former Microsoft strategist, said he believes artificial intelligence, clean energy and new technology are reshaping work and life. Part of his platform includes teaching AI literacy in schools, easing the tax burden on working families and reversing Medicaid cuts.