Illinois' 9th District: What to know about the primary
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Illinois 9th Congressional District. Map: Courtesy of Ballotpedia
Even before 14-term Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky announced her retirement last April, her replacements started to line up. And they kept coming.
State of play: Fifteen candidates are running in the Democratic primary, and four are vying for the Republican nomination.
The issues: The far North Side and North Shore district has expanded in recent years to stretches northwest to Crystal Lake and Algonquin.
- Key issues for candidates have been about keeping the area — which includes some of the priciest home sales in metro Chicago — affordable, but since "Operation Midway Blitz," immigration has also been a key issue, especially as the area becomes more diverse.
Zoom in: The frontrunners in the race include:
Kat Abughazaleh: The content creator and former media commentator jumped in the race before Schakowsky announced her retirement, helping push her to the fundraising front with $2.7 million raised. She was active in protests against ICE, which led to her indictment as part of the "Broadview Six."
Bushra Amiwala: The Skokie School Board member is recognized as the youngest Muslim elected to office in the U.S. Amiwala touts transparency and inclusion as attributes of her school board tenure, like bringing Halal and Kosher options to students.
Phil Andrew: A former FBI agent and hostage negotiator, Andrew often shares how surviving a mass shooting in his hometown of Winnetka pushed him to fight for gun violence prevention. He also tries to appeal to voters looking beyond "career politicians."
Daniel Biss: The Evanston mayor and former state senator has name recognition and Schakowsky's endorsement, plus about $1.3 million cash on hand. But some residents are upset that he's running for Congress so soon after they re-elected him mayor.
Laura Fine: Since 2018, Fine has represented the district in the Illinois Senate and served in the Illinois House prior to that. She's made health care a central issue of her Congressional campaign, but has faced heat at recent candidate forums for receiving support from AIPAC.
Other Democrats running include Patricia A. Brown, Jeff Cohen, Justin Ford, Mark Arnold Fredrickson, Hoan Huynh, Bethany Johnson, Sam Polan, Nick Pyati, Howard Rosenblum and Mike Simmons.
Republicans in the race are Rocío Cleveland, John Elleson, Paul Friedman and Mark Su.