Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss emerged victorious Tuesday in his bid to replace U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, fending off an insurgent progressive candidate in a crowded field to secure the Democratic nomination for a seat long held by his party in Congress.
Biss, former journalist Kat Abughazaleh and state Sen. Laura Fine, D-Glenview, led the pack of candidates in the race for Schakowsky’s 9th District Congressional seat.
It’s the first time the seat has opened up since 1999. Before that, it was held by Sidney R. Yates for 24 terms, with a two-year gap prompted by an unsuccessful Senate bid. Biss will likely face pastor John Elleson in the November general election.
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.
Candidates in the race sparred with immigration agents during Operation Midway Blitz. Biss even came face-to-face with U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino. Abughazaleh found herself under federal indictment for an alleged conspiracy to impede a federal officer outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement holding facility in suburban Broadview.
Abughazaleh and three others who protested there face trial May 26 at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse. She calls the charges “BS.”
The other Democrats who ran for the 9th District seat included Skokie School District 73.5 board member Bushra Amiwala; former FBI agent Phil Andrew; 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.
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.
Retiring U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky attends Daniel Biss’ election night party Tuesday after endorsing him to replace her in Congress.
He’s endorsed by Schakowsky, and he’s also among the candidates in the field who 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.
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 Bovino at an Evanston gas station last December, and he 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.”
Abughazaleh moved to Illinois in 2024. Her opponents 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 the late Mayor Richard J. Daley, “providing oversight against financial corruption” in the late 1960s.
She called herself “the most progressive on foreign policy” of any of the candidates.
Fine accepted donations associated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobbying group known as AIPAC. While the group hasn’t endorsed Fine, an AIPAC-affiliated super PAC ran ads to support her bid.
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.”
State Sen. Laura Fine, Democratic primary candidate for Illinois’ 9th Congressional District, shows off her “I Voted!” sticker after voting at the Vi at The Glen retirement community in Glenview on Tuesday.
Contributing: Tina Sfondeles