Who is running for the U.S. House in Illinois' 9th Congressional District?
With U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky retiring at the end of her term, voters in Illinois' 9th Congressional District face a crowded field of candidates to fill the seat with a new representative for the first time since 1998.
The district includes several neighborhoods on the North Side of Chicago, including Uptown, Edgewater, Andersonville, Rogers Park, and West Ridge; as well as several northern and northwestern suburbs, including Evanston, Skokie, Glenview, Buffalo Grove, Algonquin, Prospect Heights, and Fox River Grove.
Here's who is on the ballot for the 9th District primary elections on March 17.
Who are the Democrats running in the 9th District?
Kat Abughazaleh
Abughazaleh is a social media influencer and political commentator. She was among six protesters who were arrested outside the ICE facility in Broadview in September, accused of damaging an ICE agent's vehicle while trying to block it from driving into the facility. She has called the charges "political prosecution and a gross attempt to silence dissent."
Her priorities include increasing taxes on billionaires and large corporations, raising the federal minimum wage to $25 per hour, guaranteeing paid family leave, providing universal childcare, increasing funding for FEMA, investing more in clean energy, limiting corporate consolidations, establishing term limits for Congress, establishing a code of ethics for the Supreme Court, expanding voting rights, increasing federal funding for public schools, canceling all student loan debt, fighting antisemitism, supporting a free Palestine while removing Hamas from power in Gaza, banning assault weapons, requiring universal background checks for gun purchases, providing universal healthcare, ending mass deportations, and providing an immediate pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
Campaign website: katforillinois.com
Bushra Amiwala
Amiwala is an account manager at Google and a school board member and board secretary with the Skokie School District 73.5 Board of Education.
Her priorities include increasing the federal minimum wage, providing universal healthcare, creating a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, making public colleges tuition-free, canceling student loan debt, supporting the Palestinian Right to Return, investing more in clean energy, protecting access to abortions, and expanding voting rights.
Campaign website: bushraforcongress.com
Phil Andrew
Andrew is a former FBI special agent and hostage negotiator, and founder of a crisis management consultancy firm.
His priorities include expanding public transit, increasing federal investment in affordable housing, requiring universal background checks for gun purchases, banning assault weapons, investing in universal childcare, restoring full funding for the Department of Education, expanding funding for mental health treatment, protecting voting rights, banning former members of Congress from becoming lobbyists, creating a path to citizenship for all long-term immigrants, expanding the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid, codifying Roe v. Wade, and investing in clean energy.
Campaign website: philandrewforcongress.com
Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss
Biss has been mayor of north suburban Evanston since 2021, and previously served in the Illinois Senate from 2013 to 2019, and in the Illinois House from 2011 to 2013. He's also a former mathematics professor.
His priorities include capping credit card interest rates and student loan rates, providing tuition-free public colleges, increasing the federal minimum wage to $17 an hour, investing in clean energy, banning stock trading by members of Congress, protecting and expanding voter rights, setting term limits for Supreme Court justices, increasing taxes on the ultra-wealthy, expanding child tax credits, increasing investments in affordable housing, passing Medicare for All, capping prescription drug prices, stopping President Trump's unilateral tariffs, protecting abortion rights, recognizing a Palestinian state, abolishing ICE, repealing the 2nd Amendment, banning assault weapons, and requiring universal background checks for gun purchases.
Campaign website: danielbiss.com
Patricia Brown
Brown is a lifelong Evanston resident with experience in teaching, marketing, and administrative work.
Her priorities inlcude increasing affordable housing through public-private partnerships, investing in green energy, increasing funding for public schools, expanding vocational training, and making higher education more affordable.
Campaign website: patriciabrownforcongress.com
Jeff Cohen
Cohen is an economist and consultant and co-owner of the Chicago Union professional ultimate frisbee team.
His priorities include banning assault weapons, protecting access to abortions, restoring full funding to the National Science Foundation and the EPA, investing in clean energy, delivering more frequent payments for child tax credits and the Earned Income Tax Credit, and investing more federal funds in job training for nurses and electricians.
Campaign website: jeffcohenforcongress.com
Illinois state Sen. Laura Fine
Fine has been an Illinois state senator in the 9th Illinois Senate District since 2019. The district includes several northern suburbs including Evanson, WIlmette, Kenilworth, WInnetka, Glenview, Skokie, and Morton Grove. Previously, she was an Illinois state representative from 2013 to 2019 in the 17th District, which includes many of the same suburbs.
Her priorities include passing Medicare for All, capping prescription drug prices, expanding Medicare to include vision and dental coverage, banning "forever chemicals" in consumer products, increasing taxes on the ultra-wealthy and large corporations, raising the federal minimum wage to $25 an hour, fully funding the U.S. Department of Education, increasing federal funding for public schools, making community college free, expanding student loan forgiveness, investing in clean energy, protecting access to abortions, banning assault weapons, requiring licenses and safety training for gun purchases, expanding rental assistance and tenant protections, protecting voting rights, and abolishing ICE.
Campaign website: laurafineforcongress.org
Justin Ford
Ford is an environmental health safety and sustainability engineer for Baxter International and a union organizer.
His priorities include supporting a four-day, 32-hour work week; protecting and expanding access to abortion care; expanding voting rights; banning dynamic pricing in grocery stores; restoring Affordable Care Act subsidies; capping prescription drug costs; raising the federal minimum wage to $17 an hour; upgrading public transit in underserved areas; increasing federal grants for affordable housing; investing in clean energy; canceling federal student debt; increasing federal funding for public schools; creating a path to universal healthcare; and providing at least 12 weeks a year of paid family leave.
Campaign website: votejustinford.com
Mark Fredrickson
Fredrickson is an IT consultant and an attorney.
He has not set up a campaign website, but his personal Facebook page includes posts comparing anti-ICE protesters to the Taliban, opposing sanctuary policies protecting undocumented immigrants, railing against "toxic femininity," defending President Trump's efforts to acquire Greenland, opposing DEI programs, and appearing to defend the shooting death of Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis.
Illinois State Rep. Hoan Huynh
Huynh is an Illinois state representative in the 13th District since 2023, representing several neighborhoods on the North Side of Chicago, including Uptown, Ravenswood, Lincoln Square, Bowmanville, Andersonville, Budlong Woods, and Arcadia Terrace.
His priorities include lowering the costs of prescription drugs, protecting Medicare and Medicaid against cuts, expanding pathways to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, strengthening voting rights, supporting early childhood education programs, providing more vocational education and job training, fighting for clean air and water, banning assault weapons, requiring universal background checks for gun purchases, protecting access to abortions, and regulating cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence.
Campaign website: hoanfor9.com
Bethany Johnson
Johnson is a data analyst and a transgender advocate for LGBTQ+ rights.
In addition to protecting LGBTQ+ rights, her priorities include banning federal law enforcement officers from wearing masks, reducing the military budget and investing more money in schools and hospitals, halting U.S. weapons sales to Israel, increasing funding for Medicaid and Medicare, creating universal healthcare, increasing taxes on the wealthy, and protecting abortion rights.
Campaign website: bethanyfordistrictnine.com
Sam Polan
Polan is a former senior policy advisor and intelligence analyst at the Pentagon, and a U.S. Army veteran.
His priorities include expanding workforce training and apprenticeships, enforcing antitrust laws, opposing President Trump's tariffs, capping out-of-pocket healthcae costs, protecting access to abortions, expanding access to mental health care, expanding early childhood education, investing in clean energy, requiring universal background checks for gun purchases, banning assault weapons, regulating artificial intelligence, imposing term limits on members of Conress, and banning congressional stock trading.
Campaign website: sampolan.com
Nick Pyati
Pyati is a former senior strategy leader at Microsoft, a former federal prosecutor, and a former teacher.
His priorities include lowering taxes on working families, reversing cuts to Medicaid and Social Security, passing Medicare for all, teaching AI literacy in school, ending federal immigration raids, expanding federal funding for scientific research, opposing President Trump's tariffs, defending abortion rights, investing more federal funding in public schools, supporting clean energy, and investing in infrastructure to support manufacturing.
Campaign website: nickpyati.com
Howard Rosenblum
Rosenblum is a civil rights attorney and the founder and CEO of Deaf Equality, a nonprofit advocating for equality for the deaf and hard of hearing.
His priorities include increasing federal funding for affordable housing, expanding Medicaid, creating a pathway to universal healthcare, empowering Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices, fully funding special education services, expanding early childhood education, making higher education and career training more affordable, expanding student loan forgiveness, investing in clean energy, and creating a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
Campaign website: howardrosemblum.com
Illinois State Sen. Mike Simmons
Simmons is the Illinois state senator for the 7th Illinois Senate District, which includes several North Side neighborhoods, including Rogers Park, Edgewater, Lincoln Square, Uptown, Lakeview, Andersonville, and Ravenswood. He has been in office since 2021, when he became the first openly gay member of the Illinois State Senate and first Black person to represent the district.
His priorities include reversing President Trump's tariffs, increasing the federal minimum wage to $25 an hour, providing universal free childcare to low-income families, expanding the Supreme Court to 13 seats, increasing investment in affordable housing, recognizing full Palestinian sovereignty, ending U.S. arms sales to Israel, expanding and modernizing public transit, passing Medicare for All, abolishing ICE, creating a pathway to citizenship for all immigrants, protecting LGBTQ+ rights, pushing for free college for all, canceling student loan debt, regulating artificial intelligence, boosting clean energy investments, banning assault weapons, requiring universal background checks for gun purchases, and protecting access to abortions.
Campaign website: mikesimmons.org
Who are the Republicans running in the 9th District?
Rocio Cleveland
Cleveland is a Spanish language interpreter in McHenry County.
Her priorities include securing the borders, and "fighting crime, discrimination, illegal drugs and attacks on faith and freedom."
Campaign website: rocioclevelandforcongress.com
John Elleson
Elleson is pastor of Lakewood Chapel in Arlington Heights.
His priorities include promoting job creation through small businesses, building bridges across the parties, community-first healthcare policies, and keeping drugs off the streets.
Campaign website: johnelleson.com
Paul Friedman
Friedman is a software writer, engineer, and developer.
His campaign website does not list any policy priorities or agenda, other than to say he's running because "Congress is broken."
Campaign website: pfriedman.github.io/IL-09
Mark Su
Su is an IT consultant, writer, and media creator.
His priorities include establishing term limits for Congress, halting abortion, building a border wall, cutting federal spending, supporting small businesses, providing parents input on what is taught in public schools, reducing foreign aid, and supporting gun control.
Campaign website: site.marksuforcongress.com
