U.S. Rep. Danny Davis (D-Illinois) will hold a news conference this week at which he will share his decision on whether to seek another term in office.

Davis is now serving his 15th term in the U.S. House of Representatives. His office said on Thursday, he will hold a news conference on Chicago's West Side at which he will announce whether he will seek a 16th term in the 2026 election cycle.

An Arkansas native, the 83-year-old Davis arrived in Chicago in 1961. He worked as a teacher, and later became the executive director of the Greater Lawndale Conservation Commission.

After serving in positions at several other social service organizations, Davis was elected alderman of Chicago's 29th Ward on the West Side in August 1979.

In 1984 and 1986, Davis ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary in the 7th Congressional District, losing to incumbent Rep. Cardiss Collins. He also ran for mayor in the 1989 special election to finish the term of the late Mayor Harold Washington, but later withdrew.

Davis left the City Council in 1990 and was elected to the Cook County Board of Commissioners. He also ran again for mayor in 1991, losing to Mayor Richard M. Daley in the Democratic Primary.

Davis ran again for the 7th Congressional District seat in the 1996 race, and won.

Throughout his time in Congress, Davis fought for voting rights, affordable healthcare and housing, and criminal justice reform — while continuing to be a powerful advocate for social justice and civil rights.

After Daley retired in 2011, Davis ran for mayor a third time — only to withdraw and throw his support to former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun. Rahm Emanuel won that mayoral race.

Davis has since been elected to several more terms in Congress. He won his most recent race for another term in 2024 handily, In the Democratic primary that year, he faced and fended off two challengers who were considered to be formidable — activist Kina Collins, who came within six percentage points of unseating him in the last primary race in 2022, and City of Chicago Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin.

"It's a reaffirmation that when people have courage, when people have relationships, when people are willing to work — and work across racial, ethnic, and party lines – that people work for the good of the hood," Davis said upon winning the 2024 Democratic primary in March of that year.