Who is running for the U.S. House in Illinois' 7th Congressional District?
With U.S. Rep. Danny Davis retiring at the end of his term, voters in Illinois' 7th Congressional District face a crowded ballot to elect a new representative for the first time in 30 years.
The district includes spans from the Englewood and Chicago Lawn neighborhoods on the South Side north to downtown Chicago, and west to Homan Square, North Lawndale, Garfield Park, Austin, and the western suburbs of Oak Park, Forest Park, Maywood, Broadview, Westchester, and Bellwood.
Here's who is on the ballot for the 7th District primary elections on March 17.
Who are the Democrats running in the 7th District?
Richard Boykin
Boykin is a former Cook County Commissioner who led the effort to successfully repeal a controversial soda tax in 2017, before he later lost re-election to Brandon Johnson, who would go on to be elected mayor of Chicago in 2023. Since leaving the county board in 2018, he has been an attorney in private practice.
His priorities include increasing access to fresh food and produce to eliminate food deserts, expanding affordable housing, lowering prescription drug and health insurance costs, providing tax credits to lure manufacturing jobs to the West Side, renewing the federal assault weapons ban, increasing investments in violence provention programs, and helping to remove lead pipes.
Campaign website: richardboykinforcongress.com
Kina Collins
Collins is the executive director of One Aim Illinois, a gun violence prevention group. Collins has twice run for the 7th District seat before, running against Davis in the Democratic primary in 2022 and 2024. She got 45.7% of the vote in her first run in 2022, finishing second in a three-way race, and got 18.9% of the vote in 2024, finishing third in a five-way race behind Davis and Chicago City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin.
In addition to her fight against gun violence, her priorities include passing Medicare for All, protecting and expanding Social Security and Medicare benefits, lowering prescription drug prices, providing more federal grants and tax credits for small businesses, investing in clean energy, increasing taxes on the ultra-wealthy, banning assault weaopns, and passing legislation to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Campaign website: kinacollinsil.com
Chicago City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin
Conyears-Ervin has been the Chicago City Treasurer since 2019, and is responsible for managing the city's funds and investments, including employee pension funds. She previously served one term as a member of the Illinois House from 2017 until she was elected treasurer.
Her priorities include expanding pathways to homeownership, providing federal investments in manufacturing, strengthening the Affordable Care Act, increasing taxes on the wealthy, passing stronger gun control laws, and codifying Roe v. Wade into law.
Campaign website: melissaforcongress.org
Anthony Driver Jr.
Driver is a current commissioner and former president of the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, Chicago's civilian police oversight agency, which plays a role in setting CPD policy, reviewing the police budget, and selecting the police superintendent, COPA chief administrator, and Chicago Police Board members.
His priorities include expanding federal funding for affordable housing, protecting tenants from unfair evictions and rent increases, passing Medicare for All, capping prescription drug prices, passing universal background checks for gun buyers, increasing federal funding for schools, providing federal student debt forgiveness, expanding child tax credits, increasing oversight of federal immigration agencies, and codifying Roe v. Wade into law.
Campaign website: driverforchange.com
David Ehrlich
Ehrlich is an adjunct lecturer in public affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Indiana University.
He has not set up a campaign website or social media account outlining his agenda or priorities.
Dr. Thomas Fisher
Fisher is an emergency medicine physician at the University of Chicago Medicine.
His priorities include passing Medicare for All; investing in housing, transit, and small businesses; banning assault weapons; requiring universal background checks for gun purchases; expanding federal rental assistance and eviction protections; increasing federal funding for schools; providing federal student debt forgiveness, passing comprehensive immigration reform, and investing more in clean renewable energy.
Campaign website: thomasfisherforcongress.com
Illinois state Rep. La Shawn Ford
Ford has been an Illinois state representative since 2007 in the 8th District, which spans from the Austin neighborhood on the West Side of Chicago to multiple western suburbs, including Oak Park, Berwyn, Westchester, La Grange, Countryside, and Hodgkins.
His priorities include preserving and expanding access to Medicaid and food stamps, providing universal childcare services, developing more affordable housing, making colleges and trade schools more affordable, promoting small businesses, and making the protections under the 1965 Voting Rights Act permanent.
Campaign website: fordforcongress.com
Jason Friedman
Friedman is a business owner, a former Chicago Public Schools teacher, and a former domestic policy aide to President Clinton.
His priorities include restoring funding cut from food stamps, Medicaid, and Medicare; opposing President Trump's tariffs; making higher education more affordable; increasing access to trade programs; pushing for an assault weapons ban and universal background checks for gun purchases; restoring the EPA to its full capacity; and investing in clean energy.
Campaign website: friedmanforcongress.com
Forest Park Mayor Rory Hoskins
Hoskins is the first Black mayor of Forest Park, and a former Forest Park village commissioner.
His priorities include securing more federal funding for public transportation, increasing federal funding for clean energy, expanding job training and apprenticeships, promoting universal preschool for working parents, investing in broadband in schools, supporting loan forgiveness and other incentives for teachers, expanding the Affordable Care Act, pushing for universal childcare, reforming ICE, and expanding pathways to citizenship.
Campaign website: roryforillinois.com
Anabel Mendoza
Mendoza works at a youth-led immigrant rights nonprofit, United We Dream.
Her priorities include increasing the federal minimum wage, passing Medicare for All, providing relief from medical debt, supporting municipally owned grocery stores, regulating the construction of data centers to prevent electric bill increases, expanding Section 8 vouchers, erasing student loan debt, making public colleges tuition-free, increasing funding for FEMA, protecting access to abortion, banning assault weapons, strengthening LGBTQ+ rights, abolishing ICE, and providing a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
Campaign website: anabelforcongress.com
Jazmin J. Robinson
Robinson is a human resources professional focused on protecting workers' rights.
Her priorities include providing universal healthcare, tuition-free public colleges and trade schools, ending the Electoral College, expanding tax credits for small businesses, providing universal childcare, making the first $30,000 of income tax-free, and increasing taxes on the ultra-wealthy and large corporations.
Campaign website: jazminjrobinson.com
Reed Showalter
Showalter is a former policy advisor to the National Ecomomic Council and former Justice Department attorney in the Biden administration.
His priorities include fighting against AI data centers; banning landlords from using algorithms to increase rent; passing Medicare for All; capping copays, deductibles, and other out-of-pocket costs for health insurance; codifying abortion rights in federal law; creating publicly owned grocery stores; establishing term limits for Congress; impeaching President Trump, protecting voting rights; increasing taxes on millionaires and billionaires; making the first $50,000 of income tax-free; prohibiting the U.S. sale of weapons to Israel; recognizing Palestine as an independent state; and abolishing ICE.
Campaign website: reed4congress.com
Felix Tello
Tello is a mathemetician and executive engineer. His campaign website does not list any specific legislative priorites or agenda.
Campaign website: felixforcongress.org
Who are the Republicans running in the 7th District?
Patricia Easley
Easley, also known as P Rae Ealsey, is hostess of "Black Excellence Hour" on WVON 1690am Chicago.
Her priorities include ensuring every unit of public housing demolshed in Chicago is rebuilt, providing access to credit for community safety-net hospitals, backing community-based saftey partnerships to empower local safety firms to help improve polie response times, opposing sanctuary policies protecting undocumented immigrants, and targeted Justice Department task force intervention against crime.
Campaign website: praeforcongress.com
Chad Koppie
Koppie is a farmer and retired Delta Airlines pilot who has run multiple times for the U.S. House and Senate since 2014. He's also a member of the Kane County Regional Board of School Trustees.
His priorities include cutting all government spending by 3% a year for 10 years, supporting the 2nd Amendment, eliminating the U.S. Department of Education, ending all foreign aid, protecting "traditional marriage," repealing the Affordable Care Act, opposing sanctuary policies protecting undocumented immigrants, and abolishing the Federal Reserve and the IRS.
Campaign website: chadkoppie.com
