Illinois voters on Tuesday will weigh in on a host of House races that are unlikely to affect the balance of power in Congress but will showcase some of the deeper divides within the Democratic Party.
In many of these crowded Democratic primaries, voters are choosing among veteran lawmakers, political outsiders and upstart progressives. And because the setting is the deep-blue Chicago area, where Republicans are expected to fare poorly in November, Tuesday’s contests will essentially determine the next class of Illinois House members.
Many of the candidates are vying for open seats in districts where longtime House members have announced their retirements or are seeking higher office. The resulting competition has attracted millions of dollars in outside spending.
Here are the races to watch on Tuesday evening.
Can ‘Abughamentum’ overcome traditional candidates and AIPAC dollars?
One of the earliest signals that a wave of younger and nontraditional candidates would seek to displace Democratic stalwarts in 2026 was the candidacy of Kat Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old progressive content creator and a former researcher for a left-wing media organization who announced nearly a year ago that she would run against a veteran incumbent in Illinois’s Ninth District.
That veteran lawmaker, Representative Jan Schakowsky, instead announced her retirement, and a crowded primary field to replace her emerged, including Daniel Biss, the mayor of Evanston, and Laura Fine, a state senator. A major theme of the race has been spending from super PACs tied to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel group that has become a boogeyman among some Democrats dismayed by the war in Gaza.
Ms. Abughazaleh’s campaign has argued that it is experiencing late “Abughamentum,” though it is Mr. Biss, a grandson of Holocaust survivors who is strongly critical of the Israeli government but does not term its actions genocide, who has led most primary polls. AIPAC-tied PACs, meanwhile, have spent heavily against Ms. Abughazaleh — who has condemned the war in Gaza as a genocide — and Mr. Biss while giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to the campaign of Ms. Fine, a moderate who has said she opposes conditions on military aid to Israel.
One of the PACs, the Chicago Progressive Partnership, also seems to be trying to elevate a long-shot progressive candidate, Bushra Amiwala, at the eleventh hour. It’s a tactic that some analysts have suggested is a misleading effort to siphon left-leaning voters from Ms. Abughazaleh, who would become the youngest member of Congress if elected.
Will a former congressman marred by scandals complete a comeback?
Former Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. resigned from his Illinois House seat in 2012. Soon after, he pleaded guilty to a felony fraud charge, admitting to having used nearly $1 million in campaign cash to pay for lavish and outlandish personal items, including fur capes, elk heads and a Rolex watch. He served time in federal prison.
More than a decade later, Mr. Jackson is attempting a comeback. A son of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights activist and former presidential candidate who died last month, the younger Mr. Jackson says he is seeking redemption and has learned from his mistakes as he vies to represent his old district.
But the race for the Second District, soon to be vacated by Representative Robin Kelly, who is running for the Senate, is crowded. Mr. Jackson faces a host of other Democrats from across the ideological spectrum, including Donna Miller, a county commissioner backed by groups with ties to AIPAC, and Robert Peters, a progressive state senator.
Who will stand out from crowded fields to replace veteran Democrats?
Two other House primaries lack notable names but feature contentious and crowded races. In the Seventh District, more than a dozen candidates are vying to replace Representative Danny Davis, who is retiring after representing the area since 1997.
The field includes La Shawn Ford, a state representative endorsed by Mr. Davis; Melissa Conyears-Ervin, the city treasurer of Chicago and a progressive who has been backed by AIPAC; Jason Friedman, a well-financed real estate executive; Kina Collins, a progressive organizer; Thomas Fisher, an emergency room doctor; Richard Boykin, a former county commissioner; and Anthony Driver, a labor leader.
The contest to replace Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, who is vacating his Eighth District seat to run for the Senate, is similarly crowded. Former Representative Melissa Bean, who once represented a version of this district in the 2000s, may be the nominal front-runner, but other Democrats in the field include Junaid Ahmed, a progressive tech consultant backed by Senator Bernie Sanders; Kevin Morrison, a county commissioner; and Yasmeen Bankole, a trustee of a village in the Chicago suburbs and a former staff member for Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, who has endorsed her.
Kellen Browning is a Times political reporter based in San Francisco.
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