Former Representative Jesse L. Jackson Jr., whose once promising political career was unraveled by a corruption scandal that sent him to federal prison, is a top contender in a crowded Democratic House primary in Illinois on Tuesday.
Thirteen years ago, he stood in a packed courtroom in Washington, D.C., and pleaded guilty to charges that he had spent $750,000 from his campaign coffers on a dizzying array of lavish personal expenses that included elk heads, fur capes and a $43,000 Rolex watch. “For years I lived off my campaign,” he told a judge.
He served 17 months in prison.
Now Mr. Jackson, the son of the late Rev. Jesse Jackson, is attempting a comeback as he runs to reclaim his old seat. If successful, he would represent the Second Congressional District, a diverse swath of Illinois that covers parts of the South Side of Chicago, a collection of the city’s southern suburbs and rural areas near Champaign.
Mr. Jackson is trying to stand out in a crowded field that also includes Donna Miller, a Cook County commissioner who has received financial support from a super PAC with ties to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Polling in the race has been scant.
The Second District is deeply Democratic, and the winner of the primary will be an overwhelming favorite in the November general election.
The younger Mr. Jackson, 61, a natural orator, was first elected to Congress in 1995. He resigned in 2012, citing mental health challenges and the federal investigation into misuse of campaign funds that was then underway. Three months later, he was charged with counts including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, mail fraud and making false statements.
He was immediately contrite, agreeing to plead guilty even before the charges were filed. “I offer no excuses for my conduct, and I fully accept my responsibility,” he said in a statement at the time. He added, “While my journey is not yet complete, it is my hope that I am remembered for the things that I did right.”
This year, his journey brought him back to the campaign trail after Representative Robin Kelly, the Democrat who replaced him, decided to give up the seat and run for the Senate. (Ms. Kelly has not endorsed a candidate in the contest for her seat.)
The House race has been shaped, in part, by the death of Mr. Jackson’s father last month. (Mr. Jackson was by his father’s side when he died.) After his father’s death, which prompted an outpouring of grief and encomiums, Mr. Jackson’s political rivals largely refrained from attacking him and his personal history.
By the final days of the race, that thaw seemed to be ending.
“Jesse Jackson Jr. had his chance, and he failed our communities,” State Senator Willie Preston, a rival candidate, said in an interview on Saturday. “We can love the Rev and still decide that we need a better congressman than Jesse Jr.”
The younger Mr. Jackson has made fighting for lower prices part of his pitch to voters. He has made the case that his campaign is more about political experience than personal redemption, arguing that his 17 years in the House best position him to represent an economically distressed region.
“We have grocery store deserts and pharmacy deserts that extend far beyond the city of Chicago,” he said in a recent interview.
Perhaps his most important endorser is former Representative Bobby Rush, a longtime electoral powerhouse on the South Side of Chicago who retired in 2023 after a three-decade career in Congress and who knew him when he was a toddler.
Mr. Rush, 79, said that the younger Mr. Jackson had been a talented legislator and that his experience made him uniquely qualified to represent the district again.
“None of us are without mistakes,” said Mr. Rush in an interview, adding, “I believe in redemption.”
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