How Democratic congressional nominees fended off challenges from their left

Despite holding many traditionally progressive views, U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider of Highland Park was among the Democratic lawmakers who faced challenges from their left flanks in last week’s primary election.

In every case, the campaign platforms of the incumbents — Schneider in Illinois’ 10th District, Downers Grove’s Sean Casten in the 6th and Mike Quigley of Chicago in the 5th — closely resembled those of their challengers.

And in every case, the incumbents won. Big.

Schneider’s 58-percentage-point victory over challenger Morgan Coghill of Mundelein was the largest spread of his political career.

“It feels good, and reassuring,” Schneider said. “I think it reflects the work I’ve done on behalf of the people I represent for now six terms.”

Progressive Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss won the 14-way Democratic primary for the open 9th Congressional District seat by defeating several candidates with stances to the left of his own.

The results show Democratic voters are more concerned with electing people who can get right to work improving their lives than making political statements, Lake County Democratic Party Chair Lauren Beth Gash said.

“Democratic voters are smart and practical about what we’re dealing with,” Gash said. “We want representatives who will both fight and be effective at getting results.”

Credibility counts

Gash isn’t surprised Biss won in the 9th District, which has been represented for more than 25 years by Evanston Democrat Jan Schakowsky. Once considered one of the most liberal members of Congress, Schakowsky will retire when her term ends in January 2027 — and she endorsed Biss as her successor.

Biss — who’s in his second term as mayor after eight years in the General Assembly and a 2018 gubernatorial run — credited a “diverse, progressive coalition” of supporters for the victory. In addition to Schakowsky, notable Biss backers included U.S. Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Elizabeth Warren, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, the latter of whom formerly led the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

“Primary voters in this district are progressive, and they want a progressive representative,” Biss said.

Several rivals for the nomination were more to the left than Biss — most prominently runner-up Kat Abughazaleh, who raised and spent more money on the campaign than any other congressional candidate in the state and who connected with voters through viral videos and community action.

But Abughazaleh also is a political neophyte, while Biss has years of experience.

“He’s been a grass-roots volunteer, a state legislator, a statewide candidate and mayor of a forward-looking city who has built credibility as a progressive,” Gash said.

Reid McCollum, chair of the DuPage County Democratic Party, had the same take.

“For many voters, the contrast between a newcomer and an established Democrat was probably more relevant than who was more progressive,” he said.

‘The cash and name’

Despite being out of public life for more than a decade, former U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean of Barrington, a centrist Democrat, won the 8th Congressional District primary with 32% of the vote, unofficial results showed.

Bean’s campaign raised about $1.6 million and spent about $1.2 million through late February — the second-highest totals in the race. Pro-Bean commercials — produced by her team and by special interest groups — frequently appeared on TV in the closing weeks, portraying the candidate as a courageous supporter of the Affordable Care Act and a foe of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Of the eight candidates in the race, a few were considered progressive. Of them, second-place finisher Junaid Ahmed of South Barrington lost to Bean by 5 percentage points.

While the 9th District’s progressive history is anchored by deep blue neighborhoods on Chicago’s North Side and in the North suburbs, the 8th District’s hue is closer to purple. The seat has been in Democratic hands since 2013, but it’s been occupied by Republicans and Democrats over the last century.

A progressive victory wasn’t in the cards this year.

“Bean clearly is more moderate and viewed as more establishment,” McCollum said.

Melissa Mouritsen, a political science professor at College of DuPage, wondered if Bean would’ve won if fewer candidates had run in the 8th, or if Illinois offered ranked choice voting — a system in which votes are redistributed until one candidate achieves a majority.

“But who is to say,” Mouritsen said. “At the end of the day, Bean had the cash and name and lots more recognition.”

Making Israel an issue

Many of the progressives who came up short Tuesday were focused on Israel, especially its treatment of Palestinian civilians during the war in Gaza.

Schneider, Casten and Quigley were blasted by their challengers for accepting direct and indirect campaign support from pro-Israel lobbying groups, too.

Voters didn’t seem to care.

“Those extremist campaigns did not amount to much,” Schneider said.

That was certainly the case in the 6th District, where aggressively anti-Israel progressive Joey Ruzevich scored only 24% of the vote against Casten.

Schneider noted he, Casten and Quigley campaigned on traditional progressive issues such as abortion rights, protecting the environment and reducing gun violence — what he called “the issues that voters care about.”

“Which is why all three of us won in overwhelming fashion,” Schneider said.

Next up: November

Now that the primary election is done, these are the congressional showdowns in the North, West and Northwest suburbs that will be decided in November:

3rd District: Delia Ramirez* (D) vs. Angel Oakley (R)

5th District: Mike Quigley* (D) vs. Tommy Hanson (R)

6th District: Sean Casten* (D) vs. Niki Conforti (R)

8th District: Melissa Bean (D) vs. Jennifer Davis (R)

9th District: Daniel Biss (D) vs. John Elleson (R)

10th District: Brad Schneider* (D) vs. Carl Lambrecht (R)

11th District: Bill Foster* (D) vs. Jeff Walter (R)

14th District: Lauren Underwood* (D) vs. Jim Marter (R)

* denotes incumbent; no incumbent is running in the 8th or 9th districts