Endorsement: McGonigal for GOP in Congress, District 5

This endorsement is a consensus opinion of the Daily Herald Editorial Board.

Two Republicans, from Chicago and North Barrington, are vying for the GOP nomination for Illinois' 5th Congressional District seat, and their addresses alone illustrate how the district has changed. In the days of Dan Rostenkowski and Rahm Emanuel, this was essentially an all-Chicago district; now the 5th runs from Lake Michigan on the Near North Side to the Barrington area, through Park Ridge, Des Plaines, Mount Prospect, Arlington Heights, Palatine and Lake Zurich.

On the Republican side, we recommend Malgorzata McGonigal. In 2021, she was one of 11 candidates who ran for the Barrington area school board, driven in large part by her frustration over pandemic school closings and how that affected children. She finished sixth, which was out of the money, but in a crowded field it shows that she could reach some voters.

This is a qualified endorsement, because McGonigal did not submit answers to a Daily Herald questionnaire sent to both candidates, and in subsequent emails refused to be pinned down on any issue except to confirm she is opposed to abortion.

To specific questions asking whether she believes Joe Biden is the legitimate president and whether climate change is at least partially manmade, she replied that she already has answered those questions (she didn't, at least not to us) and added, "... because those answers don't fit Your narrative or your liberal agenda doesn't mean I will change them."

Tommy Hanson, meanwhile, is a perennial far-right candidate for Congress who repeats widely circulated and debunked conspiracy theories as part of his campaign platform. He is unendorseable.