Open Illinois congressional seats play role in future of the US House

The U.S. Capitol Building lights glow on the evening of March 4, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (Kent Nishimura / TNS)
Three empty U.S. House seats in the upcoming midterm elections mean new faces in Illinois’ congressional delegation will help decide the national balance of political power and the direction of statewide representation.
The three districts are connected by races that lack incumbents, but otherwise offer a study in contrasts in their history and geography.
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One is a historically famous African American seat anchored on Chicago’s South Side that plunges deep into the south suburbs. Civil rights activist Jesse Jackson’s son Jonathan Jackson is hoping to become the ninth straight Black representative of the heavily Democratic 1st Congressional District as he faces Republican Eric Carlson.
Another is a brand-new Latino-leaning district, the 3rd Congressional District, which stretches from the Northwest Side into the northwest and western suburbs in recognition of the state’s burgeoning Latino population. Democratic state Rep. Delia Ramirez is trying to step up from the statehouse to the U.S. Capitol and is facing Republican Justin Burau.
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The third is a downstate district created by Democrats in Springfield as they redrew the congressional maps following the 2020 census and lumped two sitting Republicans into another district and let them duke it out in the primary.
That resulted in a new open seat designed to have a Democratic majority of voters and includes all or parts of the cities of Champaign, Decatur, Springfield and East St. Louis. Vying for the post are a Democratic former senior adviser to Gov. J.B. Pritzker and a Republican who is the president of a Decatur-based nonprofit.
[ In the fight for the US House, one of the most important battles is in northwest Illinois ]
None of these open-seat contests is considered as tight a tossup as one in the northwest corner of Illinois, where Democrat Eric Sorensen and Republican Esther Joy King are locked in a contest for the 17th District now held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos, who’s not running again.
The 17th has drawn national attention as one of the closest of the 435 U.S. House races across the country. By contrast, it would be an upset if the Democratic candidates didn’t win the 1st, the 3rd and the 13th congressional races.
No matter how the campaigns turn out, each will add a new member to the House.
Jackson bested 16 other Democrats in the primary to succeed retiring veteran Democratic U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush. The Jackson family name and his father’s stature helped propel Jonathan Jackson into the 1st District general election even though several of his Democratic rivals were well-known and well-funded.
[ Another son of Rev. Jesse Jackson likely headed to Congress, as a storied and complicated political dynasty adds a new chapter ]
Now he’s the overwhelming favorite in his first run for public office, in a district that’s 49.7% Black and where, according to a Daily Kos analysis, President Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump 70.5% to 28.1%.
1st Congressional District candidate Jonathan Jackson, center, talks with colleagues during a pro-union rally at Teamsters Local 705, on June 16, 2022, in Chicago. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
Jackson argues he won’t “be a regular freshman congressperson,” due to the relationships he’s developed with sitting House members while working around the country on voter drives for his father’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.
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He said he wants to lay the groundwork to bring more high-tech manufacturing to the district as companies seek U.S. locations to build things like batteries and other components of electric cars.
On the Republican side, Carlson has an uphill battle and has had to address that he spent nearly six years in prison after being convicted 27 years ago of sexually assaulting a woman following a South Side Irish Parade.
Eric Carlson, left, the GOP candidate for the 1st Congressional District, talks with supporters at a fundraiser for 18th state Senate District Republican candidate Christine Shanahan McGovern, on Sept. 29, 2022, in Merrionette Park. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
Carlson, of Lemont, said he’s reaching out to Black voters on the South Side who he said Jackson and other Democrats have taken for granted.
“The Black community is sick and tired of Democrats, people who’ve used the Black vote to set up their personal fiefdoms for decades,” Carlson said.
In the new 3rd District that extends from progressive Northwest Side Chicago neighborhoods to historically conservative towns in the far reaches of DuPage County, Ramirez is trying to close the deal on her congressional race.
[ Illinois’ newest Latino congressional district brings heavy competition, divided Democratic visions ]
Ramirez, a progressive with ties to liberal U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, said she’s trying to connect with more voters in moderate and conservative suburban towns after she beat moderate Northwest Side Ald. Gilbert Villegas in the Democratic primary. Though the district includes many suburbs that historically have been Republican-leaning, most of the votes in the district are still expected to be in more Democratic-leaning Chicago neighborhoods and nearby suburbs.
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“I’ve done 10 to 12 meet-and-greets in DuPage in the last six months, plus the door knocking,” Ramirez said. “So I think what people want is a connector, and they’re really excited about the opportunity to have someone that can speak, maybe it’s called speak both languages that are similar languages, the Chicago and the suburban language.”
State Rep. Delia Ramirez, the Democratic candidate for the 3rd Congressional District, talks with the media outside Tata’s Tacos in Portage Park, on June 28, 2022. (Victor Hilitski / Chicago Tribune)
Ramirez, the daughter of Guatemalan immigrants and wife of a man who arrived from Guatemala as an undocumented immigrant and has been living in Chicago under the auspices of the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, promises to have immigration reform at the top of her agenda in Washington, D.C.
About 47.4% of the 3rd District’s nearly 754,000 residents are Hispanic, according to the Illinois Democratic Party. Biden won the precincts of the current 3rd District in 2020 with 69.7% of the vote, to 28.3% for Trump, according to Daily Kos.
The long-shot Republican in the race is Burau of suburban Winfield, a first-time political candidate and vice president of operations for a mortgage company who said his underdog campaign gives him the freedom to depart from GOP orthodoxy.
Justin Burau, Republican candidate in Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District, attends the Milton Township Republican event at the Klein Creek Golf Club, on Sept. 29, 2022, in Winfield. (Mark Black/ for the Chicago Tribune)
“For me, I believe when in Congress, your main job is to represent the people, no matter what party is out there,” Burau said. “I think people are refreshed by that, hearing there’s someone who’s still conservative but willing to work across the aisle.”
“Too often — especially in the Republican Party or mainly in the Republican Party — we’re labeled as not being in favor of immigration just because we want a secure border. But people are happy to hear when I’m sitting here saying I don’t want to blow up DACA. I want to find a pathway to citizenship for the 40% of the people that have completed the requirements for it.”
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[ View a map of Illinois’ 17 congressional districts ]
The third open district doesn’t touch Chicago at all, and is, in fact, a seat designed by state Democrats for their party to win in a stretch of central Illinois that’s been largely inhospitable to Democrats’ electoral chances.
The new 13th District was created as Democrats mapped Republican U.S. Reps. Mary Miller and Rodney Davis into the same 15th District, ensuring one would lose. Miller, who was backed publicly by Trump, won the head-to-head Republican primary.
Political prognosticators predictably peg the 13th District as tighter than the 1st or 3rd districts in the general election, with Biden having won it in 2020 by a relatively slim 54.4% to 43.2% over Trump. The new 13th District encompasses Champaign on the north before snaking southwest through Decatur and Springfield into East St. Louis.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee recently canceled a series of television ads set to air in the Champaign and St. Louis markets, indicating that the Democratic election organization thinks Democrat Nikki Budzinski of Springfield will defeat Republican Regan Deering of Decatur.
[ Illinois congressional map drawn by Democrats with aim of cementing control of state’s Washington delegation ]
Both Budzinski and Deering are focusing on issues that affect voters’ wallets as they try to win the moderate district.
Nikki Budzinski is running as a Democrat for the 13th District Congressional seat in central Illinois. (Budzinski campaign)
Budzinski, 45, has spent time as a labor union advocate for firefighters, food service employees and other workers. She’s also worked as a senior adviser to Pritzker on labor issues and has served as the chief of staff for Biden’s office of management and budget, which helped devise his administration’s coronavirus relief plan.
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Regan Deering is running as the Republican candidate for the 13th District Congressional seat in central Illinois. (Deering campaign)
Deering, 46, is the granddaughter of a pioneering business executive with the Archer Daniels Midland food processing company, and has chaired the Decatur Public Schools Foundation.
In an interview with the Tribune, Deering said some of her top priorities include getting inflation under control, securing the country’s borders to prevent drug trafficking, curbing “out-of-control” federal government spending and trying to bring down the cost of living, particularly for farmers who she says have seen skyrocketing prices for fertilizer.
“I hear them when they’re talking about infrastructure. I hear them when they’re talking about (the) workforce and looking at some other options for (being) able to get employees into their farms,” said Deering, who has been endorsed by the Illinois Farm Bureau.
Budzinski has described the new 13th District as a “swingy competitive district” politically, but while she’s a champion of organized labor, she said issues that affect unions are nonpartisan. She stressed the importance of union apprentice programs as a “pathway to the middle class,” which can lead to good wages and benefits.
“There are Republicans and Democrats in the labor movement, but what they care the most about is their pocketbooks and having a good job and affordable health care,” Budzinski said. “And I don’t think that has to be a Democratic or Republican issue. It’s just a working person’s issue.”
Jeremy Gorner reported from Springfield.
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jebyrne@chicagotribune.com
jgorner@chicagotribune.com