State Rep. La Shawn Ford declared victory Tuesday evening in the Democratic primary to succeed U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, a contest that piqued national interest amid heavy outside spending from special interest groups that spent millions, but failed to tip the historic Chicago race.
Pumping his fist as he walked in, Ford informed a room full of supporters at the National Association of Letter Carriers headquarters on the South Side that Chicago city Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin had called him to concede. Then he turned to address Davis, who had endorsed Ford after holding the seat for nearly 30 years.
“Your legacy will be protected, and we will continue to take care of the people from the bottom,” Ford said. “From the bottom, from the bottom, from the bottom. This campaign has always been about the people at the bottom, and nothing’s going to change.”
Ford will face Republican nominee Chad Koppie in the November general election.
Conyears-Ervin’s campaign had released a statement before 9 p.m., saying she congratulated Ford on clinching the nomination. The Associated Press called the race for Ford a short time later.
“While this is not the outcome we were hoping for, I am comforted by the words of Scripture: ‘I have fought the good fight, I have run the race, I have kept the faith,'” Conyears-Ervin wrote.
With 90% of the estimated vote counted Wednesday afternoon, Ford was leading with 23.9% of the ballots cast. Conyears-Ervin was trailing at 20.5%, while labor leader Anthony Driver was in third at 11.3%.
Last summer, the outgoing Davis’ historic announcement that he will forgo a 16th term triggered a mad dash of more than a dozen candidates to represent one of America’s bluest congressional districts. The longtime dean of the Illinois delegation said Ford’s foes “told every kind of lie” about him during the campaign but he prevailed.
“We come to the culmination of a campaign where the people of the 7th Congressional District came up against millions of dollars — more than you can count — but let me tell you: Never, ever count the people out,” Davis said.
So ends one of the more suspenseful Illinois races this primary cycle, where dark-money groups upended the fundraising ground game and ruffled national party divisions over whether Democrats should draw a red line against accepting support from the pro-Israeli government lobby.
Ultimately, Conyears-Ervin’s support from a super PAC linked to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee could not bring her over the finish line in her second bid for the seat.
Davis leaves behind a legacy as a forceful progressive voice in Congress. The district is racially and economically diverse, spanning downtown, swaths of the West and South sides and the west suburbs.
Trump’s toxic brand among local Democratic voters was an undercurrent throughout the primary, prompting candidates to tack left and try to tie their opponents to the president as dark money from special interest groups that align with conservatives entered the fray.
Conyears-Ervin, Chicago’s treasurer since 2019, launched her second bid for the seat after falling short of unseating incumbent Davis two years ago. Her candidacy has focused on her working-class roots and role as a caretaker for a disabled sister.
She got both the support of the Chicago Teachers Union and an AIPAC-affiliated super PAC, the latter of which sparked some of the sharpest attacks in the race given the special interest group’s eminence as a leading target of the political left following the 2023 Gaza war. Her critics have also pounced on a smattering of ethics scandals throughout her tenure as city treasurer.
“I am a Black woman born in Englewood, raised on the West Side,” Conyears-Ervin retorted at one candidates forum. “I don’t have to prove anything to anyone.”
In 2024, the Chicago Board of Ethics determined she misused taxpayer resources for a series of church events and found probable cause she improperly fired two whistleblowers, slapping her with the maximum $70,000 fine. She agreed to pay $30,000 to settle both cases while denying all wrongdoing.
Another whistleblower filed a wide-ranging ethics complaint last fall, alleging her political campaign staff pushed a questionable plan to boycott U.S. Treasury bonds in protest of Trump over internal objections, among other allegations.
Throughout the campaign, Conyears-Ervin deflected from her controversies by framing herself as a scrappy politician who was the right candidate to defend the district’s most vulnerable residents.
Asked publicly to step down over her scandals, Conyears-Ervin shot back, “To think that I would resign from city treasurer because I stood up to Donald Trump is insane.”
Ford, Davis’ pick to succeed him, touted securing funds for financial aid, behavioral health and test prep programs at colleges and universities.
He’s also fought off attacks from the pro-cryptocurrency PAC Fairshake after he voted for Springfield regulations of the digital asset. The group’s ads on his past felony bank fraud charges were decried by Ford as slanderous.
“Running for office is very challenging, and when you stand up for the people, you actually get punished,” Ford said during a debate.
In 2014, Ford agreed to plead guilty to a single misdemeanor tax count in exchange for federal prosecutors dropping all 17 felony charges.
In her fourth run for this seat, activist Kina Collins stressed on the campaign trail that she was fighting the Democratic establishment long before the rest, and supported abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and defunding the police long before they had their moments among the political left. With 90% of the estimated vote counted Wednesday afternoon, she was in fourth place with 9.3%.
Collins has struggled with meeting a recent campaign finance reporting deadline and is being sued for credit card debt, the latter of which she said is “even more of a reason for someone like me to go and represent working-class people.”
Dr. Thomas Fisher, an emergency room physician at the University of Chicago Medical Center, sought to run as an outsider to politics, one who swore off corporate PAC dollars. He was the second-highest fundraiser in the race after Jason Friedman. With 90% of the estimated vote counted Wednesday afternoon, he was in fourth place with 7.6%.
“This is the opportunity for voters to choose,” Fisher told the Tribune. “Do they want more of the same, or do they want a difference?”
Friedman, the highest fundraiser in the race, touted putting cranes in the sky and creating union jobs as owner of Friedman Properties in River North. With 90% of the estimated vote counted Wednesday afternoon, he was in sixth place with 7.5%.Other candidates who ran in the Democratic primary were immigrant rights advocate Anabel Mendoza, former Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin, ex-U.S. Justice Department lawyer Reed Showalter, Forest Park Mayor Rory Hoskins, engineer Felix Tello and University of Illinois Chicago adjunct lecturer David Ehrlich.
Also Tuesday night, the race to succeed U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia officially began after his chief of staff, whom he hopes to anoint as his successor, clinched the uncontested Democratic primary Tuesday evening.
Democratic nominee Patty Garcia will face Pilsen Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, Lyons Mayor Chris Getty and Mayra Macías, former executive director of the Latino Victory Project, in the November general election. The latter three are running as independents after a controversial last-minute ballot maneuver from the congressman, who late last year announced his retirement after serving for four terms.
Also running in the general election are Republican nominee Lupe Castillo and Ed Hershey, the candidate for the Working Class Party.
