Democratic U.S. Rep. Bill Foster of Naperville, who often notes he’s the “only physicist in Congress,” defeated a progressive challenger in Tuesday’s primary in the suburban and exurban 11th Congressional District.
The Associated Press called the race for Foster a little before 8:30 p.m.
Civil rights attorney Qasim Rashid, also of Naperville, previously ran unsuccessfully for public office in Virginia, including a failed congressional bid in 2020. Like other progressives challenging incumbent Chicago-area Democrats this year, Rashid made calls for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war a central theme of his campaign.
Rashid also championed universal health care and other progressive causes.
Foster, who first came to Congress in 2008 through a special election to replace Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert, has supported Israel’s right to defend itself following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack but also has said he’s “deeply alarmed by Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu’s handling of the war in Gaza and his disregard for the loss of civilian life.”
He’s called for a stop in fighting to allow the release of hostages and the delivery of humanitarian aid.
On health care, Foster has said universal coverage should be achieved through further expansion of the Affordable Care Act.
Foster, who had no primary opponent in 2022, defeated conservative Republican Catalina Lauf of Woodstock in that year’s general election by nearly 13 points.
After losing his seat for one term in the Tea Party wave of 2010, Foster, a former Fermilab scientist, won it back in 2012 and has held on to it since.
Redrawn after the 2020 census, the district now sweeps from the western part of Lake County as far west as Belvidere and south through McHenry, Kane and DuPage counties to Bolingbrook and Lemont, taking in parts of Aurora and Naperville.
In the November general election, Foster will take on the winner of a three-way race on the Republican primary ballot.
Candidates for the GOP nomination are Jerry Evans, O Kent Mercado and Susan Hathaway-Altman.
Evans was out to an early lead Tuesday night, according to unofficial results.
Evans, of Warrenville, owns a Wheaton music school, and his campaign website describes him as “a Christian, husband, father, and political outsider.”
Evans finished second, behind Lauf, in the district’s 2022 six-way Republican primary with nearly 23% of the vote.
Also running again this year is Hathaway-Altman, of Geneva, who finished fourth in 2022 with 12% of the vote. On her campaign website, Hathaway-Altman says she’s worked in “financial and travel related services” and if elected “will protect us from all of the external forces drawing us into Socialism, or worse, Communism and even a New World Order.”
Mercado, a podiatrist and attorney from Bartlett, has emphasized “kitchen table issues,” such as affordable health care.
