Today we start our endorsements for the March 19 primary in contested races for the Illinois House. There are primary contests in 23 of the 118 House districts statewide. In just one of those — the 83rd — is there a primary contest for both parties. Our endorsements in the coming days will run in order, from the lowest district number to the highest. This first batch of endorsements all are on the Democratic side of the ticket.
4th District
This district encompasses a broad swath of Chicago’s Northwest Side, including the neighborhoods of Ukrainian Village, Humboldt Park, West Town, Hermosa and Belmont-Cragin. The incumbent is Democrat Lilian Jiménez, who won the seat after predecessor Delia Ramírez was elected to the U.S. Congress. Opposing her is Kirk Ortiz, vice president with Chicago-based Arms Security Corp. and an active sworn peace officer.
Ortiz identifies public safety as the most important issue in the district, particularly as it affects Uber and Lyft drivers and their passengers. Jiménez cites the cost of living and inflation, particularly gentrification and escalating housing costs, as what’s top of mind for 4th District voters. Both say increasingly unaffordable property taxes must be addressed.
The policy differences between the two aren’t major. What distinguishes Jiménez in our view is her extensive experience with assimilating migrants into Chicago. Before becoming a state rep, she was the administrator for the Office of Immigrant & Refugee Services within the Illinois Department of Human Services. She has firsthand experience with managing the influx of Afghan and Ukrainian refugees, as well as the many Central and South American migrants the region now is seeing.
“This is going to be the workforce of tomorrow,” she says. We agree and believe her unique experience will contribute in Springfield as the state continues to grapple with the migrant influx.
We don’t align with many of the progressive stances she takes on other issues, but she represents the views of the majority in this very liberal district, one she has served well.
Lilian Jiménez has our endorsement.
5th District
This Chicago district is an oddly drawn, narrow area, running from much of River North at the north end to 76th Street on the south, covering economically and racially diverse areas ranging from Michigan Avenue south of Randolph Street to parts of the South Side like the Woodlawn and Englewood neighborhoods. The incumbent, appointed by Cook County Democrats after Lamont Robinson won election as 4th Ward alderman, is Kimberly Neely du Buclet. Her challenger is Andre Smith, who’s run for offices before including 20th Ward alderman.
Smith proposes to impose a cap on migrants entering the city and has called for recalling Mayor Brandon Johnson, a process that doesn’t exist in Illinois. We sympathize with his acute frustration regarding the management of the city, but don’t find his suggestions practical or (in the case of migrants) humanitarian.
Du Buclet, a former commissioner for the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District and before that a state representative, puts a refreshing emphasis on fiscal responsibility and promoting economic development. She has extensive political experience and a reputation as a reasonable lawmaker.
Kimberly Neely du Buclet is endorsed.
6th District
This district is dominated by South Side neighborhoods including Englewood, West Englewood and Chicago Lawn, but also includes parts of Bridgeport and even the Loop and Near North Side. Holding the seat since 2015 is Democratic Rep. Sonya Harper. Her challenger is Joseph Williams, executive director of Mr. Dad’s Father’s Club, a nonprofit that promotes connecting children to their fathers or other positive male role models.
Harper says gun violence is the most urgent issue facing her district. Much of her work in Springfield has been centered on addressing the root causes of violent crime. But she also chairs the House Agriculture Committee and in that role opposed the effort of Nicor Gas, the state’s largest natural gas utility, to hike utility rates systemwide in order to connect pipes to historic Pembroke Township, at one time the largest Black farming community in the northern U.S. Despite questions regarding the need, Nicor prevailed over the opposition of environmentalists and Harper. But we applaud her willingness to take on that fight.
Williams’ work to promote greater involvement of South Side fathers in their children’s lives is impressive. But he doesn’t make a compelling case for unseating Harper.
Sonya Harper is endorsed.
21st District
The 21st captures a mainly Latino portion of Chicago’s Southwest Side and covers suburbs to the southwest including Cicero, Berwyn, Stickney, Forest View and Riverside. The incumbent is Democratic Rep. Abdelnasser Rashid, who’s in his first term. Challenging him is retired Chicago police Sgt. Vidal Vásquez.
Rashid has taken generally progressive positions on most issues in Springfield, but the dominant cause for him appears to be the U.S. position on the war in the Middle East. He is Illinois’ first Palestinian American state rep and is pushing for a cease-fire in Gaza and “an immediate shift in U.S. foreign policy towards one that values peace, justice and human rights for all, including the Palestinian people,” according to a recent fundraising mailer Rashid sent out.
There is a substantial Palestinian American population in Chicago’s southwest suburbs, most of whom no doubt are intensely interested in the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. But Springfield is not where decisions on U.S. foreign policy are made. We endorsed Rashid in the last election as a check on Madigan-style politics in that district, but we think his intense focus on an issue close to his heart, which we don’t begrudge him, calls for pursuing that in another job.
Vásquez, 62, retired from the Chicago Police Department in 2017 and works now as a police officer for Amtrak. He is focused on the severe flooding that plagued households in this district last summer, better public support of law enforcement and restoring the Invest in Kids tax credit program whose expiration at the end of 2023 led to Catholic school closures in the district. These all are issues of intense interest in this district.
We like Vásquez’s middle-of-the-road, pragmatic positions. Springfield needs more nonideological lawmakers focused on serving the needs of their constituents.
Vidal Vásquez is endorsed.
22nd District
This district captures a hefty slice of Chicago’s Southwest Side, including Midway Airport, and also southwest suburban Bedford Park and Burbank. The incumbent is Democrat Angie Guerrero-Cuéllar, who was appointed to the seat in 2021 and won election to her first full term in 2022. Challenging her is Joshua P. Hernández, who has not been responsive to us.
Guerrero-Cuéllar stakes out moderate positions on a number of high-profile issues in Springfield. She supports reinstating the Invest in Kids tax credits, which supported 400 kids in her district, she says. She is in favor of a fully elected Chicago Board of Education this year (instead of keeping the board in the mayor’s control), a position in opposition (ironically) to that of the Chicago Teachers Union. She identifies overcrowded public schools in her district as a key issue and, as the wife of a Chicago police officer, backs a more robust police presence in her district.
She bucked her own party by voting against the 2021 congressional remap, displaying a welcome independent streak.
Hernández is light on experience for the post and has not waged much of a campaign.
Angie Guerrero-Cuéllar is endorsed.
23rd District
This mainly Chicago district includes the neighborhoods of Little Village, Brighton Park, North Lawndale and part of the town of Cicero. The representative is two-term incumbent Edgar González Jr., a Democrat. Challenging him is 22-year-old Joseph Edward Mercado, a student at St. Xavier University who previously ran for 12th Ward alderman in Chicago.
González cites the cost of living and gun violence as the two most pressing issues in his district. He’s focused on property tax relief for his middle-class constituents and control of assault weapons. González says his constituents “are tired of politicians who claim to work for them, who regurgitate talking points just to get elected. They don’t need that. What they need is a neighbor — someone who shares firsthand their lived experiences.”
Among other things, Mercado calls for more “substantial penalties” for those committing violent crime. He says violence is the most pressing issue in the district.
We applaud Mercado’s emphasis on consequences for those committing criminal acts rather than the excuses we so often hear politicians make for the victimizers. But Mercado’s lack of experience gives us pause, even as we hope he continues to be politically active.
We endorse Edgar González Jr.
24th District
Democratic Rep. Theresa Mah’s district includes the neighborhoods of Chinatown, Bridgeport, Pilsen and the Heart of Chicago, so she represents substantial Asian American and Hispanic populations. Her challenger is Lai Ching Ng, an analyst for the Cook County Board of Review.
Ng is running to the right of the well-regarded Mah. Ng’s platform, for example, includes immediately repealing the Safe-T Act, the state law that eliminated cash bail and attempted to reform the process of detaining those accused of violent crimes before they go to trial. We think the jury remains out on the efficacy of the law and wouldn’t repeal it wholesale right now.
Mah, a former University of Chicago professor, is a progressive, and though we don’t support all of her positions, we’ve endorsed her in the past and think she’s served the interests of her district.
Theresa Mah has our endorsement.
