Over the past three months, 17 active Democratic candidates for Illinois’ 9th Congressional District reported a total of $4.7 million flooding into the competitive race.
All the congressional candidates for U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s (D-Evanston) seat submitted their quarterly campaign fund reports by Oct. 15, the Federal Election Commission’s filing deadline.
Despite Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss’ delayed start in the congressional campaign in May, he played fundraising catch-up to progressive content creator Kat Abughazaleh, who launched her campaign in March. Both Democrats reported a cumulative total of $1.01 million in cash on hand at the end of the quarter.
Abughazaleh had the advantage of being the first candidate to launch her bid for the 9th district and ended the April quarterly with an over $378,000 cushion before many of her competitors had the chance to file for the race.
Her campaign has seen consistent growth throughout the year, and it has reported raising over $619,000 in the past three months. In total, she’s accumulated over $1.5 million for the campaign, marking her the frontrunner in total receipts.
Biss’ campaign skyrocketed to the top after its launch, with an estimated $705,000 in contributions by the July quarterly and over $612,000 by the October quarterly. His campaign coffers total to over $1.3 million, just trailing Abughazaleh.
Despite their nearly equivalent on-hand totals, Biss and Abughazaleh diverge in the nature of their donors. Abughazaleh reports over $1.1 million in individual contributions under $200, making up around 74% of her contribution totals. Contributions under $200 are considered small-dollar donations.
In contrast, over 90% of Biss’ campaign contributions come from big-money donations of over $200, according to data from the FEC.
Bruce Leon, Chicago’s 50th Ward Democratic Committeeman, and former FBI hostage negotiator Phil Andrew follow the frontrunners with about $893,000 and $726,000 total receipts, respectively.
While Leon places third in total receipts, 89.5% of his campaign is self-funded. He initially jump-started his campaign with $610,000 from his own assets in July’s quarterly and later boosted it with $190,000 in October. His campaign gained a $5,000 contribution from the Americans 4 Hindus PAC and around $88,000 worth of individual contributions in the latest report.
Beating out the other candidates this quarter, Andrew raised the most money in the past three months with about $726,000 — 27.7% of which is self-funded.
Following Andrew, Biss and Abughazaleh, the top funders for the October quarterly report were Skokie-based Gen Z organizer Bushra Amiwala and State Sen. Laura Fine (D-Glenview).
The gaggle of candidates will face off in upcoming forums throughout October, including one hosted by Citizen Action/Illinois on Tuesday and a Zoom event hosted by Indivisible Evanston and Indivisible Skokie/Morton Grove/Lincolnwood on Oct. 29.
Candidates will next file their end-of-year 2025 campaign updates by Jan. 31, 2026.
After passing the petitioning threshold set Nov. 3, the qualifying Democrats will face off in the primary on March 17, 2026.
Email: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]
Related Stories:
— Evanston congressional candidate Miracle Jenkins drops out of race, endorses Bushra Amiwala
— Biss, Abughazaleh, Amiwala confronted by agents at Broadview ICE protest
— Summer soiree previews Democratic primary for Illinois 9th District voters
