Hundreds of voters, political activists and members of the media overflowed from an Oakton College conference room to meet the candidates behind one of Illinois’ most competitive congressional primaries Tuesday night.
Thirteen of the 17 active Democratic candidates in the race to replace U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Evanston) lambasted Trump administration policies and proposed new paths for the national party in the largest candidate dialogue to date ahead of the March 17 primary.
The forum was the third installment in a lineup of six Democratic forums hosted by Citizen Action/Illinois and over a dozen co-hosting organizations.
According to Citizen Action/Illinois Executive Director Anusha Thotakura, the forum’s moderator, 450 individuals signed up to attend and the livestream had 695 views on Facebook.
“A lot of voters have heard that there’s so many candidates, but maybe have not even met them or know what they stand for, and they actually want to compare across all the candidates,” Thokatura said.
To participate, all 13 candidates had to reach a qualifying threshold of either 50 individual donations or $4,000 raised by a Sept. 30 deadline set by the Federal Election Commission. They tackled nationwide issues including universal healthcare access, environmental initiatives and gun violence prevention, with a progressive spin.
In the midst of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s immigration crackdowns in the Chicago area and escalating operations in Evanston and Chicago’s North Side, the Democrats proposed paths toward accountability against ICE and referenced incursions into their district as recently as Tuesday morning.
One wing of the lineup, composed of public health official Justin Ford, attorney Howard Rosenblum and former FBI negotiator Phil Andrew, advocated for congressional investigations and oversight committees. They also pushed for prosecuting ICE for its enforcement tactics against community members.
On another side, Gen Z activist Bushra Amiwala, labor organizer Jill Manrique, Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, progressive content creator Kat Abughazaleh and Illinois State Sen. Mike Simmons (D-Chicago) directly called for abolishing ICE. Simmons promised that if elected, he would file legislation to abolish the agency within his first 10 days in Congress.
As an activist on the ground, Manrique added that the forum was one of the first times she noted public officials and political candidates fully embracing the idea of ICE’s abolishment without “trying to water it down,” despite ICE’s operations in the area since before the Trump administration.
“This is just now in your backyard, and it is more increased, it is dangerous, it is horrible,” Manrique said. “But I got to tell you, ICE has been in Skokie and has been in Evanston and has been around longer than just this past week, longer than just this year.”
A question about the U.S.’s role in promoting peace amid the Israel-Hamas war laid bare the widest ideological divides between the candidates, all within individual 45-second responses.
State Sen. Laura Fine (D-Glenview), economist Jeff Cohen, Ford, Rosenblum and Andrew lamented the conflict’s destruction and prioritized maintaining peace through Hamas’ and Israel’s ceasefire. Other candidates, including Army veteran Sam Polan, ex-tech strategist Nick Pyati and Cohen, advocated for continued U.S. involvement in the region to negotiate the fallout.
“The U.S. is the leader of the free world, and we cannot turn our backs to that peace process,” Cohen said.
Amiwala, on the other hand, prioritized self-determination for the Palestinian and Israeli people, limiting U.S. involvement to “pay reparations” for its role in the conflict.
Chicago’s Democratic 50th Ward Committeeman Bruce Leon then condemned the use of the term “genocide,” arguing that history would show the war was fought “in the most humane way possible,” prompting boos from the crowd. Manrique countered this claim, arguing that the district needs leaders “brave enough” to call the war a genocide.
Abughazaleh, who is Palestinian American, advocated for the recognition of Palestinian statehood, saying everyone in the region deserves full legal and civil rights no matter where they live.
“The lives of Jews and Palestinians, our safety and our future are intertwined,” Abughazaleh said. “Unless both of us are safe, neither of us are safe.”
Biss advocated for a two-state solution and announced his support to end the transfer of offensive weapons to Israel.
He called the approaches an extension of the Jewish value system he grew up in.
“There’s room for pro-Israel politics that is equally committed to justice for the Palestinian people and uses the power of America to advocate for that,” Biss said.
Throughout the two-hour forum, candidates suggested various approaches to a Democratic candidacy to counter the second Trump administration, with Biss proposing a “marriage of activism and government” and Polan proposing a bigger tent of Democratic support based on an “optimistic realist” leadership style.
Pyati diagnosed the party’s problem as one of platform messaging that has been “bleeding voters” for years.
“I see us continuing to pitch the same policies, the same platform that got us here,” Pyati said. “We don’t get to do any of it until we get the White House back, and we don’t get to do that until we build a party that wins.”
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— Biss, Abughazaleh, Amiwala confronted by agents at Broadview ICE protest
