Just two candidates are vying for the 9th District seat State Sen. Laura Fine (D-Glenview) will soon leave vacant for her congressional campaign. And both have deep North Shore roots.
As of the Illinois State Board of Elections’ 5 p.m. filing deadline Monday, Evanston’s Rachel Ruttenberg (Medill MS ’04) and Winnetka’s Patrick Hanley will go head-to-head in the March primaries after exceeding the required 1,000 signatures on their petitions. Both Democrats announced their candidacies in May. No Republicans filed to run for the seat.
Ruttenberg has collected endorsements from the likes of State Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz (D-Glenview) and Illinois House Majority Leader and State Rep. Robyn Gabel (D-Evanston), the latter of whom said she has worked with Ruttenberg for many years and commended her commitment to policy and public service.
Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Evanston) endorsed Hanley in May, describing him as “exactly the kind of bold, progressive Democratic leader — and fighter — that Illinois needs,” in a news release from Hanley’s campaign .
Ruttenberg’s platform centers on expanding affordable health care, inclusive economic opportunity and housing access, alongside reforms to the criminal legal system.
Ruttenberg told The Daily in May that her motivation to run was personal — being a mother of two young girls, who are “growing up in a country where they have fewer rights than (she) did at their age.”
Although she’s a first-time political candidate, Ruttenberg is no stranger to policy.
She spent two decades in positions at Chicago Public Schools and at nonprofits, including the Family Defense Center (now part of Ascend Justice), a legal-aid nonprofit, and the human rights and anti-poverty group Heartland Alliance. Most recently, Ruttenberg served as Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy to Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle before stepping away to launch her political campaign.
Currently, Ruttenberg is the deputy committee person of the Democratic Party of Evanston.
At the beginning of October, Hanley had raised over $67,000 in the third quarter of 2025, more than twice Ruttenberg’s $32,890.
Born in Evanston and raised in Northbrook and Glenview, Hanley is a self-described small-business owner and longtime Democratic organizer. He touts a decade of experience in D.C., where he worked for the U.S. Senate, the Justice Department and The Asia Group, according to his website.
Hanley also leads the New Trier Democrats and co-founded Operation Swing State, a volunteer network that mobilized more than 10,000 Illinois residents to canvas in Michigan and Wisconsin in 2024 — efforts he said contributed to electing two Democratic U.S. senators.
Exactly a week after petitioning kicked off in August, Hanley had accumulated enough signatures to cement his spot on March’s ballot.
Facing heightened immigration enforcement activity, Illinois must “draw strength from within,” Hanley’s campaign said, calling for new state laws to assert 10th Amendment authority and limit federal agents’ reach.
At the heart of Hanley’s campaign is environmental sustainability and economic growth. As chair of Winnetka’s Environmental and Forest Commission and an executive member of conservation nonprofit Openlands, Hanley has advocated for green infrastructure, renewable energy and long-term climate planning, according to his campaign website.
During the pandemic, Hanley worked as a McKinsey management consultant for state governors and agencies, facilitating intergovernmental cooperation and public health coordination and communications. Hanley left consulting in 2022 to run Piglet in Bed, a homeware, sleepwear and bedding company, with his wife.
Voters will cast their primary ballots for the state Senate seat on March 17, 2026.
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