Evanston experienced an eventful 2025, from heated debates over the city’s zoning policies in the newly dedicated Lorraine H. Morton City Hall to contentious Evanston/Skokie School District 65 Board of Education meetings, where officials deadlocked on the final phase of the district’s Structural Deficit Reduction Plan.
The city’s autumn was defined by an unprecedented surge in federal immigration enforcement, prompting municipal policy changes and mutual aid efforts aimed at supporting vulnerable community members.
Looking ahead, a crowded race to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Evanston), featuring frontrunners Mayor Daniel Biss and progressive content creator Kat Abughazaleh, has begun to take shape.
As the city rings in 2026, The Daily recapped the most consequential headlines from a history-making year in Evanston politics.
Biss promises ‘bold experimentation,’ then comfortably wins reelection
Schakowsky introduced Biss at his January mayoral reelection campaign launch, where the mayor sharply criticized newly inaugurated President Donald Trump and promised “four more years of bold experimentation” in his second term.
That same month, Biss’ signature policy proposal — Envision Evanston 2045 — faced a setback when City Council voted to separate its comprehensive plan from its zoning rewrite. This move followed sustained public opposition to the proposal’s changes and concerns over its accelerated timeline.
In April, Biss still cruised to victory over his lone challenger, Jeff Boarini, in the city’s consolidated elections. Voter turnout reached a historic 36% in the mayoral race, and the City Council welcomed three new members, including longtime Biss critic Ald. Parielle Davis (7th).
After receiving a positive recommendation from the Land Use Commission in May, deliberations over the comprehensive plan continued, and City Council is set to take a final vote on the proposal on Jan. 26.
Schakowsky’s retirement sparks a crowded — and costly — Democratic primary
In May, Schakowsky, who has represented Illinois’ 9th Congressional District since the late 1990s, announced she would not seek another term in Congress. Her decision marked the end of a tenure defined by progressive advocacy and opened a competitive race to represent Evanston and its neighboring municipalities in the U.S. House of Representatives — the first in decades.
The morning after his 2025 State of the City address, Biss announced his long-speculated campaign to succeed Schakowsky, entering the race as one of its leading contenders. His candidacy drew endorsements from local and national progressives, including U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
In many respects, however, the Democratic primary had begun weeks earlier. Abughazaleh entered the race ahead of Schakowsky’s announcement, launching an unconventional campaign centered on mutual aid initiatives.
She has emerged as an unlikely frontrunner in a crowded field that also includes Skokie school board member Bushra Amiwala as well as state Sens. Laura Fine (D-Glenview) and Mike Simmons (D-Chicago).
Altogether, 16 Democrats and four Republicans are set to appear on the March 17 primary ballot. In the last quarter of 2025 alone, the active candidates raised $4.7 million.
With Fine seeking higher office, Evanston’s representation in the State Senate is also on the ballot this year. Evanston attorney Rachel Ruttenberg and Winnetka environmentalist Patrick Hanley are competing for the Democratic nomination.
Community members grapple with increased federal immigration enforcement, SNAP freeze
Since September, local leaders and community members have confronted an increased presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents deployed across Evanston as part of the Trump administration’s Operation Midway Blitz.
Biss, Abughazaleh and Amiwala were teargassed during a September protest at an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois. Later, Abughazaleh and five others were indicted for allegedly conspiring to “interrupt, hinder, and impede” a federal law enforcement officer’s activities at the facility. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges and said the indictment is politically motivated.
In Evanston, tensions came to a head on Halloween when U.S. Border Patrol arrested five Mexican immigrants lacking permanent status, according to an emailed statement to The Daily from a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson. In response, local officials and the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights held an impromptu news conference outside Chute Middle School, near the site of a collision between a civilian vehicle and a Border Patrol vehicle, which occurred earlier that day.
In an effort to protect residents from federal agents, the city also strengthened its Welcoming City Ordinance twice, established “ICE-free zones” on city property and temporarily suspended its ban on gas-powered leaf blowers.
Increased federal immigration enforcement — combined with uncertainty about Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits during a record-long federal government shutdown — inspired a food drive at Evanston Township High School that drew 150 volunteers.
Shortly afterward, one of the food drive’s organizers, Valerie Kahan, announced the formation of the Evanston Community Cares Fund, a mutual aid initiative awarded $24,999 dollars from the city in November.
Down one member, District 65 Board of Education stalls on deficit reduction plan
The District 65 Board of Education deadlocked on the third phase of the district’s SDRP, the final and most contentious step in the district’s effort to close a multimillion-dollar budget gap.
In October, amid heated debates surrounding potential school closures, former District 65 Superintendent Devon Horton was federally indicted on 17 counts of embezzlement, tax fraud and wire fraud, related to activities during his tenure. He pleaded not guilty to every count later that month.
The board continued to consider school closure scenarios while lacking a seventh member following former board member Omar Salem’s November resignation. The six-member body reached a stalemate at its final meeting of the year, eliminating the possibility of building closures ahead of the 2026-27 school year.
This followed widespread community activism that urged the board to consider alternative mechanisms to resolve the district’s budget shortfall.
However, Dr. Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies will still close at the conclusion of this school year, and the new Foster School is set to open this fall, representing the culmination of a longstanding push to bring a neighborhood school back to the 5th Ward.
In December, the board voted to end Willard Elementary School’s Two-Way Immersion program, a component of each previously considered school closure scenario, consolidating the TWI strands at Willard and Bessie Rhodes into two new strands at Foster.
The deadline for the board to select a new member has passed, and the regional superintendent is now slated to appoint a replacement by Feb. 2.
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Related Stories:
— District 65 ends year in stalemate, to close Willard TWI
— Year in Review: Top Evanston stories from a year of transition
