Who are the four Republican candidates hoping to represent Illinois’ heavily Democratic 9th Congressional District? What moves did Northwestern football make in the 2026 transfer portal? How are students and Evanstonians faring with the December closure of the Evanston Chili’s? The Daily answers these questions and recaps other top stories from the last week.
ELIZA MARTIN: On today’s episode: introducing the four Republican candidates in the IL-09 District primary, a look into the Northwestern football 2026 transfer class and saying goodbye to the Evanston Chili’s.
From The Daily Northwestern, I’m Eliza Martin.
EMERSON LEGER: And I’m Emerson Leger. This is The Weekly, a breakdown of the top headlines from the past week.
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EMERSON LEGER: I’m here with Daily Reporter and Multimedia Managing Editor Yong-Yu Huang to talk about the four Republicans making the case to run in the Illinois 9th congressional district. So to start, can you share what makes Illinois’ ninth congressional district unique for the Republicans going into this primary?
YONG-YU HUANG: Yeah. So first off, the current representative, Jan Schakowsky, has held the seat for, you know, a good at least 25 years, and no representative of this district has been a Republican since Harry Truman was in office. It’s been a good, you know, 70-ish years since the Republican House has held the seat. And it’s also the first open race in a really long time, where, because Schakowsky is retiring, a bunch of people have thrown in their names to go for the seat. There are, I think, currently maybe 16 Democrats and four Republicans.
So you obviously see that there’s a big numerical difference in terms of the number of candidates running on each side. And it also so happens that the Ninth District is pretty heavily Democratic — it leans very blue — so the chances are, obviously, the numbers are obviously stacked against the Republican candidates, and yet there are still four of them out there trying their hand at it.
EMERSON LEGER: Rocío Cleveland’s campaign has been a standout in your article. Can you highlight her reasons for running and how her candidacy has shaped the tone of this Republican race?
YONG-YU HUANG: Basically, Cleveland’s campaign has obviously garnered some media attention. It went viral online for an event at a Northbrook candidate forum back in November with Kat Abughazaleh, so I think it’s been interesting to see how the other Republican candidates have kind of responded to or alluded to Cleveland’s campaign as they conduct their own campaign. Obviously, it’s probably a very interesting experience to be in such a small field of Republican candidates and have one of them receive such attention.
EMERSON LEGER: What’s the main takeaway that listeners need to understand about this Republican primary and its place in the ninth district?
YONG-YU HUANG: I think the main takeaway, obviously, is to kind of go and see a little bit about what these Republican candidates are running on, the policies that they’re hoping to implement and also just what it’s like to be running, maybe not necessarily “opposition party,” but obviously a party with less representation in the 9th District. Especially since this is a very unusual year, just because there are so many candidates, Democrat especially, in the race already. And so it’s kind of interesting to see how the Republican candidate pool reflects the larger numbers, but obviously not as much as the Democratic candidates, because it’s such an unusual year in terms of how this congressional race is progressing.
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EMERSON LEGER: Thank you.
YONG-YU HUANG: Yeah, of course.
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EMERSON LEGER: Next, I’m joined by Daily Reporter Alex Boyko to talk about Northwestern football taking control of the 2026 transfer portal. Alex, can you share why the football transfer portal was described as chaotic, and what made this offseason different from previous years?
ALEX BOYKO: Over the past couple years, the transfer portal has become a more popular option for players that have spent a year or two somewhere else or looking for a different kind of opportunity. And in the past couple of years, usage of the portal has gone up drastically, and then some of the legislation around how it’s been used also has changed a lot this offseason. There was some drama regarding that as well. But yeah, it’s become more and more chaotic when it was introduced. Plus we’re gonna have, you know, two or three players going in and out, and now we’ve had our largest class since its introduction.
EMERSON LEGER: What did the Wildcats do this offseason that made them stand out from the rest of the Big Ten?
ALEX BOYKO: One of the primary things that have gone in their favor is player retention. Being one of the smaller teams historically in the Big 10, it’s very difficult to keep players around unless you’re doing something correctly inside the building. So having that sort of culture with coach David Braun and some of the new brass that have come in, as well as coordinator Chip Kelly coming in this year.
The culture in Evanston has really played a large impact in that. Having players with years of eligibility, like Caleb Komolafe, Griffin Wilde and Robert Fitzgerald all choose to stay here rather than go seek opportunities elsewhere, means a lot. And then that way, the team can utilize the portal as another tool and not a crutch that they rely on for team building.
EMERSON LEGER: You mentioned Chip Kelly, so how did hiring of him align and also affect the incoming transfer portal in general?
ALEX BOYKO: Coach Braun talked about this a little bit at one of his press conferences. Having an offensive coordinator invasion in place ahead of the portal in those coming days, with the move, with Zach Lujan, going out, and Chip Kelly coming in, and when, you know, the portal opens and recruitment starts after the ball game, Braun and Kelly and whoever else is involved in those meetings can institute, “You know, this is what we’re planning on doing going forward, these are our goals, this is the pedigree and success of what we think this program can be. Do you want to buy in? Are you interested in this? This is what we have to offer you.”
And the more that Northwestern can solidify what they’re trying to bring to the table and build up that culture and lean on the academic strength of the school as well, you see a lot of seniors and grad students come. You can get a Northwestern education, you can get more opportunities to play in the Big 10, go play in the new stadium as well coming up next year and we’re seeing Evanston be more of a destination. It’s really cool to see.
EMERSON LEGER: You highlighted that Northwestern football jumped in the transfer rankings despite having such a small class. What does that show about the quality of their additions?
ALEX BOYKO: We brought in the first four star recruits for 24/7 Sports in program history, and it’s still an ongoing process. The main name that came in was quarterback Aidan Chiles coming from Michigan State, but he’s not alone.
Again, this is one of the largest classes that we’ve brought in, and still it’s relatively small in the scope of the Big Ten. As of today, we’re up to 16 additions. There are programs like Wisconsin, Michigan State, that are 25-plus. There are others around the country that are upwards of 50.
And it’s not necessarily the quantity that matters, it’s the quality. So kind of going back on the idea of retention, the fact that professionals can kind of utilize the resources they have in a more curated manner, go after people that fit their vision. They can help add onto the team, versus having to reconstruct the team every year. Some of those bigger additions are now possible in the 2026 season.
EMERSON LEGER: Ultimately, where does that leave Northwestern football in the 2026 season?
ALEX BOYKO: In a good place, where, at the end of the day, it’s always about building upon. Last year was a good start on that, expectations were exceeded. And building upon that with how Braun has talked in his messaging, during press conferences and during media availability of “we’re not content with winning a bowl game, we want to go compete for Big 10 championships, for national championships.” The way to do that is to build upon what you’ve done in the past.
So whether that be bringing in new names to the coaching staff, making changes with the philosophy. The fact that we’re seeing an iterative process and growth, and it’s not like we’re pushing all of a sudden to become nationally in the course of one off season, but the fact that we’re seeing progression year after year is a very big sign.
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EMERSON LEGER: Well, thank you, Alex.
ALEX BOYCO: Thank you.
ELIZA MARTIN: Lastly, The Daily investigates how students and the Evanston community alike are mourning the loss of our Evanston Chili’s and how this development will affect surrounding businesses.
ELIZA MARTIN: I’m here with Daily Reporter and Audience Engagement Editor Edward Simon Cruz. In December, Edward reported on the closing of Evanston’s beloved Chili’s. This week, he and fellow reporter Claire Coffey are looking into Evanstonians’ reactions. Edward, can you tell me a little bit about how we found out about Chili’s closing and what that process looked like?
EDWARD SIMON CRUZ: Yeah, thanks for having me, Eliza. Good to be back at The Weekly. With regard to the Chili’s restaurant, what happened was, around the start of December, employees had this meeting with representatives from the parent company, who told them that the restaurant was going to close after Dec. 15.
Since they found out at the start of December, they only had about one and a half weeks notice, which is a pretty short turnaround by almost any metric. Now that it’s closed, that restaurant that used to sit at the corner of Maple Avenue and Clark Street leaves a dormant space at that corner. Obviously, there are still other businesses at that block, including Dogtopia of Downtown Evanston, and then the AMC Evanston 12, which still has 12 movie theater screens. There are some plans ahead for those. But in the meantime, people immediately started mourning the loss of their beloved Chili’s.
ELIZA MARTIN: Chili’s is one of several Evanston business closures that have happened in the past year. How were students and Chili’s staff reacting to this closure?
EDWARD SIMON CRUZ: So obviously, Evanston has a bunch of restaurants and places that are popular among students, especially those near the Northwestern campus. Chili’s was one of them — that closed in December. But before that, we saw Reza’s restaurant close down with basically no warning. Then we saw in October, Bob’s Pizza, which had a famous trivia competition every Tuesday, that closed down also.
Without some of those spots where students are known to gather, hang out with each other, especially for Chili’s, have drinks together … It really took away some of these cornerstones of Northwestern-slash-downtown-Evanston social life. And we’ve seen a lot of reactions from students who are looking for a new place to hang out with their friends, a new place to go, and people from Evanston, but also the neighboring Chicago area who would go to restaurants like Chili’s because it was so close to the Davis Street stop on the Purple Line. These kinds of closures do have far reaching impacts within both the Evanston community and even beyond it also.
ELIZA MARTIN: What are the plans for the space where the Chili’s was located, and how will that affect neighboring businesses such as Dogtopia and AMC?
EDWARD SIMON CRUZ: This company called Continuum Development bought the entire Church Street Plaza block of land in September. So that includes the land where Chili’s used to be; it also includes Dogtopia and AMC. And their plan at the corner of Maple and Clark — they’re going to build this big, 27 story high rise tower there, and it’s going to include about 360 apartments-slash-residential units, as well as some retail space on the ground floor. What exactly is going to be taking up that retail space? We don’t know yet.
But what we do know is that Dogtopia is set to relocate across the street, and they actually just went before the Land Use Commission to solidify their plans for that. And the AMC Evanston is going to downsize by five screens. So it’s going from 12 screens to seven. As for the 900 Clark St. tower itself, that’s the address for that new high rise, we don’t have an exact timeline for what’s going to happen there yet. What we do know is that Continuum, the developers, they’re hoping to have public hearings at the end of the first quarter, and whatever happens after that is going to require final approval from Evanston City Council.
ELIZA MARTIN: Is there anything else you’d like to add, or any special farewells you’d like to say to Chili’s?
EDWARD SIMON CRUZ: You know, I only went to Chili’s once, and I was actually planning to visit again at the end of Fall Quarter, and then we had to postpone that visit. So I’m mourning the loss of, in some ways, what never was. So here’s hoping we can make up that happy hour somewhere else.
ELIZA MARTIN: Thank you, Edward.
EDWARD SIMON CRUZ: Thank you Eliza. I really appreciate it.
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ELIZA MARTIN: Here are the other top headlines from the week:
Leading Democratic congressional candidates purchase cable TV ads
MLK commemoration panel explores ‘Beloved Community,’ current events, preserving Black history
The Dolphin Show debuts ‘Footloose’ for its 83rd annual production
Men’s Basketball: Northwestern secures first conference win in victory over USC
And ‘Folk Around and Find Out’: Evanston Folk Choir celebrates one year of singing
From The Daily Northwestern, I’m Eliza Martin.
EMERSON LEGER: And I’m Emerson Leger.
Thank you for listening to another episode of The Weekly. This episode was reported by Eliza Martin, Emerson Leger, Edward Simon Cruz, Yong-Yu Huang and Alex Boyko and produced by Eliza Martin and Emerson Leger.
The Audio Editor is Ruby Dowling. The Multimedia Managing Editors are Femi Horrall, Yong-Yu Huang and Jonah McClure. The Editor in Chief is Emily Lichty.
Our theme music is “Night Owl” by Broke for Free, used under a Creative Commons Attribution License and provided by the Free Music Archive.
Follow us on X and Instagram @thedailynu.
Email: [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
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