Kat Abughazaleh loses bid for U.S. House seat

Kat Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old political newcomer whose scrappy House campaign slogans “What if we didn’t suck?” and “I’m done waiting for change” reflected a push for new party leadership, has lost her competitive Democratic primary in Illinois’ 9th Congressional District to Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss.

Since the Chicago-area district is drawn to heavily favor Democrats, Biss is all but destined to win the U.S. House seat in the November midterm elections. 

Biss was the front-runner for much of the race, with Abughazaleh and state Sen. Laura Fine rounding out the top tier. In the final days of campaigning, Abughazaleh started to close the gap and Fine dropped deeper into third place. Just a week out from the primary, as much as 15 percent of the district’s Democratic electorate remained undecided.

Biss won roughly 30 percent of the district’s Democratic primary electorate, coming ahead of Abughazaleh by fewer than 4,000 votes, while Fine came in at a distant third, according to Decision Desk HQ. The results tracked polls in the closing weeks of the race.

Speaking to a room full of supporters just past midnight, Abughazaleh said, “The work isn’t over. There are progressives all over the country who are taking a chance just like we did and we have to help them win, no matter how hard it is. We have to send a message to this administration and anyone who enables them, and I’m talking to them right now: You and your jobs are not safe. This is the start and not the end. We are not tolerating the status quo. You cannot kidnap and kill us and our neighbors. You cannot start illegal wars. You cannot trample on our rights and see our lives as a means for profit. We will continue to come back and every single loss like this one just makes the path easier for the next person who takes the same chance.”

Biss is set to replace retiring Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky, who has held the House seat since 1999. Her longtime tenure inspired Abughazaleh to enter the race on her 26th birthday last year. At the time, Schakowsky had not yet announced her plans to retire. Once she did, Biss, Fine and others entered the race and the field swelled to more than a dozen candidates. 

“We’re going to stand up, we’re going to fight,” Biss said in his victory speech. “We will not back down, and we will fight for the progressive values that are the values, not only of this district, but of this whole country.”

Abughazaleh said she decided to challenge Schakowsky because the 2024 presidential election underscored the need for proactive generational change. Abughazaleh was referring to Vice President Kamala Harris replacing President Joe Biden on the ticket, but only at the eleventh hour. The Democrats went on to raise and spend $1.5 billion during a whirlwind campaign, but Harris still ultimately lost to now-President Donald Trump. 

“When Biden was in power, it was like, ‘Well, we have to keep up a strong front, so you can’t challenge the party.’ And now that Trump’s there, it’s like, ‘Well, we have to show we’re united, so we can’t challenge the party.’ If now is not the time to challenge who is in power, when will there ever be a time?” Abughazaleh told The 19th in an interview last year. 

Biss has been the mayor of Evanston, a city of about 75,000 just north of Chicago, since May 2021. Before that, he was a state senator from 2013 to 2019 and a state representative from 2011 to 2013. In 2018, Biss competed in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, finishing behind current Gov. JB Pritzker. 

Biss will likely be a reliably progressive-leaning vote in Congress. He wrote in an editorial board interview with the Evanston Round Table that “ICE, as it exists today, must be abolished. No one should be allowed to commit murder with impunity.” He is the grandson of Holocaust survivors and supports putting conditions on U.S. military aid to Israel over its war in Gaza. He has said he will work to reverse Trump and congressional Republicans’ cuts to Medicaid in the “big, beautiful” tax bill they passed last year.