A progressive torch is up for grabs in Illinois’ deep-blue 7th Congressional District, which has been represented by Danny Davis since 1997.

Among the baker’s dozen Democrats who have lined up to succeed the retiring congressman, two previously tried and failed to unseat him, and another wasn’t yet born when the 84-year-old U.S. representative first took office.

While all 13 Democratic primary candidates praised Davis’ legacy, they each told the Sun-Times their diverse district, winding from Englewood up the Loop and west to Austin and several suburbs, is due for a fresh voice in Washington to counter Trump administration policies and address the rising cost of living.

Davis himself suggested that voice should come from another familiar West Side face, state Rep. La Shawn Ford, whom the congressman endorsed while announcing his retirement last summer.

Ford, advocate for regulating hemp products

Since 2007, Ford has served in the Illinois General Assembly, where he chairs the House appropriations committee for higher education. He’s also pushed for supervised drug-use sites to reduce fatal overdoses, and for state regulation of hemp-derived THC products that are set to be federally banned later this year.

“Being a state representative was, I don’t want to say a training ground, but it taught me about how to organize and work with people to get things done,” said Ford, a real estate broker who ran unsuccessfully for Chicago mayor in 2019.

He faced federal bank fraud charges that were dropped before he pleaded guilty in 2014 to a lesser misdemeanor for failing to pay about $3,700 in income taxes.

“I don’t know anybody else in America that has ever been given a misdemeanor for underpaying taxes. But that’s what happened,” said Ford, who once called on former Gov. Pat Quinn to deploy the National Guard in Chicago to address gun violence in 2010 — long before President Donald Trump’s effort to federalize troops for city patrols.

“It put a spotlight on crime… You need people that’s bold, that will say things, but listen to what their constituents say,” Ford said. “This is not something that I would call for anymore.”

He’s not the only candidate carrying name recognition and a little political baggage into the March 17 primary.

Second try for Conyears-Ervin

Two-term Chicago City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin is making her second run for the seat two years after challenging Davis and finishing a distant runner-up.

Before that, Conyears-Ervin was an executive at Allstate, and she championed child-care initiatives during a term in the Illinois House. She also cares for her disabled sister who relies on federal food assistance and other social services that have been scaled back under Trump.

“I think about people that don’t have help like my sister does,” said Conyears-Ervin, who’s endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union. “Those are the things that drive me, and I don’t believe there’s any other candidate in this race that has that testimony.”

Last year, Conyears-Ervin agreed to pay a $30,000 fine to the Chicago Board of Ethics to settle two charges, including that she fired workers in the treasurer’s office who objected to her using city resources to promote Christian-themed prayer events on social media.

A separate probe determined Conyears-Ervin directed a city employee to plan a series of church appearances to advance the treasurer’s “personal and political objectives.”

Conyears-Ervin denies any wrongdoing, saying she’s “confident we would have won” the ethics cases but settled because she couldn’t afford the legal cost to fight them.

“At the end of the day, it was all about… me going to church as a political figure,” she said.

Collins, anti-gun violence activist

Finishing third behind Davis and Conyears-Ervin in the 2024 primary was Kina Collins, a less impressive showing for the 34-year-old community organizer than during her 2022 challenge, when Collins finished about six percentage points shy of Davis.

In her fourth run for the seat, Collins, an anti-gun violence activist, says her candidacy has “awakened part of the district.”

“Our campaign has been the quintessential fight in the Democratic Party, where people have clamored for our party leadership to do more, to have more of a pulse on these communities, particularly working-class communities and communities of color,” said Collins, who served on the Biden-Harris transition team’s task force on gun violence prevention.

Former Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin brings his own history with Davis to the race. He served as Davis’ chief of staff for the first decade of the congressman’s tenure.

“We got a whole lot of good things done during that period,” Boykin said, pointing to federal job programs and legislation aimed at creating opportunities for people leaving prison. “It tells you what we’re going to do when we get to Congress — we’re going to work on legislation that lowers costs for everybody.”

Boykin has worked in private practice as an attorney and mounted unsuccessful bids for county board president and circuit court clerk since losing his commissioner seat in 2018.

He butted heads with Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, leading the fight to repeal the county’s notorious, short-lived soda tax before she supported the labor-backed firebrand who unseated Boykin: future Mayor Brandon Johnson.

Labor leader Anthony Driver

Anthony Driver brings his own union might to the 7th District race. He’s the executive director of the influential Service Employees International Union Illinois State Council.

Driver was also the first president of the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, where he remains a commissioner. He temporarily relocated to Milwaukee in 2024 in a Democratic get-out-the-vote effort in support of Kamala Harris.

“I realized that I love being a labor leader, I love being a commission president, but I want to figure out how I can put myself forward in a different light that can help unify our communities, unify our district and also push the Democratic Party, which I care a lot about, in a different direction,” Driver said.

Rory Hoskins brings deep political ties to the race as well, as the first Black mayor of Forest Park.

“I’ve been mayor for about six years, served in a crisis time [COVID-19], and that just comes with different set of experiences that most candidates can’t match,” said Hoskins, a Texas native who earned a master’s degree in social work at Loyola and served on an advisory committee of the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office.

Jason Friedman doesn’t have public office experience, but he says his legal and real estate expertise lend themselves to congressional success.

He’s an owner and former president of Friedman Properties, a massive River North real estate firm with deep ties to several mayoral administrations. He once worked under Rahm Emanuel in former President Bill Clinton’s administration before returning to the Chicago mega-law firm Kirkland & Ellis and then the family business.

“I often tell our tenants… We have a plaque outside every one of our buildings that says Friedman Properties — it has my name on it, our phone number. If you have a problem, pick up the phone, give me the call, I will be here for you,” Friedman said. “The same translates true to public service. That’s the kind of person, the public servant I want to be.”

Friedman is also bringing big money into the race. His campaign had raised more than $1.8 million entering 2026, more than double his next most prolific fundraising opponent.

That would be University of Chicago Medical Center emergency physician Thomas Fisher, whose campaign has hauled in more than $626,000 to boost a platform centered on improving health care access.

“I just couldn’t sit quietly any longer, knowing that there’s going to be a body count for the changes that are being made, and if I stayed where I was, all I could do was try to fix these people once they’ve been harmed,” said Fisher, who served as a White House Fellow under the Obama administration during the rollout of the Affordable Care Act.

Two of the youngest and most progressive candidates on the ballot have also proven effective fundraisers.

Reed Showalter, ex-DOJ lawyer

Reed Showalter — a former Federal Trade Commission attorney, U.S. Justice Department counsel and White House National Economic Council advisor who stepped down after Trump returned to office — has raised more than $250,000.

“Affordability cannot happen unless we are willing to take on corporate power [and] get money out of politics, but more than that, have a government that is willing to sidestep and step into markets affirmatively and say, ‘we’re going to break up giant monopolies, we’re going to stop people from being price-gouged on their health care,” said Showalter, 32.

Immigrant rights organizer Anabel Mendoza, a 27-year-old daughter of immigrants, has raised more than $128,000 to run “at a time when ICE is quite literally invading our communities, ripping apart families.”

“Too often we’ve seen that politics has functioned for the benefit of the wealthy… and that is something I’m fighting to change,” she said.

Human resources worker and improv performer Jazmin Robinson says her professional background translates to addressing the nation’s health care crisis: “My whole job is doing this — it’s designing employee-specific benefits, but also company benefits and policies.”

David Ehrlich, an adjunct lecturer at UIC’s College of Urban Planning & Public Affairs, cites his experience as a senior analyst for the U.S. Government Accountability Office: “When you combine my independence with my experience and my insider knowledge, all of those make the best choice to get things done immediately.”

Technology engineer Felix Tello said he’d deploy an app for constituents to weigh in on how he’d cast votes in Congress: “Why not use technology to communicate with your congresspeople directly, like a real direct referendum on each bill — and from the comfort of your home.”

The Democratic primary winner will face the Republican nominee in November: Patricia “P Rae” Easley or Chad Koppie.