State Senator Robert Peters is one of 10 Democratic candidates vying to replace Robin Kelly as the U.S. representative from Illinois’s Second Congressional District—which includes East Hyde Park—in next week’s primary election. The Maroon spoke to Peters to learn more about his campaign and political background.
Primary election day in Illinois is March 17. Early voting will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Reynolds Club Read the Maroon’s guide to the Illinois primary election ballot here.
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Chicago Maroon: Could you start by telling me about your background, where you grew up, and how those experiences shaped your worldview?
Robert Peters: I grew up in Hyde Park. I was born hard of hearing, developed a speech impediment, [and] was adopted into a complicated household. My dad was a civil rights lawyer, and my mom was a social worker. She had a lot of mental health issues and coped through alcoholism. So, I really grew up with a strong community around me, which I tend to describe as a village. There were neighbors who had a place for me during times of need—a couch, a bed, food. It gave me an appreciation for what an “extended family” means, which isn’t necessarily biological.
I wasn’t the easiest-going kid and acted out a lot, so I was told that I wouldn’t graduate eighth grade, high school, or college. I got kicked out of school [and sent] to another school. My parents were told they should’ve never adopted me. But my dad was really good at framing things around the idea of always trying. People will tell you what you can and cannot do, but it’s not up to them to decide—you have to figure it out on your own. I did that and failed a lot, but also succeeded a lot, because I tried.
That [mindset] helped me become a community organizer, which is really risky. It’s risky to ask people about their life and to talk about your own story. We all have varying degrees of different oppressions that we deal with. Finding a throughline between everybody and their stories drove me through the community organizing space.
CM: How did you first become involved in community organizing? Was it always a goal of yours?
RP: No, not at all. I got into this work because of the Great Recession. When I got out of college, I couldn’t find a job—I just interned, volunteered, and slept on my dad’s couch. My parents had split up. I was upset about the world, the economy was crashing on itself, and I cared a lot about politics, so I did political life for two years.
Then my dad passed away when I was 26, and that was devastating.… I did sales at a tech company for a couple years [and] simultaneously, there were a lot of things changing: the post–Occupy Wall Street fight [was happening], Black Lives Matter was coming onto the scene, [and] George Zimmerman got off for the murder of Trayvon Martin.
Then my mom, to be blunt, drank herself to death. That was a shock to the system. I wanted to do something to change the world. I’d left that work after my dad died—I wanted to enjoy my 20s—but I still had a deep connection to community organizing. Before my dad passed away, I did a training with an [organization] that I would inevitably join many years later.
CM: What organization was that?
RP: I organized at the People’s Lobby, which was part of a broader national network called People’s Action. I then worked at Chicago Votes, worked on alderman campaigns, and became unemployed again. Being unemployed in America is very expensive and very difficult.
Amanda Weaver, a friend of mine, was the field director at the time for Reclaim Chicago.… She agitated me to jump into the work, and I [realized] that I wanted to be political director—it changed my life trajectory. That’s where I started the Coalition to End Money Bond, [practiced] civil disobedience… and organized around multiple elections.
When this historic [Illinois] Senate seat opened up—it was held by Barack Obama and my predecessor, Kwame Raoul—I thought a lot about what it meant and how to govern as a progressive in almost a theoretical way. How do you [contribute to] movement[s] and govern? [Since] I became the state senator, I’ve been trying to show that you can be progressive and actually get a lot of things done. There [are] over 120 bills [that] I’ve gotten [passed], as well as budget successes, and I moved into leadership. It’s been a really effective time in the Senate. Now we have challenges that go beyond what the state can do, and that’s where Congress comes in.
CM: You mentioned being “progressive,” and your campaign has been endorsed by Senators Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I–Vt., A.B. ’64). What does that term mean to you, and how might you respond to voters who wouldn’t self-identify as part of that wing of the Democratic Party?
RP: Being poor is expensive in America. Being a progressive is to say it won’t be anymore—you don’t have to worry about going bankrupt because of your healthcare [or] losing your home because you can’t pay your property taxes and rent. You don’t need to worry about losing your school, because it’s fully funded, or retiring, because retirement will be there for you. We’re taxing the rich to make sure that people have what they need.
Oftentimes, we get to ideological talking points, but it’s not necessarily rocket science. We’re making life easier for people who are just trying to get by, giving them and their kids the comfort, safety, and dignity that they deserve. I don’t know how someone can be against making sure that people have the level of comfort they deserve. If you’re caring about a bunch of rich people and what they think… that’s not in the interest of people who, right now, are just struggling to get clean drinking water.
CM: You mentioned getting a lot done while you were a state senator. What are you most proud of achieving during that time, and what challenges did you face?
RP: I have a strong track record of getting things done. I’m very proud of ending cash bail. We had a system that said that if you’re poor, you get locked up, and if you’re rich, you [can] pay your way out. It had nothing to do with public safety and everything to do with how much money you had. We said, ‘Let’s get rid of that and create a system where safety is at the root.’ It was a piece of legislation that had a huge coalition: gender-based violence organizations, survivors and victims of violent crimes, civil liberties groups, [and] people who care about the incarcerated.
The Illinois Healthcare Protection Act took on the insurance industry and ended step therapy. Most people associate step therapy with the insurance industry dictating treatment over their doctor. Insurance could put someone on a cheaper or worse treatment that was required to fail before patients could go on the doctor’s [recommended] treatment. Now, when the doctor recommends a treatment, it should be given to the patient.
The other one is prioritization for anybody experiencing a mental health crisis. Now, for the first 72 hours [of treatment], they can get the treatment they need in a hospital bed and the insurance company can’t reject them [for coverage].
I’d also say violence prevention work—over a quarter billion dollars invested [through the Reimagine Public Safety Act, which Peters co-sponsored], building an office of firearm violence prevention in the [Illinois] Department of Human Services—was something I led and worked on. I put hundreds of millions of dollars in safety net hospitals and used capital funds to make sure that our hospitals are strong and modernized, including La Rabida Children’s Hospital [in Woodlawn].
CM: If elected, what are the biggest issues you’re hoping to tackle, both within your district and on a national level?
RP: This is the most working-class district in the state and one of the most working-class districts in the whole country. Forty to 50 percent of people are on Medicaid, and many people who aren’t are on some level of subsidies that come from ObamaCare.
[As of 2025 Q1, 36.4 percent of individuals in Illinois’s Second Congressional District were enrolled in Medicaid.]
We have hundreds of thousands of people on SNAP benefits and up to 50,000 people possibly losing those benefits. Most people, particularly in the south suburbs, are spending 40 to 50 percent of their income on property taxes—they’re on limited income while trying to pay ridiculously high property taxes. We have massive environmental issues, and people are struggling with flooding.
[I want to] undo the harm that’s been done by Trump’s budget [legislation] and by Congress. Then on top of that, [I want to] move to pass some of the more transformative pieces of legislation that we need.
There’s a whole thing around impeachment, but the administration has also put very reactionary people into different levels of government. I think it’s about restoring a lot of the things that we’ve lost, while also pushing ourselves further, and making sure that we hold this administration accountable across the board so we don’t have a bunch of groypers [supporters of the far-right streamer Nick Fuentes] and right-wing children dictating the people’s needs.
CM: What are your thoughts on the new Obama Presidential Center?
RP: The Obama Center is a historic thing. I take a lot of pride in that the first Black president in this country comes from Chicago. The Obama Center really represents the culmination of that history. It is incumbent on all of us to make sure that the community is protected. We were able to see success with the Woodlawn Community Benefits Agreement work.
[In September 2025, the Chicago City Council passed the Jackson Park Housing Pilot, which reserves 25 lots near the Obama Center for affordable housing and provides tax relief to residents. However, occupants of a Woodlawn apartment building were told last week that they may be forced to move after a prospective buyer indicated that they plan to demolish the building or renovate it and raise the rent.]
My hope is that we can get something done in South Shore as well, because we want to make sure that the community does legitimately benefit from something that is truly historic. There’s something unique about Hyde Park and the South Side—there’s [the] DuSable [Museum] on one side and [the] Obama [Center] on the other. There’s no better story to tell about the city of Chicago than to say from DuSable to Obama, we have some real history here.
It’s a very real fear that gentrification and change could come. At the same time, I don’t think it’s an either-or situation. We should take pride in helping to elect the first Black president, in our relationship to Michelle Obama, and we should make sure our communities are thriving. Some of these things are structural from before even the Obama Center. South Shore, during the Great Recession, had the highest rate of foreclosure, followed by the highest rate of evictions. These struggles have been going on for decades. Making sure that people have the safety and comfort they have goes well beyond just simply the incoming Obama Center.
[While South Shore did have a high number of foreclosures during the Great Recession—1,423 between 2007 and 2009, per a Woodstock Institute analysis—it did not have the highest number or rate of foreclosures in Chicago or Cook County.]
CM: Is there anything you’d like the UChicago community to know about your campaign? Many students have the choice to vote here or in their home states—why should they care about and vote in this race?
RP: Young people at UChicago have a unique opportunity to dictate where this country is going. Illinois is not just any other state. It’s one of the most influential states within Democratic Party politics, so we have a unique opportunity to dictate the direction of this party and election across the ballot.
On top of that, I represent the University of Chicago. I grew up in Hyde Park. The attack on academia has been absolutely brutal. It’s been hurtful for students, particularly student speech, faculty, and funding. Universities are retreating from many of the missions that they spent years telling people they cared about. We need people in Congress who are going to actually protect academia from this right-wing, reactionary attack. Students should know that we want to make sure that the institution that they belong to is living up to what they promised that they were going to be, and that this [presidential] administration is causing less harm when it comes to attacks on academia.
CM: You’ve been pretty outspoken about fundraising—what’s your approach?
RP: We’ve built a grassroots network; we have over 31,000 small dollar donors, with an average contribution under $21. In this country, there’s an increasing level of Trump-aligned billionaires playing in Democratic party primaries, and the Second Congressional District really stands out. [The American Israel Public Affairs Committee] has put in $5 million, and their main focus, right now, has been to be pretty outspoken for a pretty unpopular war and unconditional military aid for [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s war machine.
[As of March 10, the Affordable Chicago Now! Super PAC, which has been linked to AIPAC, had spent $3.2 million in support of Donna Miller, one of Peters’s opponents. Many of Miller’s individual donors have also contributed to AIPAC or its affiliates, according to the Hyde Park Herald.]
AI companies have given Jesse Jackson Jr. $1 million. Then we have crypto, which is spending almost $800,000 attacking me. FairShake [a pro-cryptocurrency super PAC] is mad because I’ve explicitly worked to regulate crypto, and they want to punish people who want to regulate crypto. These people don’t want to be held accountable—they want as much money as possible. They have a deep, deep relationship with Trump and the Trump administration, and I don’t think that they should be playing in Democratic Party politics.
There’s no way you can fight Trump while taking Trump’s money. When we think about a pro-war set of lobbies, oftentimes we just talk about AIPAC… but we need to talk about the role AI is going to have in the war machine.
OpenAI, which made ChatGPT, is making bank with the Defense Department. The question is, how outspoken is Donna Miller going to be about Netanyahu’s machine and Jesse Jackson Jr. about OpenAI and states regulating AI? On top of that, are we going to have people hold crypto accountable so [it’s] not being invasive in our communities? I take a lot of pride that those questions don’t need to be asked of me in this campaign. Joe Schmo who gave me $15—all he wants is his healthcare, and that’s what we’re going to fight for.
CM: How are you feeling about your campaign trajectory with the primary coming up next week?
RP: I feel good, but I will say, when you’re taking on $7 million of evil money, it’s a tough fight. I’ve taken on the insurance industry and fights around cash bail. I did not become a state senator and I’m not running for Congress for easy fights. People deserve representatives who want to create change, understand that it’s going to be hard, and who organize [around] that. We have an amazing coalition, and we’re going to do what we need to do on March 17. But I also want to be clear: when a bunch of billionaires who have unlimited funds want to come after you, you’re going to be in a dogfight.
CM: Do you have any advice for people who hope to effect political change? Do you think running for office is the best way to do so?
RP: It’s not about running for office. Be in relationship with the community that’s being impacted on the ground. Take risks, but not in isolation. Figure out who you are before you figure out what you want to do. When I was in college, I wanted to be a journalist, then I wanted to direct art of some sort, then I wanted to be a writer, then I wanted to be a historian… then I found out I was unemployed and just wanted a job. The main thing that matters if you want to create change [is to] do it in community.
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March 11, 2026 at 05:23PM
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