As Chicago fast approaches its next election season in March, candidates are announcing their bids for public office. And with Congressman Danny Davis declaring his retirement in July after nearly 30 years representing the 7th district, several are running for his seat.
Danica Leigh is one of the contenders for the 7th congressional district. The South Loop resident is running for public office for the first time in an effort to change a culture of passivity.
“I’m tired of looking to leaders, whether they be business leaders or representatives, asking them to do more and hearing them say, ‘We can’t’ or ‘There’s nothing we can do’ or ‘You just don’t understand,’” Leigh said. “I believe there are actionable things progressive members of Congress can be doing right now to apply pressure and make life better for working Americans. I thought I’d throw my hat in the ring and give it a shot.”
To Leigh, these action items include advocating for expanding access to universal pre-K and more funding to train doctors.
When it comes to children who are too young to attend kindergarten, “studies show that the return on investment for early childhood education is massive,” Leigh said. “If someone gets access to pre-K, their odds of staying out of prison, getting a good job and getting healthcare go up dramatically. While there’s an upfront cost, it will pay dividends to society and the economy overall.”
Part of Leigh’s platform is advocating for people of all ages to have access to education. On her campaign website, she mentions wanting to equalize funding for schools across her district’s ZIP codes, forgive student loans, expand programs for those with special education needs and who are learning English, and increase job training opportunities.
While Leigh said that healthcare affordability is a hot topic right now — and that several factors contribute to it, like a lack of federal funding and inaccessibility to services for patients — “It’s also an issue of supply and demand. There aren’t enough medical providers, so let’s start training more. I think that’s a much more digestible policy than saying ‘universal healthcare,’” Leigh said. “It’s a very hard thing for someone to block more family practice doctors in the community. I think that’s an easy win.”
Other healthcare investments that Leigh would prioritize if elected include expanding affordable health insurance, plus accessing more funding for community health centers and residency slots in underserved communities. She also wants to address social drivers of health, like affordable housing, access to food and public safety.
Leigh added that, with more doctors, patients can get treatment for ailments before they progress and become more expensive to treat.
“It’ll also reduce cost in the long-term. That’ll help us get towards balancing the budget, which I think is a huge problem,” Leigh said. Her other economic priorities include reducing national debt without cutting public services, taxing the ultra-wealthy, and strengthening antitrust laws.
The effects of healthcare funding are something Leigh has seen firsthand while working at Rush Hospital. Though currently unemployed, Leigh previously served as Rush’s project manager for business development, then program manager for network development.
“My job was building the larger healthcare network for Rush to support the community,” Leigh said. “I repeatedly have been forced to confront the life expectancy disparities in the 7th district firsthand in my work there.”
According to the Chicago Health Atlas, residents living in the city’s Loop neighborhood have a life expectancy of about 87, while those in Austin, on average, live to nearly 72. Average life expectancy in West and East Garfield Park is respectively about 66 and 77 years, while North Lawndale’s is nearly 68 years.
“That it is so unequal, and chronic diseases are the biggest driver of it. So, I think getting more doctors out in the community, especially primary care doctors, is a really good solution,” Leigh said. “These are federal problems that are going to require federal investment.”
Leigh has also worked at the University of Chicago, where she served as chief of staff of the faculty practice, and later, clinical affairs.
While she emphasizes that she didn’t accomplish any of her successes alone, Leigh said she helped implement a new compensation plan for University of Chicago physicians — something that required building consensus among departments and stakeholders.
“I think my strongest skill is that I’m really good at exploring other people’s perspectives, hearing them out and finding compromises that can get stuff over the finish line in a really actionable way,” Leigh said.
At Rush, Leigh said she helped facilitate a joint venture with a physical therapy company that incorporated 65 outpatient facilities into the hospital’s network.
“Everything takes a village,” Leigh said of her successes. “It has been the secret to the success of my career. I fundamentally believe I have something I can learn from every single person I interact with. Everyone’s got their own subject matter expertise, and I think that is the optimal way to go about getting things done.”
Leigh said she plans to get out into 7th congressional district communities to hear more about what constituents struggle with day-to-day, and what they want their next representative to prioritize.
“There’s a tendency to want to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks,” Leigh said. “I really believe in a focused, strategic approach in getting and identifying actionable, difficult-to-argue-against policies introduced, then building the narrative around them and shepherding them through the legislative process.”
According to the Federal Election Commission, other candidates who are running for Davis’ Democratic seat include Richard Boykin, Jerico J. Brown, Melissa Conyears-Ervin, Jason Friedman, La Shawn Ford, Rory Hoskins, Tekita Martinez, John McCombs and Emelia Rosie — who’s not registered with a political party.