The July 31 announcement that long-time 7th District Congressman Danny K. Davis was not running for re-election has changed the local political dynamics in more ways than one.
Don Harmon, State Senate President and Democratic Oak Park Township Committeeman, said Sunday that he will be circulating nominating petitions for the party office of 7th District State Central Committeeman, an office Davis has held since 1998.
Meanwhile, Harmon’s counterpart in the Illinois General Assembly, House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch has started actively campaigning for the post and has secured an endorsement from Davis and 18 other political figures, including River Forest Village President Cathy Adduci and State Rep. LaShawn Ford.
Minutes after Davis’s July 31 press conference in which he endorsed Ford for his seat in Congress, Welch released a statement trumpeting “Endorsement List Grows” for his campaign for Davis’s state central committeeman seat.
The endorsements were bannered on Instagram and X, and a copy of the press release was posted on the Democrats for the Illinois House website. Under the headline “The momentum is growing!” with Welch’s trademark exclamation point, he framed his running for the position as fostering “strong leadership, winning coalitions and the will to fight to make people’s lives a little easier.”
Nominating petitions for all offices on the March 17, 2026 primary ballot may be circulated for signatures starting Tuesday, Aug. 5. They must be filed with state election officials between Oct. 27 and Nov. 3.
Monday morning Davis confirmed he was stepping down from the State Central Committee next year and was endorsing Welch for the seat. “I haven’t had a press release put out yet, but I will,” he said.
Davis did not go into detail regarding why he endorsed Welch, although he noted that Proviso Township “is a good part of the (7th) district.”
“The state central committee is supposed to help develop policy for the party and help organize the area,” Davis said. “To (foster) participation and get registration to vote.”
Davis said he expected Harmon to run for the central committeeman seat, saying, “Don told me if I didn’t run, he would. I’m not surprised he’s running.
Oak Park Township Committeewoman Eileen Lynch said Sunday that Harmon was traveling on legislative business and unavailable to speak directly to the media. She forwarded a brief statement acknowledging the recent political developments, and a one sentence statement from Harmon saying he was “planning to circulate petitions as I have in the past several elections, and I’ll evaluate the field as we approach filing (deadline).”
For 15 years, Harmon has eyed a seat on the powerful Democratic State Central Committee. Twice in the time period — in 2009 and in 2022 — Harmon has stepped back after Davis chose to run for re-election, saying he would not oppose Davis.
“I didn’t know what the congressman’s intentions were when I collected the signatures,” Harmon told Wednesday Journal in 2022. There was similar uncertainty in 2009, when Davis said the misunderstanding was due to his waiting until the last moment to file his own nominating petitions.
If Harmon does in fact choose to run for committeeman, it would set up a contest that would be both very expensive and likely be portrayed as a public internal fissure in the state Democratic Party heading into an unusually high interest 2026 general election season.
Both men have the money and political bases to stake a claim to the seat. Harmon has the backing of the Democratic Party of Oak Park. He had $413,710 in his state central committeeman fund as of June 30. He created the campaign fund in November 2017.
Welch is the Democratic Committeeman for Proviso Township, which is immediately west of Oak Park.
Welch has clearly been working for some time behind the scenes to secure crucial political support outside his and Harmon’s power bases. Besides Ford, who represents North Austin and part of the near west suburbs, Welch has secured the support of four Chicago politicians from areas on the West Side of Chicago crucial to being elected in the 7th Congressional District, including long-time 37th Ward Alderwoman Emma Mitts and recently retired 27th Ward Alderman Walter Burnett.
He is also endorsed by State Representative Jawaharial ‘Omar’ Williams (D-10) and State Representative Kam Buckner (D-26). William’s district covers parts of Austin, East Garfield Park, West Garfield Park and the near west side. Buckner represents Bronzeville and parts of downtown.
