After Rep. La Shawn Ford announced last month that he won’t be seeking reelection in the Illinois House of Representative’s 8th District — and is instead running for U.S. Congress, a race in which he was recently endorsed by Danny Davis — candidates are stepping up to fill Ford’s seat after his 17 years in the position.
The main contest for the seat will be the Democratic primary next March.
One contender is Shantel Franklin, 31, a real estate agent who recently took leave from serving as legislative liaison for the Illinois Attorney General’s Office to focus on her grassroots campaign, which she announced Aug. 8.
“Experience from being in public service and my community-lived experience motivated me,” Franklin said of why she decided to run. “It’s really not about the seat for me, it’s about expanding and continuing the work that I’ve already been doing.”
Franklin, an Austin resident, was born and raised on Chicago’s West Side. She experienced homelessness growing up and attended eight schools from kindergarten through twelfth grade.
In Franklin’s senior year at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, she worked an internship at the Office of John Cullerton, who was Illinois Senate President at the time. That started Franklin’s decade-long career in public service, as she then got a master’s degree in public affairs at Indiana University.
Upon graduating, Franklin worked for the Lake County government before joining the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, where she’s worked for the last three years. There, she has served as a legislative liaison, working with legislators in Springfield to advocate for laws, like bills for consumer protection, client victim compensation and banning assault weapons. Franklin has experience identifying sponsors for bills, testifying before a committee and budgetary know-how, which she said would serve her well to find available money in Springfield at a time when federal funding is questionable.
“I know all of the players down there, from the lobbyists to the elected officials to the advocates, even the staff. To have that already-built-in infrastructure where I know a lot of the people, negotiations become a lot easier,” Franklin said of her experience at the state capitol. “You can say anything to get elected, but it takes knowing how to navigate that space to actually get bills passed.”
Five years ago, Franklin got her real estate license. She also owns and rents property in and outside of Austin, affectionately calling herself a “landlady.”
“I’ve helped families to build generational wealth through homeownership and, on top of that, promote economic development in the very area that I live in,” Franklin said, adding that she’s sold several homes in Austin, as well as other Chicago neighborhoods and surrounding suburbs. “It’s been such a pleasure for me, full circle, to have gone from homelessness to now providing, not only housing, but safe, affordable housing for people.”
Like Ford, who’s also a licensed real estate agent, Franklin said her real estate experience gives her perspective into two different communities.
“I’m the best of both worlds — not only somebody who knows the fight and understanding of individuals who have grown up dealing with poverty but also being able to connect and communicate with individuals who have been successful in business,” Franklin said.
Public safety and healthcare
While Franklin is passionate about affordable housing and economic development in her district, she has other priorities if elected as state representative, like public safety and accessible healthcare.
Addressing the former, Franklin mentions a teen gathering of over 1,000 young people earlier this month in Austin that resulted in a shooting that left two dead and 11 wounded. She said, if elected, she’d want to access more funding and resources for organizations working on violence prevention in the 8th District, specifically when it comes to engaging youth.
Franklin said she’ll also work with her colleagues in the general assembly to fight the federal decline in healthcare access.
Franklin is community coordinator for Peace Runners 773, a nonprofit wellness organization that’s fighting for health equity on Chicago’s West Side. She said her advocacy and relationships in Springfield helped the nonprofit secure a $100,000 grant. If elected, Franklin said she hopes to continue fighting for similar funding for the West Side, but at a higher level.
An example of such work at a larger scale could be navigating the financial crisis at West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, where a majority of patients live in Austin.
“It’s extremely disappointing to hear that a hospital is losing or shutting down very critical services to people in the community because of leadership that has not been transparent or open,” Franklin said.
She said she’s pleased to see Ford try to secure more state funding, something she would emulate if she was elected to his position. She added that she would want to better understand the scope of the situation before taking a firm stance: “I don’t like finger-pointing . . . I think that we all come to the table, we understand the issues and we find a path forward.”
While Ford and Franklin seem to share many of the same values, Franklin said she’d hope to take his passion for workforce development and help it lead to physical development. She mentions the Aspire Center for Workforce Innovation, which opened in June after Ford helped secure $10 million in state funds for the project in its early stages. She said she hopes the rest of Madison Street, where the Aspire Center sits, experiences a greater rate of economic development.
Franklin adds that, if elected, she’d continue Ford’s workforce development efforts, especially for those reentering society after incarceration.
‘People over politics’
Though she’s still selling real estate, Franklin has taken leave as legislative liaison for the Illinois Attorney General’s Office to focus on campaigning for the 8th District seat. She said she’s personally walking her district, door knocking, attending community meetings and hosting listening tours to hear what constituents want from their state representative.
“The boots-on-the-ground work looks different in the actual community than it does in Springfield,” Franklin said. “The best way to approach it is to listen way more than you speak,” she added. “I understand that the issues that are going on in La Grange are going to be different from the issues that are going on in Austin.”
One of Franklin’s slogans is “people over politics,” and she said she’s making civic engagement a main part of her campaign.
“I’m passionate about civic engagement as well, and it’s important for me to have people understand what a state representative does,” she said.
Community engagement is nothing new for Franklin. Before working as a legislative liaison, Franklin was a faith-based community outreach liaison, where she shared information about the state attorney’s office with locals. She also recently graduated from a community leadership fellowship designed to strengthen leaders on Chicago’s West Side. As a part of that program, she helped organize a carnival with over 300 attendees at POPCourts! Community Plaza in June.
Franklin is the block club president for the eastern stretch of Ferdinand Street in Austin. Though it took years, she said she helped transform the block from an “open-air drug market” to a more peaceful area.
“I think it’s important that you start with where you are as it relates to trying to change the community,” she said. She added of her campaign, “This would just be a step up in the work that I’ve already done and the foundation I’ve already been laying.”
