With primary elections in March, candidates are lining up to throw their hats in the ring for the seventh district congressional seat, which Danny Davis announced he’s retiring from in July after nearly 30 years.
An Oak Park resident who owns his own law firm, Richard Boykin announced his candidacy on Sept. 6, hoping to take over the position of the man whose congressional career he helped launch.
Boykin was Davis’ chief of staff from 1997 to 2006, starting when Davis was first elected to the position. Boykin was responsible for 22 staff in Chicago and Washington D.C. and served as Davis’ liaison to federal and local officials.
“All of his legislative activities and successes for the first 10 years, I helped lay a foundation for his 30-year career in Congress,” Boykin said.
While working for Davis his first year, in a Republican Congress, Boykin helped pass an amendment that increased access to jobs funding from $175 million to $750 million. That money provided grants to local governments and nonprofits to develop transportation that connects low-income people, often in inner cities, to employment and support services in suburban communities. If elected, Boykin said he’d advocate to bring more money for transportation back to the seventh district.
“We’re going to make sure that Illinois gets its fair share, especially the seventh district, of transportation dollars, so that we can have good roads and infrastructure,” Boykin said.
Boykin also worked to help Davis develop the Second Chance Act, which funds grants for state and local government, plus nonprofits, that go toward reentry support and reducing recidivism.
But Boykin’s Washington experience isn’t limited to his potential predecessor.
He also worked for Carol Moseley Braun — the first African-American woman elected to the U.S. Senate and the first female U.S. senator from Illinois — and Bobby Rush, a congressman from 1993 to 2023 who co-founded the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party. Boykin has worked with members and staff of the Congressional Black Caucus on multiple issues.
“None of the other candidates have congressional experience. I do,” Boykin said. “I know Washington. I know where the bathrooms are. I know the people in Washington. I have relationships, and I’m going to leverage those relationships on behalf of the people of the seventh congressional district.”
After over 13 years in Washington D.C., Boykin worked at Barnes & Thornburg law firm, where he represented clients who had issues with the federal government before Congress and agencies.
In 2014, Boykin was elected as Cook County commissioner of the first District, which covers Chicago’s West Side and the near west suburbs. As commissioner, Boykin was the first Democrat to oppose the Cook County sweetened beverage tax in 2016. The tax was championed by Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who Boykin told CBS Chicago worked to push him out with her union allies who funded Brandon Johnson’s campaign to successfully succeeded him as commissioner in 2018.
“I couldn’t go along with it because I had held town hall meetings throughout the district, and people said that they didn’t want that,” Boykin said of the sugar tax. “About four months later, I led the effort to repeal it. The reason why we were successful in repealing it is because people had begun to leave their pop, their juices, all of that stuff at the counter once they heard how much it cost.”
He added that instances like this are proof he’ll hold the Trump administration accountable.
“There’ll be others who will tell you that they will hold Trump accountable, but I hope that you will ask them, ‘How can you hold Trump accountable when you haven’t even held people within your own party accountable?’” Boykin said. “They’re going to say they’re going to stand up to Trump. They won’t even stand up to Preckwinkle. I did, and I got the political scars to prove it.”
Also as Cook County commissioner, Boykin sponsored the initial ordinance to eliminate the tax on feminine hygiene products. And he had a seven-step plan to reduce violence. Some of those steps were acted upon, including the creation of the sheriff’s office gun violence taskforce to better coordinate with Chicago and state police. Boykin also helped establish the requirement to have a medical examiner provide an oral and written report at board meetings on the number of people who are shot and killed in the county, location of incidents, and their ethnicities.
“Before I required this, the medical examiner used to group Hispanics and whites together,” Boykin said. Even with the adjusted breakdown, Boykin said he wants to change the fact that over 75% of people killed in Cook County are Black, while making up only 22% of the county’s population.
Boykin’s priorities
Public safety is a top concern for Boykin.
In running for Congress, Boykin recently released his eight-point plan to stop gun violence. He said this iteration advocates for smart gun technology, which only allows an authorized user to fire a gun, and the regulation of ghost guns made with unregulated parts. He also wants to amend the statute for terrorism to include shooting into crowds.
“We’ve got to make sure that people are safe in their neighborhood, that seniors can sit on their porches without fear of being shot. Kids can walk down the street and play in the neighborhood without fear of being shot as well. That’s what I’m trying to do here. I’m hearing this is a major concern from Black people, from white people, from Latino people that I talk to. They’re concerned about this issue of public safety.”
Public health is another main priority for Boykin, who said he wants to keep the cost of health care down by restoring cuts to Medicaid and Medicare, and research dollars to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He added that he’ll fight to keep hospital doors open.
“Health care is a big issue for the district,” Boykin said. “The district has more hospitals and healthcare stuff, like federally qualified health centers, than any other congressional district in the country, but one in New York.”
Boykin is currently creating a health care task force of doctors, nurses and industry professionals who will be laying out a plan for the seventh congressional district soon.
When it comes to what he’d do differently from Davis, Boykin said he’d bring more vitality and spend more time in his district outside Chicago’s West Side.
“I bring a level of energy that is going to be much greater than the congressman’s energy,” Boykin said. “I’m going to make sure that every community counts, and that means the communities that I’ve heard who feel like they’ve been ignored,” which he said he’s heard from residents of Oak Park, River Forest, plus the River North, South Loop and West Loop neighborhoods in downtown Chicago. “They feel like the congressman has paid most of his attention to just the West Side of Chicago. Well, the district is bigger than the West Side of Chicago, and I’m going to be a voice for every side of Chicago.”
But Boykin says he’d continue standing up for the West Side, too, if elected. He lived with Davis and his wife in Austin for about five months before moving to Oak Park.
“Things have not changed on the West Side of Chicago greatly since the ‘68 riots. There are places on the West Side of Chicago that are still undeveloped that have been burned down,” Boykin said of unrest in the area when Martin Luther King Jr. was killed. He added that he’ll address the West Side’s vacant lots and bring industry and jobs back to the area.
“I’m privileged to have represented the West Side of Chicago when I was a Cook County commissioner,” Boykin said. “I took care of every part of the district, and I’m going to bring the same level of energy, commitment and tenacity to make sure that everybody’s voice is heard and everybody counts.”
Boykin grew up in Englewood, so he says he understands the people of the South Side. He added that he’d like to open a satellite office in Oak Park to better connect with constituents looking to access congressional resources in the western suburbs.
“I’ve been someone who disrupts the status quo. I’ve also been a coalition builder. I’ve been someone who brings people together and who gets things done,” Boykin said. “I’ve been preparing for this job all my life, quite frankly. Congress was made for me, and I was made for the Congress.”
According to the Federal Election Commission, other candidates who are running for Davis’ Democratic seat include Jerico J. Brown, Melissa Conyears-Ervin, Jason Friedman, La Shawn Ford, Rory Hoskins, Danica Leigh, Tekita Martinez, John McCombs and Emelia Rosie — who’s not registered with a political party.
