Progressive activists in Oak Park and the West Side are split in whom they are supporting in the wide open Democratic primary race to succeed Danny Davis as the congressperson from the 7th Congressional District. Four young progressive activists are running in the 13-candidate field in the March 17 Democratic primary. They are Kina Collins, who at the age of 34 is making her fourth run for Congress; 32-year-old Oak Park native Reed Showalter; 32-year-old labor leader Anthony Driver and 28-year-old Anabel Mendoza.
Collins seems to have the most support among Oak Park progressive activists. Last week nine Oak Park elected officials, including two Oak Park Village Board members and five members of the Oak Park Public Library board endorsed Collins.
“I think she has the campaign infrastructure and the strategy to win and I think in such a crowded race I think that’s an important factor to consider,” said Oak Park Village Board member Derek Eder who is supporting Collins along with his colleague Jenna Leving Jacobson.
Because of her past campaigns against Davis in 2020, 2022, and 2024 Collins has much higher name recognition than Showalter and Mendoza and a more established base of support. That’s something that Eder considered when deciding whom to support.
“In such a crowded field name recognition is very important compared to other ones,” Eder said. “There are practical things that progressives who are involved in this campaign need to consider such as does your candidate really have a good chance of winning, how you try to achieve what you want, it’s less about the individual and more about the policy outcomes. We have to be strategic about how we pick the people we want to represent us.”
Collins currently seems to be running third, behind frontrunners State Rep. La Shawn Ford and Chicago City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin, in what little polling that’s been done in the race.
But supporters of Showalter, Mendoza and Driver say that while they like Collins, her past losses, and the new faces in the race, has convinced them that it is time to move on to someone new. Mendoza, an immigration rights activist, and Showalter, a lawyer who has worked for the House Judiciary Committee, the Department of Justice and the FTC have both impressed many activists with their knowledge, energy and commitment.
“This time around I’ve decided that I’m going to support Anabel,” said Oak Park activist Scott Sakiyama who had supported Collins in past races. “I think that there are a number of good progressive candidates in the race. Anabel, I think, aligns closely with where I am on the issues and I decided to move on from Kina in the election because I think it’s unusual that, you know, that you win on your fourth time, that’s what I’ve heard.”
Supporters of Mendoza and Showalter point out that Collins entered the race relatively late and hasn’t raised much money.
Catherine Larson, the campaign manager for Showalter, said that Collins’s relatively high standing in polls is a product of her name recognition.
“Obviously people know her name but as we also saw she ended up not filing her FEC (Federal Elections Commission report) until 16 days after the deadline and when she did had, you know, it showed that she has less than $5,000 cash on hand. And, to me, that shows the numbers in those polls are probably a ceiling.”
Collins, who lives in South Austin and got her start as an advocate for victims of gun violence, says her roots in the community give her an edge over the other young progressives in the race.
“I think the person who wins this seat is a person who uniquely understands the struggles and everyday economic realities of what it means to be a West Sider and also folks who live in places like Bellwood and Maywood and places on the south side of Chicago that deal with very similar issues to Austn,” Collins said. “While it’s great to have a progressive base in Oak Park I think what my supporters have always understood is that one of the key reasons of why they supported my campaign is that I would be a representative living in one of the poorest areas in this district and have that sense of urgency to get those problems solved.”
Collins and her supporters are asking progressives to coalesce around her as the March 17 election approaches.
“Hopefully there are some consolidation efforts that take place in these final weeks because I think it could be a powerful message sent writ large across the district of progressives being serious about capturing the seat,” Collins said.
Collins also said while there is talk about progressives splitting the vote there are also a number of more establishment candidates in the race who will split that vote.
“I think that Reed and Anabel are brilliant and I think that they have great platforms,” Collins said. “And I think that people are putting a lot of attention on the progressives in this race instead of looking at the diluting of the moderate and establishment vote which is going to split amongst five people who have pretty strong bases, if you ask me.”
Showalter, who grew up in Oak Park and went to Fenwick High School before going to college at New York University and law school at Columbia, says his background in working in Washington, D.C. gives him an edge that none of the other candidates have.
“This seat, at this moment, needs somebody who can take big swings, fight for progressive values, has the federal experience to do it on day one and there is nobody else in this field who has worked in the federal government in the last five years, much less the last 10,” Showalter said. “Whomever wins is going to take office in the middle of the Trump administration and we need somebody who knows how to do this job on day one.”
Mendoza, the youngest candidate in the race, has run an energetic campaign. She grew up in the West Lawn neighborhood of Chicago and was able to attend the exclusive Latin School of Chicago because her mother worked there as an administrative assistant and the family qualified for discounted tuition.
“I lived, quite literally, between two different worlds, West Lawn and the Latin School of Chicago,” Mendoza said. “It was one of the most difficult experiences being one of only a few students of color in that school, coming from a working-class background and attending a school that is extremely affluent. I saw what investment looks like and I saw what disinvestment looks like having gone home every single night in West Lawn.”
After graduating from Northwestern University Mendoza has worked as an immigration rights activist. She says that she would bring that background to Congress.
“I believe I bring a unique combination to this role that no other candidate brings including, especially in the progressive lane of this race,” Mendoza said. “At a time when we are seeing ICE agents brutalize and murder people on the streets, immigrants and U.S. citizens alike I am the only candidate in this race who brings years of experience on the front lines of the immigrants’ rights movement, having organized side by side with immigrant youth, having led national coalitions responsible for blocking tens of millions of our dollars going to ICE and CBP in 2021 and 2022.”
Mendoza said it is not a bad thing that there are multiple young progressives in the race.
“I think voters deserve a choice,” Mendoza said. “I think that’s the sign of a healthy democracy is when voters are able to be extremely picky about who they want to represent them. Everyone who is seeking to run, and that includes myself, needs to do the work to earn votes. We cannot continue to expect people’s support. We have to do the work to earn it.”
Another candidate with significant progressive support is Driver, who serves as the executive director of the powerful Service Employees International Union Illinois State Council. Driver has been endorsed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
“That means I would be coming to Congress with almost 100 allies right away,” Driver said.
Driver served as the first president of the Chicago Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability which oversees the public safety infrastructure in Chicago.
At a candidate meet and greet hosted by Chicago alderwoman Emma Mitts Saturday at the Healing Temple Church on the West Side Driver said his roots in the community make him stand out in the race.
“My leadership did not begin behind a podium, my leadership began on a picket line,” Driver said. “I’m a labor leader, a coalition builder. There is a big argument in the 7th District about who is the most progressive candidate in the race, who’s the right progressive. And I want to say for the record that you can’t be progressive if you don’t walk amongst the people, if you don’t serve the people.”
Driver is a strong speaker and impressed many when he was one of many candidates who spoke at a meeting of the Democratic Party of Oak Park (DPOP) last fall.
“He not only talks the talk, he walks the walk,” said Driver supporter Wendy Epstein.
The Democratic Party of Oak Park is staying neutral in the congressional primary.
“It is an impressive collection of candidates, familiar faces, new faces, they each bring some strengths to the race,” said State Senate President Don Harmon (D-Oak Park), the Democratic Party Oak Park Township Committeeman. “I think all of them have impressed some of our members but there’s no consensus at this point. I’m just excited to let democracy happen.”
Regardless of who wins the primary Sakiyama thinks that even if they don’t win Mendoza, Collins and Showalter all have promising futures.
“I have a lot of respect for all three of those candidates,” Sakiyama said. “I think it’s exciting that people are excited to have progressive candidates that they really like that they’re not choosing the lesser of the two evils. I don’t find it particularly frustrating. I think it’s good to build a bench of people here and, you know, if it’s not Congress for those folks maybe it’s something else in a year or two.”
