Politics
La Shawn Ford Declares Victory in Race to Replace Danny Davis in Illinois’ 7th District Primary
Candidates for the Illinois 7th Congressional District seat, from left, Kina Collins, David Ehrlich, Dr. Thomas Fisher, La Shawn K. Ford, Rory Hoskins, Reed Showalter, Anabel Mendoza, Anthony Driver Jr., Jazmin J. Robinson, Richard Boykin, Melissa Conyears-Ervin and Felix Tello attend a public forum at the University of Illinois Chicago Friday, Feb 20, 2026, in Chicago. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune via AP)
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Illinois state Rep. La Shawn Ford has declared victory in the Democratic primary for the 7th Congressional District after his closest competitor in Chicago City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin conceded the race.
Ford was declared the winner by the Associated Press as he defeated a dozen other candidates for a seat that’s been held by Congressman Danny Davis for nearly 30 years.
Ford has 23.9% of votes, putting him ahead of Conyears-Ervin, who has 20.4% of votes with nearly 90% of votes tallied, according to unofficial results. Anthony Driver Jr., an SEIU leader and former head of the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, is currently running in third with 11.3% of votes.
Ford, speaking beside Davis, thanked each of his fellow candidates in his victory speech late Tuesday.
“I think I learned a lot from each and every last one of them,” he said. “Because of the debates, I learned how to be a better congressman when I’m elected.”
The retiring Davis has thrown his support behind Ford, who is seeking to emerge from one of the most hotly contested races in Tuesday’s primary.
Conyears-Ervin said late Tuesday she called Ford and conceded the race.
“What I do want you all to know is that I’m grateful in this moment,” she told supporters. “I smile because God has been good to me and I smile because all throughout the day everywhere I went all I saw was hope in the eyes of supporters.”
Also running is former Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin, Forest Park Mayor Rory Hoskins, businessman Jason Friedman, local organizer Kina Collins, physician Thomas Fisher, human resources professional Jazmin J. Robinson, David Ehrlich, an adjunct lecturer at the University of Illinois Chicago, immigrant rights advocate Anabel Mendoza, executive engineer and activist Felix Tello and Reed Showalter, a former Federal Trade Commission attorney and counsel with the U.S. Department of Justice.
The 7th District covers downtown Chicago and portions of the South Side, as well as several western suburbs.
Ford will now face off in November’s general election against Chad Koppie, who the Associated Press declared as the winner in Tuesday's Republican primary.
Davis, 84, announced last summer he would not be seeking a 16th term in office, leaving Congress as one of the most senior members of the House of Representatives and the ranking member of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Worker and Family Support.
Ford, 53, has represented Illinois’ 8th District in the state House of Representatives since 2007 and had previously said he would not run for Davis’ seat if the congressman had sought another term.
But he joined Davis at his retirement announcement last July where the outgoing congressman said he would be supporting Ford.
“Congressman Davis has passed the torch, but he told me you’ve got to finish the race,” Ford said at the time. “And so that is my intention.”
Ford said in his responses to the WTTW News Voter Guide that he is running in order to “safeguard our families, reduce costs, and defend our democracy.”
“We are living at a time when many working families feel squeezed, many seniors feel overlooked, and many people believe the government is not serving them,” he said. “Meanwhile, we are witnessing assaults on voting rights, truth, and the fundamental institutions that unify our country. To safeguard opportunity, we must also defend our democracy.”
But Ford’s opponents have also pointed to his past legal issues, when he was indicted in 2012 on 17 federal charges alleging he fraudulently obtained a line of credit from a bank under false pretenses and used those funds on personal expenses.
Those charges were later dismissed in a deal that saw Ford instead plead guilty to a single misdemeanor count.
Conyears-Ervin, 50, also a former state representative, has served as Chicago’s treasurer since 2019 and said she fought to improve the city’s financial resilience, expanded access to capital for small businesses and pushed for investments to support working families.
“Now, raising my own daughter in Garfield Park, the challenges this District faces aren’t abstract; we’re living them every day,” she said in the WTTW News Voter Guide. “That’s why I have dedicated my career to expanding economic stability, protecting working families, and fighting for fairness at every level of government.”
Both she and Collins previously ran unsuccessfully against Davis in the 2024 Democratic primary.
In October 2025, Conyears-Ervin agreed to pay a $30,000 fine after the Chicago Board of Elections alleged she violated the city’s government ethics ordinance by firing whistleblowers and improperly using city resources.
Friedman, former president of the Friedman Properties, Ltd. real estate firm, previously worked under U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and President Bill Clinton. He said the career politicians being elected to Washington have failed to “get the job done,” and need to be replaced with “new voices with new experience and new styles of leadership.”
“I am not a career politician, and I’m the only candidate in this race who has the background to deliver for this community,” he said in the WTTW News Voter Guide. “I am running for Congress as a Democrat who is unafraid to fight back against the Trump Administration and advocate for Illinois’ 7th District with empathy, common sense, and pragmatism.”
Boykin previously served as Davis’ chief of staff and legislative director from 1997 to 2006 and said he’s running in the 7th District to “disrupt the status quo.”
“The 7th Congressional District is home to the largest life expectancy gap in West Garfield Park,” he said in the WTTW News Voter Guide. Our citizens are losing their healthcare due to the failure of Congress to pass the Affordable Care Act subsidies, cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. … Our government is broken and I will fix it.”
