80-Year-Old Dem to Retire After Viral Primary Challenger Announced
Illinois Representative Jan Schakowsky is planning to announce her retirement next month, leaving the Democratic primary for her district wide open.
'I'm going to announce my plans on May 5th. Stay tuned,' Schakowsky said, Politico reported Wednesday. That's the day that Schakowsky's annual Ultimate Women's Power Lunch is scheduled in Chicago.
The veteran Democrat's exit announcement will invite other Democrats to try to grab her seat. State Senator Laura Fine and Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss are both expected to announce bids for Illinois's ninth congressional district after Schakowsky officially makes her plans public.
But there's another opponent already in the field. While Schakowsky has been on retirement watch for at least a few months, 26-year-old lefty content creator Kat Abughazaleh revealed her own gambit for Illinois's vote. Abughazaleh announced her campaign on March 24.
In a potential sign of the times, Abughazaleh's campaign outpaced Schakowsky's first-quarter fundraising in just one week after she announced her candidacy, reportedly raising more than $379,000 in eight days, according to Abughazaleh.
However, less than one percent of Abughazaleh's fundraising stemmed from campaign contributions of more than $200 within the region that she intends to represent, which stretches from Chicago's North Side through southeast McHenry County.
Abughazaleh's campaign manager Sam Weinberg said that the political newcomer had received more than 1,100 donations from people within Illinois, though the vast majority of donations were under $200—something that Weinberg blamed on the 'economic struggles' faced by many Americans that Abughazaleh is 'seeking to address.'
'The average American can't spare $200 or more to donate to a political campaign, and we shouldn't fault people for that,' Weinberg told WTTW News. 'This is the result of an economy that is working for the few rather than the many and this dynamic should be entirely unacceptable in the richest country in the history of the world.'
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