CHICAGO — Four challengers and the incumbent are fighting to represent Illinois’ 7th Congressional District, a seat that’s exchanged hands only once in the past 50 years.
U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, first elected to Congress in 1996, has served 14 consecutive terms — and he hopes to make it 15. Unlike during reelection bids in the past, Davis is facing competition in the primary from two women with name recognition: activist Kina Collins and City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin.
Kouri Marshall, a former deputy director for Gov. JB Pritzker, and Nikhil Bhatia, a Chicago teacher, are also running in the Democratic primary.
The challengers are fighting for an opportunity to unseat Davis and inherit great influence on Chicago’s West Side in a position that historically has had low turnover.
The challenge has prompted heavy-hitting Illinois Democrats like Gov. JB Pritzker, former Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and Mayor Brandon Johnson to line up behind Davis to remind voters to choose the “real progressive” in the race.
“I want to remind everybody that Danny Davis is special,” Pritzker said during his endorsement of Davis on March 1. “Our country faces a stark choice with two very different futures ahead of us. Now more than ever, we need Danny Davis and elected officials like Danny Davis who have proven that they have the track record of never backing down.”
Neither Collins nor Conyears-Ervin has made strong arguments about why Davis shouldn’t remain in office. Instead, they’re calling for a “changing of the guard” and hoping they’ll seize control of a reliably Democratic seat.
Collins and Conyears-Ervin have been receiving boosts in their campaign funds. Collins recently got over $600,000 in fundraising from a concert hosted by Grammy-winning rock band The Strokes. Before that, Conyears-Ervin had steadily led in fundraising thanks to hefty contributions from business owners and developers. Davis, on the other hand, has received funds from several unions and public action committees.
Since the end of February, the three candidates have raised more than $1 million combined and have spent $997,000, according to the Federal Election Commission.
An Independent Against The Daley Machine
Davis, for many, represents a successful rebellion against Chicago’s Democratic political machine. During the peak of its power from the 1950s through the 1970s under Mayor Richard J. Daley, the Democratic Party was able to get most of its favored candidates elected at the local, state and federal levels.
Davis, born in Arkansas, moved to Chicago after graduating college in 1961. He became involved in the community, leading the Greater Lawndale Conservation Commission and joining Martin Luther King Jr. and other activists in the Chicago Freedom Movement in 1966.
In 1979, Davis successfully beat the Chicago machine’s “plantation politics” to become alderman of the 29th Ward. “Plantation politics” ran rampant on the West Side, with white machine bosses, often ward committeemen, dominating politics in predominantly Black wards. Davis was widely viewed as the first political independent elected on the West Side in the modern era.
At the time, the Tribune called Davis’ success an “immaculate conception,” saying he was “as close to representing the ideals of Dr. Martin Luther King as any recent candidate for any office on the West Side.”
“He was a part of and riding the crest of the independent political movement that was taking root in the city,” said Don Rose, a veteran columnist and progressive political strategist who met Davis before he was elected alderman. “He became a progressive against the old Daley machine.”
As an alderman, Davis was a sounding board for his ward and the surrounding neighborhoods, declaring the West Side was often forgotten in favor of the South Side, said Carol Marin, political expert and longtime Chicago journalist.
“Let’s just cut to the chase: Danny Davis is the West Side,” Marin said. “You say his name, you say ‘West Side.’”
Davis was also part of the independent coalition that in 1983 helped elect Harold Washington, Chicago’s first Black and progressive mayor. After Washington died and Richard M. Daley eventually took over, Davis unsuccessfully attempted to unseat Daley in 1991.
Davis served as alderman of the 29th Ward for 11 years and then as a Cook County commissioner from 1990 to 1996. He ran twice for Congress and failed against machine-backed Rep. Cardiss Collins.
After her husband, Rep. George W. Collins, was killed in an airplane crash in 1972, Cardiss Collins won a special election with solid backing from then-Mayor Richard J. Daley. Before her husband, only two other congressmen had served the 7th district since 1957. Cardiss Collins then held the seat for 23 years.
After Cardiss Collins announced her retirement in 1995, Davis took another shot at the seat. He fought off nine other contenders in the 1996 primary before winning the general election that fall.
“He became a progressive against the old Daley machine, and so I think that the residual goodwill from that period and from his terms in office is what keeps him going,” Rose said.
Kina Collins — who’s not related to Cardiss Collins — has taken a page from Davis’ playbook, challenging the incumbent in all three primaries since 2020. She garnered about 14 percent of the primary vote in 2020, and that rose to about 46 percent in 2022. Although she lost, her improvement in the polls attracted others into this year’s race, Marin said.
But Davis’ history of knocking out Chicago’s old political machine is not something his challengers should forget or take lightly, Rose said.
“They need to understand what the fight against the machine was like … understand the fight for Black representation,” Rose said.
A Young Progressive vs. Political Machine vs The Old Guard
The 7th Congressional District has long been predominantly Black, encompassing much of Chicago’s West Side, Downtown, South Loop and parts of the South Side in addition to all or parts of suburban Broadview, Bellwood, Forest Park, Hillside, Oak Park, La Grange and Maywood.
But since Davis took office, the 7th District has seen a drastic shift in demographics, steadily losing Black residents through redistricting and gentrification of neighborhoods like the West Loop and South Loop.
As of 2022, Black residents make up 41.6 percent of the district, but that has declined from 48.9 percent in 2015, according to census data.
Still, the district is unlikely to vote for a non-Black candidate, Rose said. The leading three candidates — Davis, Kina Collins and Conyears-Ervin — are Black, as is Marshall.
Davis, Collins and Conyears-Ervin also all have widespread name recognition. But Davis might have more influence than the others after 28 years in the seat — and it’s harder to vote a sitting congressperson out of office, Marin said.
Collins has painted herself as part of a new wave of young progressive candidates, arguing that although she deeply respects Davis, it’s time for a “changing of the guard.”
Collins has pushed a progressive platform that includes raising the minimum wage, creating a path to citizenship for DACA recipients, enacting comprehensive gun reform, eliminating student loan debt and supporting the Green New Deal.
Although Collins doesn’t have an endorsement from Johnson — a progressive who received national attention for seizing the mayor’s seat a year ago — she does have support from some of City Council’s most progressive alderpeople, including Daniel La Spata (1st), Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th), Angela Clay (46th) and Leni Mana Hoppenworth (48th).
The 33-year-old gun violence prevention advocate said she feels her campaign has gained ground in the past four years.
“We knew that this would probably take multiple primaries. … We knew coming in that it wasn’t gonna just happen in one sweep,” Collins said.
In a March 3 candidate forum in suburban Hillside, Collins received multiple rounds of applause from an audience of about 100 people when talking through points in her platform.
“She’s got better name recognition now; she’s worked hard for it,” Marin said. “But there are five people in this race. … That’s a mess for anybody trying to beat Danny Davis.”
Conyears-Ervin, the city treasurer, is running on a platform centered around her expertise in the financial sector. She worked in banking before serving as a state representative from 2017 to 2019 and winning the 2019 election for her current position. She lists gun reform and protecting abortion rights as other top priorities.
Conyears-Ervin’s candidacy also rests on the argument that the district needs a change. “Davis has been in office since 1979 and isn’t getting the job done,” she says on her campaign website.
Conyears-Ervin has been endorsed by the powerful Chicago Teachers Union and has the support of Alds. Jeanette Taylor (20th) and Chris Taliaferro (29th) — along with her husband, Ald. Jason Ervin (28th).
But Conyears-Ervin is facing fines of up to $40,000 from the city’s ethics board.
An investigation from Chicago’s inspector general found Conyears-Ervin violated the city’s ethics ordinance after she fired two city employees who reported she was using city resources for a local prayer service.
The two employees also alleged Conyears-Ervin asked BMO Harris Bank to offer a mortgage to the owner of a West Side church where her husband rents his aldermanic office.
In a sit-down interview with ABC7, Conyears-Ervin denied any wrongdoing. She has refused to revisit the situation with the press since then, often giving statements that she’s proud of the work she’s done for the city.
“No matter the fiery darts that come my way, I keep going with a smile,” Conyears-Ervin told a room full of supporters at an endorsement event last month with notable Chicago pastors at Greater Harvest Missionary Baptist Church.
When Conyears-Ervin was asked what she meant, the city treasurer told Block Club she attributed the “fiery darts” to being a working mother in a competitive race, without acknowledging that her remarks could be linked to the lingering ethics case.
“I understand Melissa Conyears-Ervin has ambition. … Dragging around behind her is the ball and chain of some things to be accountable for, to which she has not answered or answered in … a very full way,” Marin said.
Others have questioned whether Conyears-Ervin and her husband could hold too much power if she takes over the congressional district that includes his ward.
Ervin has maintained a presence during many of Conyears-Ervin’s public appearances. At Greater Harvest Missionary Baptist Church, Ervin followed Conyears-Ervin around with a digital camera, taking photos and never more than an arm’s length away. He also appeared with her last month at a luncheon for the West Central Association, the chamber of the West Loop, where she gave an impromptu speech.
“I’ll tell you, if you’re not watching this race, this is a race you may want to pay attention to because there are other candidates in the race that you may not find so friendly,” Conyears-Ervin told a crowd mostly comprised of people from the business and development sectors.
If Conyears-Ervin pulls off a win, the couple could be positioned to dominate the West Side, Rose said.
“I think they would cash in on the fundraising and so on,” Rose said.
Still, the majority of Democratic Party officials have endorsed Davis.
Conyears-Ervin “is an embarrassment to them. That’s one of the reasons they’re all lining up behind Danny,” Rose said, referring to Conyears-Ervin’s ethics violations.
In an interview with Block Club Chicago, the 82-year-old congressman downplayed the threat from his challengers. Davis instead touted the importance of his seniority as the 24th-ranking member in the House in addition to being a ranking member on the House Committee on Ways and Means.
Davis also stressed the numerous years he spent in local and county government have been essential to winning and maintaining his seat as congressman — and that lengthy experience is something neither Conyears-Ervin nor Kina Collins has, Davis said.
“People need to trust elected officials, and you have to be careful that rather than … diminish that trust you ought to be helping to build confidence in that system,” Davis said.
A “war horse” like Davis is likely to leave office on their own terms, Marin said.
“Danny Davis is an old warrior. … He truly is. And there are always people looking to topple the old warriors, but sometimes they’re a little wilier than you think,” Marin said.
A number of people are “waiting in the wings” for Davis’ eventual retirement, he said. The congressman didn’t name anyone specific but said he thinks there are great potential replacements in the state legislature.
But now is not the time.
“I love being engaged,” Davis said.
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