City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin is poised to challenge Rep. Danny Davis in the March 2024 Democratic primary, changing her mind about not running if he seeks another term as Kina Collins announces a third try against Davis.
Davis, 81, a South Austin resident, has made it clear for months that he will be seeking another term in 2024.
U.S. Rep. Danny Davis at the Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ on the South Side in June. Davis served on the Chicago City Council and on the Cook County Board. He was first elected to Congress in 1996. He’s received the backing of President Joe Biden and Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Davis, a former alderperson and Cook County Board member, was first elected to Congress on Nov. 5, 1996.
A Conyears-Ervin campaign source told the Chicago Sun-Times she switched course and will run, with an official announcement in a few months.
“After months of talking to voters throughout the district, the Treasurer is incredibly encouraged by the response to her candidacy,” the campaign said in a statement.
“Time and time again, she’s heard how important it is to have leadership in the 7th that relates to the challenges facing working families. As a working mom raised by a single mom in both Englewood and Austin, she has lived those exact concerns.
“She’s humbled at the support she’s received so far in this race and will make an official announcement this fall.”
In April, when Conyears-Ervin, 47, launched an exploratory bid for the 7th Congressional District seat, she said in a statement that she would not challenge Davis, saying, “Whenever he should choose to retire, I will be running to succeed him and continue his legacy of service.”
Conyears-Ervin, a Garfield Park resident, is moving ahead, betting that voters will not care if, contrary to what she said, she is not going to wait for Davis to retire.
She will show fundraising muscle in her first Federal Election Commission report, pulling in, according to a draft, $283,486 as of June 30.
The Davis campaign raised about $100,000 in the last quarter, a spokesperson said.
Collins, just getting her latest campaign launched, said she expects to pull together at least $100,000 in the coming weeks.
In 2022, third-party independent expenditures also played a role in the Davis-Collins contest.
Conyears-Ervin’s husband is Ald. Jason C. Ervin, whose 28th Ward sweeps in parts of the West Side.
In the heavily Democratic 7th Congressional District, winning the primary is tantamount to clinching the seat.
Kina Collins’ third bid
Meanwhile, Collins, 32, who lives in Austin, will make her third try to unseat Davis, kicking off her 2024 campaign at an event at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Quinn Chapel AME, 2401 S. Wabash Ave.
She is the executive director — working from Chicago — of the Democratizing Philanthropy Project, an organization based in Oakland, Calif.
In 2022, Collins, running with the backing of a network of local and national progressive organizations, got 45.73% of the vote to Davis’ 51.88%.
In 2020, with more people in the race — Davis drew 60.19% to 13.88% for Collins.
Davis will run in 2024 — as he did in 2022 — with the backing of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the House political operation.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker recently endorsed Davis, and President Joe Biden praised the lawmaker when he was in Chicago on June 28 — speaking in Davis’ district at the Old Post Office — to promote his Bidenomics agenda.
“Danny, you’ve been a good friend for a long time. He’s always there,” Biden said.
Davis’ chief of staff and campaign adviser, Tumia Romero, told the Sun-Times that Davis “will campaign on what he has done,” in contrast to what his rivals “say they will do.”
Collins, asked what she will do differently in 2024 compared with 2022, said she will ramp up her ground game to boost voter turnout.
The numbers show there will be plenty of potential voters for Davis, Conyears-Ervin, Collins and others who may jump in the contest.
That’s because of the low turnout in the 2022 primary.
The 2022 primary was an anomaly, held June 28, with the usual March date pushed to June because of a delay in drawing new Illinois congressional districts based on the 2020 census.
In 2022, 75,612 people voted in the 7th Congressional District primary. In 2020 — a presidential year, as 2024 will be — a total of 136,404 votes were cast in that primary.
Kouri Marshall, a former chief of staff for ex-Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin, and co-founder of ChiGivesBack, is also running.
The 7th District runs west from parts of Chicago’s downtown to the western suburbs, including Maywood and Oak Park, with a leg on the near South Side, taking in parts of Bronzeville and Washington Park.
Politically, it is rooted on the West Side.
