Chicago’s most hotly contested state legislative primary race has been simmering since last summer.
State Sen. Natalie Toro won the appointment to her Northwest Side seat in July over Chicago Teachers Union organizer Graciela Guzman with the backing of moderate Democrats on the committee who filled the vacancy of former state Sen. Cristina Pacione-Zayas, who resigned to join Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration.
Round Two between Toro and Guzman in the 20th state Senate District once again pits establishment Democratic power in Springfield against the progressive movement that carried Johnson to the fifth floor of City Hall.
Not that Toro — a former kindergarten and third grade teacher who grew up in the district spanning Logan Square, Avondale and Irving Park — buys into the “centrist vs. progressive” narrative.
“I’m a single Latina teacher living in Logan Square. You couldn’t make a better progressive in a lab,” said Toro, 36. “I’ve fought for expanding protective orders, insurance coverage for fertility, tax deductions for renters. I don’t know what isn’t progressive about any of that.”
But Guzman, who worked as chief of staff to Pacione-Zayas, called their race a “litmus test” for the city’s leftward political movement — and she slammed Toro’s stated progressive priorities as “a fabrication.”
“This is the most progressive district not only in the city but in the state,” said Guzman, 34, who grew up in Los Angeles and studied anthropology at Grinnell College in Iowa before coming to Chicago as an organizer. “And a lot of Chicagoans whose doors I knock on, they recognize something was amiss [with the appointment process], the ‘Chicago politics as usual,’ backroom-deals mentality.”
Guzman said she aims to deliver the “progressive promise of co-governance, delivering on the needs of working-class and everyday people.”
Aiming to play spoilers in the heavyweight political fight are physician and farmer Dr. Dave Nayak and Geary Yonker, a longtime neighborhood organizer on leave from his position as a sales executive for WBEZ, which is owned by the same nonprofit that owns the Chicago Sun-Times.
Nayak runs a free asthma and allergy clinic in the city as well as a downstate farm that donates thousands of pounds of sweet corn to food banks across Illinois and parts of Iowa, Missouri and Indiana. The Peoria native also pushed for 2022 state legislation that helps cover funeral costs for the families of children killed by gun violence.
“I’ve cared for so many people, fed so many and buried so many,” said Nayak, 43. “That’s what drives me — how do we reduce people’s pain?”
Yonker has worked on numerous progressive campaigns locally and across the Midwest and co-founded the Logan Square Arts Festival. He also organized efforts that won $2 million to improve Kosciuszko Park.
“I’ve been fighting door-to-door here in our neighborhoods for progressive causes for 20 years,” said Yonker, 53. “People know me when I show up. They trust me.”
Yonker is the only candidate who didn’t apply for the Democratic committee’s appointment to the vacant Senate seat last year.
Toro won the selection with the weighted vote of Cook County Circuit Court Clerk and 33rd Ward committeeperson Iris Martinez, who held the 20th District seat for 17 years before stepping down in favor of the county office.
Martinez backed Paul Vallas’ centrist mayoral campaign against Johnson last year.
Guzman slammed Martinez’s vote against her as an “old guard tactic” by “deeply entrenched politicians who see a threat from young progressive leadership.”
Toro noted that Pacione-Zayas was appointed to Martinez’s vacant seat through the same process in 2020. “My opponent wouldn’t have had a job [as top aide to Pacione-Zayas] if it wasn’t for Iris,” Toro said.
“Just because someone brings you to the table, doesn’t mean you align to their views,” Toro said of her relationship with Martinez, who is running for reelection as circuit court clerk. “She is a moderate. I am a progressive. She has her own race. We haven’t been involved.”
Toro, who lost a 2022 Democratic primary bid for the Cook County Board of Commissioners, also has the crucial support — and financial backing — of Illinois Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park.
Harmon signaled he was all in for his caucus member’s election to a full term, with political funds controlled by Harmon sending almost half a million dollars Toro’s way since last fall, state election board records show. After expenses, Toro entered the new year with about $113,000 in hand, and she has collected nearly a quarter-million dollars since then, including $200,000 from the Harmon-led Illinois Senate Democratic Victory Fund.
For her part, Guzman — who was backed in last summer’s appointment showdown by City Council Democratic Socialist Caucus members Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st) and Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th) — has the CTU’s formidable fundraising and political foot soldiers in her campaign arsenal.
The CTU has committed more than $112,000 to Guzman’s campaign, which started 2023 with more than $65,000 in hand but has raised nearly $200,000 since then, including about $172,000 from the CTU, the Illinois Federation of Teachers and the Cook County College Teachers Union.
Nayak has put at least $485,000 of his own money into his mostly self-funded campaign, while Yonker has loaned himself about $9,000.
The winner of the March 19 Democratic primary in the deep-blue district will face Republican Jason Proctor in November.
Southwest suburban showdown
Big dollars also figure to flow into the Democratic race to replace outgoing state Rep. Kelly Burke in the 36th House district, which touches Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood but mostly encompasses the southwest suburbs from south suburban Evergreen Park to Palos Hills. Burke, who is also the mayor of Evergreen Park, opted against running for an eighth term in the House after recovering from colon cancer.
In another contest pitting establishment Democrats against a drive from the party’s left flank, Burke has endorsed attorney and Palos Township Democratic Organization founder Rick Ryan over Sonia Khalil, a Markham city worker and board member of the Arab American Democratic Club, which was founded by her father.
Both candidates said protecting women’s reproductive rights is the top issue in the race, though Ryan opposed abortion rights when he ran unsuccessfully for the state Senate in 2000.
Ryan, 57, said his view on the issue changed shortly after that race. But Khalil, 34, has hammered Ryan over his previous stance, declaring herself “the only candidate who is pro-choice” in the reliably blue district.
Ryan said Khalil “has accomplished nothing in her life,” suggesting her father has pulled the strings for her political ascent — an attack Khalil called “very offensive,” and one that wouldn’t be made “about a man in his mid-30s,” she said.
The campaign barbs figure to sharpen in the weeks ahead. Khalil has raised close to $190,000, while Ryan has rung up more than $515,000, including more than $400,000 in in contributions from trade unions.
The winner will face Republican Christine Shanahan McGovern in November.
Englewood House race
Englewood state Rep. Sonya Harper faces a challenge from nonprofit director Joseph G. Williams in the 6th House District that stretches north into the Loop.
On the cusp of a fifth full term, Harper, 42, touted her longstanding efforts to expand community gardening and urban agriculture in a district desperately lacking groceries and healthy food options, co-founding the nonprofit Grow Greater Englewood.
Williams was elected last year to the 7th District Police Council as part of the new community oversight system for the Chicago Police Department. The 34-year-old previously founded Mr. Dad’s Father’s Club providing mentors to students in schools across the South Side.
Harper reported raising about $15,000 for her campaign in the last quarter of 2023, with a third of that coming from the CTU PAC. Williams has raised about $7,300.
The winner faces Republican Sean Dwyer in November.
Other races to watch
Incumbent state Rep. Mary Flowers, D-Chicago, faces a challenge from Michael Crawford in the 31st House District which stretches from the city’s Auburn Gresham neighborhood to Hickory Hills.
State Rep. Cyril Nichols, D-Chicago, faces Lisa J. Davis in the 32nd House District that spans from Chicago’s Grand Crossing community to southwest suburban Bridgeview.
State Rep. Thaddeus Jones, D-Calumet City, faces Gloria White in the 29th House District, which stretches from the Far South Side to Peotone in Will County.
State Rep. Kimberly du Buclet, D-Chicago, faces Andre Smith in the 5th House District that runs from River North to Grand Crossing.
