The Chicago Tribune focused on its Editorial Board’s opinions for the 8th Congressional District today.
Endorsed was Jennifer Davis the Republican primary and Melissa Bean in the Democrat’s.
About Bean, they wrote in part:
We think returning Bean, 64, to the seat is Democrats’ best option. We’ve endorsed her several times before and we admire her solid record while she was in office, coupled with her sensible but principled views on today’s stark challenges…
The bigger question is how she would handle the job some 16 years after leaving Washington. That time frame feels like ancient history now, at least in political terms. We were satisfied she understands today’s challenges.
We asked about the longest government shutdown in history last fall, in which Democrats were able to extract a deal to hold a Senate floor vote on extending Affordable Care Act subsidies whose expiration is resulting in substantially higher health insurance costs for many Americans. For many on the left, the decision to reopen the government in return for a vote that ultimately was unsuccessful was a failure — an example of a Democratic Senate leadership unwilling to confront Trump and the Republicans strongly enough.
Bean’s take was that Senate leaders should have held out a bit longer for a better deal, but she said she understood their situation given the pain federal workers were experiencing as they went without paychecks. “There was a win,” she said. “Democrats aren’t really good at taking the win, taking credit for the win. And the win was we got the vote. We got to bring it back up and see if we could do it.”
We agree. Given the track record of past government shutdowns, most if not all of them launched by Republicans, this one achieved far more than any of those did. GOP senators now are on the record for standing in the way of health care subsidy extensions that easily passed the Republican-led House. Whether or not you support that policy, by the standards of government shutdowns, that is a clear victory. But it takes someone who’s been around the political block a few times to see it. Duckworth has endorsed Bean.
About Davis the Editorial Board wrote:
Republicans will have an uphill battle flipping this seat in November, but we believe Jennifer Davis will give the party the best chance to do so. Her leading opponent, Mark Rice, is a full-throated supporter of President Trump and believes Republicans need to emphasize their conservative bona fides to succeed politically in the Chicago suburbs. Also running are retired Chicago police Officer Herbert Hebein and Kevin Ake, an accountant and evangelical Christian who was convicted of a felony hate crime in 2002.
Davis, 55, a mother of 10 from Huntley who started and ran what became a very successful business software firm, Davisware, with her husband, which the couple sold in 2022, certainly supports many Trump priorities, such as his tariff policies. But the first-time candidate’s rhetoric strikes us as more accepting of alternative viewpoints than Rice’s — a critical attribute to attracting support from independents and Democrats necessary to win in this district. “My loyalty is to the constituents who elected me, not a party label,” she told us.
