Welcome to the Thursday, February 22, 2024, Brew.
By: Juan Garcia de Paredes
Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:
- Officeholders won election to new offices at a higher rate in 2023 than prior odd years
- Five candidates are running in the March 19 Democratic primary for Illinois’ 7th Congressional District, one of the most Democratic districts in the country
- Learn about work requirements for public assistance programs in the latest episode of On the Ballot, our weekly podcast
Officeholders won election to new offices at a higher rate in 2023 than prior odd years
We recently published our annual analysis of elected officials who ran for other offices in 2023. Let’s take a look at the highlights.
In 2023, 81 state legislators ran for a different office than the one they held. Thirty-nine (48%) were successful. That was higher than the 34% success rate in 2021, the previous odd-year election, and slightly higher than the yearly average success rate of 46% from 2018-2023.
More Democratic state legislators sought other offices last year than Republican ones. Forty-two Democratic state legislators ran for other offices versus 39 Republicans.
This is in line with previous odd election years. In 2021, 47 Democratic legislators and 21 Republicans ran for other offices. In 2019, 35 Democrats and 34 Republicans ran for another office.
Looking at success rates by party, Republican state legislators who ran for other offices were slightly more successful than their Democratic counterparts in 2023. Forty-nine percent (19 out of 39) of Republicans who ran for another office won. On the Democratic side, 48% (20 out of 42) who ran for another office won.
Between 2018 and 2023, the annual Republican success rate was 48.9%. For Democrats, it was 43%.
Here are other highlights from our analysis:
- Of the 42 state legislators who sought other offices and lost, 22 (52%) lost their party’s primary, while 20 (48%) lost in the general election.
- More Democrats lost in the general election (36%) than in their party’s primary (17%). More Republican legislators lost in their party’s primary (38%) than in the general election (13%).
- Thirty-eight (47%) of the 81 state legislators who sought other offices were members of their legislature’s lower chamber running for state senate.
Ballotpedia defines officeholders who ran for another office as those candidates who declared their candidacies for a position in the 2023 elections that was different from the one they held prior to the November elections. This analysis did not include legislators who ran for other seats in the same legislative chamber in which they served due to redistricting.
This analysis did not include special elections.
Five candidates are running in the March 19 Democratic primary for Illinois’ 7th Congressional District, one of the most Democratic districts in the country
Throughout the year, we’ll bring you coverage of the most compelling elections — the battlegrounds we expect to have a meaningful effect on the balance of power in governments or to be particularly competitive.
Earlier this month, we previewed the March 5 Republican primary for U.S. Senate in Ohio. You can catch our previous coverage of other battleground races here.
Today, we’re looking at the March 19 Democratic Party primary for Illinois’ 7th Congressional District, where incumbent Danny K. Davis (D) is running for a 15th term.
According to The Cook Political Report with Amy Walters, the district has a D+36 partisan lean, making it the most Democratic district in Illinois and the 8th most Democratic in the country.
Davis, Kina Collins (D), and Melissa Conyears-Ervin (D) have led in endorsements and media attention.
This is the third consecutive Democratic primary in which both Collins and Davis are running. In 2020, Davis defeated Collins 60.2%-13.9% in a field of four candidates. In 2022, Davis again defeated Collins, but the difference was smaller: 51.9%-45.7%. Conyears-Ervin did not run in either primary.
Davis was first elected to the House in 1996. Since 2000, he has won at least 80% of the vote in the general election. Davis said his seniority in the U.S. House benefits the district: “I know all the players. I know all the people. I know the leadership. But most importantly, I am productive. I have passed major bills that affect not just the 7th district but affect the whole state of Illinois and the whole United States of America.”
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker (D) and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D) endorsed Davis.
Collins is a community organizer who founded the Chicago Neighborhood Alliance, an organization that works to prevent gun violence in Chicago.
Collins said she is running because she believes the district wants fresh representation in Congress: “He’s been my congressman since I was five years old. He’s missed more votes than any Democrat in our delegation. And he takes corporate PAC money. I think it’s time that we usher in a new leader.”
The Downtown Chicago chapter of Indivisible and the People’s Lobby endorsed Collins.
Conyears-Ervin is the Chicago City Treasurer and previously served in the state House. “As a working mother born on the South Side, raised on the West Side, and raising my daughter on the West Side, I know how hard the people of the 7th District work every day. I also know they deserve someone representing them in Congress who works as hard as they do to make our community better,” Conyears-Ervin said.
Conyears-Ervin’s endorsers include the Chicago Teachers Union and the Illinois Nurses Association.
Nikhil Bhatia (D) and Kouri Marshall (D) are also running in the primary.
In Illinois, the winner of a primary election is the candidate who receives the greatest number of votes, even if they do not win an outright majority of votes cast. There are no runoffs.
The filing deadline for this primary was December 4, 2023.
Learn about work requirements for public assistance programs in the latest episode of On the Ballot, our weekly podcast
In this week’s episode of On the Ballot, our weekly podcast, our host, Frank Festa, sits down with Ballotpedia’s Policy Staff Writer Jon Dunn to discuss the legislative trends on work requirements for public assistance programs.
Jon breaks down the four main categories of public assistance programs that Ballotpedia covers: Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP (formerly known as food stamps), public Housing, and child care. Jon also discusses the arguments for and against work requirements, the latest policies and proposals he’s been following, and which states to watch for upcoming rules and regulations.
Click the link below to listen to our full conversation with Jon. To read more about the debate over work requirements for public assistance programs, click here.
And remember, new episodes of On the Ballot drop every Thursday afternoon. If you’re reading this on the morning of Feb. 22, there’s still time to subscribe to On the Ballot on your preferred podcast app and catch this week’s release!