Reports: Congressman Bobby Rush (D-Chicago) Won't Seek Re-election
Congressman Bobby Rush (D-Chicago), who was first elected to the House in 1992, confirmed to the Sun-Times Monday he won’t seek re-election this year. Rush was a Black Panther and activist and beat back a 2000 Democratic primary from then State Sen. Barack Obama. (Photo credit: Sun-Times)
After 15 terms in Congress, beating back cancer and a primary challenge from a guy named Obama, Congressman Bobby Rush (D-Chicago) will announce this morning he won’t seek re-election later this year.
Rush confirmed his plans to Lynn Sweet of the Sun-Times:
Rush, first elected to Congress in 1992, said in an interview he intends to stay active in his ministry and find ways to use his remarkable life story — a trajectory from a 1960s radical to House member — to inspire younger generations.
Rush, 75, has won each primary and general election by overwhelming margins in the district, anchored on Chicago’s South Side and running through the city’s southern suburbs.
Rush’s significant activism came as the co-founder of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party — a movement that saw the murder of two of its key leaders, Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, by law enforcement.
Rush told me he finalized his decision not to seek another term in the last several weeks, and it came after a conversation with a grandson, Jonathan, 19, who said he wanted to hear more about his grandfather.
“I don’t want my grandchildren . . . to know me from a television news clip or something they read in a newspaper,” Rush said. “I want them to know me on an intimate level, know something about me, and I want to know something about them. I don’t want to be a historical figure to my grandchildren.”
The new 1st District meanders farther from the southside than ever. It includes McCormick Place, cutting a narrow swath through the southside including Hyde Park, Englewood, Auburn Gresham, Morgan Park, and into the south suburbs. The district includes Lockport, Mokena, New Lenox, and portions of Joliet, and slices through a large amount of farmland in southern Will County to pick up part of the Kankakee and Bourbonnais area.
There will likely be a long list of potential candidates to jump into the race now that Rush is stepping aside. Two of the top potential legislative candidates are Sen. Robert Peters (D-Chicago) and Rep. Marcus Evans (D-Chicago).
Aaron Gettinger of the Hyde Park Herald confirmed last night that Alderwoman Jeannette Taylor would not be a candidate.
Rush openly criticized his new district, including this scathing line in his statement after the maps were released: "The best thing about this map is that my southern boundaries are not in Iowa.”