State Rep. La Shawn Ford declared victory Tuesday evening in the Democratic primary to succeed U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, appearing to emerge victorious from crowded field of candidates who wrestled over how to stand up to President Donald Trump amid heavy outside spending in the Chicago race.

“We’re the nominee but we still have to win in November,” Ford told supporters. “The work continues.”

Ford will face GOP nominee Chad Koppie in the November election.

Chicago Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin’s camp released a statement saying she congratulated Ford that night on clinching the nomination.

“As someone born on the South Side, raised on the West Side and who is caring for my disabled sister relying on SNAP and Medicaid, I’ve lived the devastating impact of the Trump Administration and I’ll continue to fight back on behalf of my constituents,” she wrote in a statement. “While this is not the outcome we were hoping for, I am comforted by the words of Scripture: ‘I have fought the good fight, I have run the race, I have kept the faith.”

As of about 7:50 p.m., La Shawn Ford was leading at 23.1% of the vote, with 78% of the estimated vote counted, according to returns. Melissa Conyears-Ervin was trailing at 19.6%, while Anthony Driver was coming in third at 11.5%.

Supporters of Ford were upbeat early Tuesday night as the “Wobble” song pumped through the National Association of Letter Carriers headquarters on Chicago’s South Side. Among the supporters making an early appearance was outgoing U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, who for the first time in nearly three decades did not have his name on the ballot.

Last summer, Davis’s historic announcement that he will forgo a 16th term triggered a mad dash of more than a dozen candidates to represent one America’s bluest congressional districts.

The longtime dean of the Illinois delegation leaves behind a legacy as a forceful progressive voice in Congress, and the question of who should replace him in the racially and economically diverse district — spanning downtown, swaths of the West and South sides and the west suburbs — has drawn national interest, with super PAC dollars upending the fundraising ground game.

Trump’s toxic brand among local Democratic voters has been an undercurrent of the primary, prompting candidates to tack left and try to tie their opponents to the president as dark money from special interest groups that align with conservatives has entered the fray.

Conyears-Ervin, Chicago’s treasurer since 2019, launched her second bid for the seat after falling short of unseating incumbent Davis two years ago. Her candidacy has focused on her working-class roots and role as a caretaker for a disabled sister.

She also got the support of a super PAC affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, sparking some of the sharpest attacks in the race given the special interest group’s eminence as a leading target of the political left following the 2023 Gaza war. Her critics have also pounced on a smattering of ethics scandals throughout her tenure as city treasurer.

“I am a Black woman born in Englewood, raised on the West Side,” Conyears-Ervin retorted at one candidates forum. “I don’t have to prove anything to anyone.”

In 2024, the Chicago Board of Ethics determined she misused taxpayer resources for a series of church events and found probable cause she improperly fired two whistleblowers, slapping her with the maximum $70,000 fine. She agreed to pay $30,000 to settle both cases while denying all wrongdoing.

Another whistleblower filed a wide-ranging ethics complaint last fall, alleging her political campaign staff pushed a questionable plan to boycott U.S. Treasury bonds in protest of Trump over internal objections, among other allegations.

Throughout the campaign, Conyears-Ervin deflected from her controversies by framing herself as a scrappy politician who is the right candidate to defend the district’s most vulnerable residents.

Asked publicly to step down over her scandals, Conyears-Ervin shot back, “To think that I would resign from city treasurer because I stood up to Donald Trump is insane.”

State Rep. Ford, Davis’ pick to succeed him, has touted securing funds for financial aid, behavioral health and test prep programs at colleges and universities.

He’s also fought off attacks from the pro-cryptocurrency PAC Fairshake after he voted for Springfield regulations of the digital asset. The group’s ads on his past felony bank fraud charges were decried by Ford as slanderous.

“Running for office is very challenging, and when you stand up for the people, you actually get punished,” Ford said during a debate.

In 2014, Ford agreed to plead guilty to a single misdemeanor tax count in exchange for federal prosecutors dropping all 17 felony charges.

Jason Friedman, the highest fundraiser in the race, touted putting cranes in the sky and creating union jobs as owner of Friedman Properties in River North.

He also went negative on Conyears-Ervin as the primary season went on and her war chest benefited from the AIPAC-affiliated super PAC, United Democracy Project. He released an ad this month knocking her for “being funded by Trump’s MAGA allies.”

That’s despite the fact that his campaign also took in money from AIPAC and UDP donors last year. Friedman has also been attacked for pulling a Republican ballot in the 2012 primary election and donating to a GOP candidate the next year. His campaign responded to questions about those voter and campaign finance records with “Jason Friedman is a lifelong Democrat.”

In her fourth run for this seat, activist Kina Collins stressed on the campaign trail that she was fighting the Democratic establishment long before the rest, and supported abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and defunding the police long before they had their moments among the political left.

Collins has struggled with meeting a recent campaign finance reporting deadline and is being sued for credit card debt, the latter of which she said is “even more of a reason for someone like me to go and represent working-class people.”

Dr. Thomas Fisher, an emergency room physician at the University of Chicago Medical Center, sought to run as an outsider to politics, one who swore off corporate PAC dollars. He was the second-highest fundraiser in the race after Friedman.

“This is the opportunity for voters to choose,” Fisher told the Tribune. “Do they want more of the same, or do they want a difference?”

Labor leader Anthony Driver angled to be the progressive movement’s candidate during the primary.

He touted his time on the picket lines as executive director of the Service Employees International Union’s state council, and as the inaugural president of the city’s Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, in stressing his passion for left-leaning causes.

Driver on the campaign trail also questioned his opponents’ working-class bona fides, arguing he has the actual lived experience.

Other candidates that ran in the Democratic primary were immigrant rights advocate Anabel Mendoza, former Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin, ex-U.S. Justice Department lawyer Reed Showalter, Forest Park Mayor Rory Hoskins, engineer Felix Tello and UIC adjunct lecturer David Ehrlich.

Also Tuesday night, the race to succeed U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia officially begins after his chief of staff, whom he hopes to anoint as his successor, is poised to clinch the uncontested Democratic primary Tuesday evening.

Democratic nominee Patty Garcia will face Pilsen Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, Lyons Mayor Chris Getty and Mayra Macías, former executive director of the Latino Victory Project, in the November general election. The latter three are running as independents after a controversial last-minute ballot maneuver from the congressman, who late last year announced his retirement after serving for four terms.

Also running in the general election are Republican nominee Lupe Castillo and Ed Hershey, the candidate for the Working Class Party.

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