The congressman from the 7th District is Danny Davis, a Democrat first elected in 1996. Davis grew up on a cotton farm in Arkansas, graduated from college in that state, then moved to Chicago and worked as a teacher, assistant principal, and guidance counselor in Chicago public schools. For 10 years, he ran a community health project on the West Side. He was elected alderman in the 29th Ward in 1979, and supported Mayor Harold Washington, the city’s first black mayor, in his notorious 1980s battles with white machine aldermen dubbed the “Council Wars.” In 1990, Davis was elected a Cook County commissioner and a year later, made a quixotic run for mayor against Richard M. Daley. In 1996, when Democratic Rep. Cardiss Collins retired after nearly 24 years in the House, Davis decided to run for the seat. His major opponents were 3rd Ward Alderman Dorothy Tillman, a Daley ally, and 28th Ward Alderman Ed Smith. Davis campaigned as a big-government liberal, calling for a $7.60 minimum wage, affirmative-action programs, and a nationalized health care plan. Davis won with 33%. He went on to win the general election with ease and has not faced a serious challenge since. However, he lost his 29th Ward committeeman post to a Daley-backed challenger in 2000. Read More

The congressman from the 7th District is Danny Davis, a Democrat first elected in 1996. Davis grew up on a cotton farm in Arkansas, graduated from college in that state, then moved to Chicago and worked as a teacher, assistant principal, and guidance counselor in Chicago public schools. For 10 years, he ran a community health project on the West Side. He was elected alderman in the 29th Ward in 1979, and supported Mayor Harold Washington, the city’s first black mayor, in his notorious 1980s battles with white machine aldermen dubbed the “Council Wars.” In 1990, Davis was elected a Cook County commissioner and a year later, made a quixotic run for mayor against Richard M. Daley. In 1996, when Democratic Rep. Cardiss Collins retired after nearly 24 years in the House, Davis decided to run for the seat. His major opponents were 3rd Ward Alderman Dorothy Tillman, a Daley ally, and 28th Ward Alderman Ed Smith. Davis campaigned as a big-government liberal, calling for a $7.60 minimum wage, affirmative-action programs, and a nationalized health care plan. Davis won with 33%. He went on to win the general election with ease and has not faced a serious challenge since. However, he lost his 29th Ward committeeman post to a Daley-backed challenger in 2000.

In the House, Davis has a liberal voting record, though he’s moved closer to the center on economic issues in recent years. He has opposed income tax cuts, even when advocated by Democratic President Bill Clinton. He opposed the sugar program as corporate welfare (Chicago remains the nation’s leading candy manufacturer). On the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, he was a champion of organized labor as he worked with a bipartisan coalition that in 2006 enacted major changes in the Postal Service. With his wife, Vera Davis, who was then president of the West Side NAACP, Davis advocated a local program to increase the low share of black home ownership in his district by offering credit counseling and innovative forms of mortgage financing. His devotion to issues affecting the poor has won him respect even among Republicans. With the view that everybody deserves a second chance, Davis has taken a deep interest in the problems of former convicts seeking to transition to the mainstream. He teamed with Rep. Mark Souder, a conservative Republican from Indiana, on a bill creating tax credits to encourage transitional housing and job training for former prisoners. It evolved into his Second Chance Act, which President George W. Bush signed into law in 2008.

Davis is eager for political advancement and in recent years has signaled his readiness to leave the House, but repeatedly has stopped short. In 2006, he sought to become Cook County Board president when incumbent John Stroger suffered a serious stroke. But Democratic committeemen overwhelmingly supported Stroger’s son, Todd, for the nomination, and Davis was a distant second. After the 2008 election, he campaigned publicly to win the support of Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich to fill the Senate seat vacated by President-elect Obama. Blagojevich later was charged with trying to gain politically and personally from his power to make the appointment. The disgraced governor decided to go ahead and make the appointment anyway and called Davis his top choice. But Davis turned down what was bound to be viewed as a tainted appointment. Blagojevich then appointed former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to the seat. As a significant consolation prize, the Democratic House leadership gave Davis a seat on the Ways and Means Committee. He was an outspoken defender of the committee’s chairman, black New York Democrat Charles B. Rangel, during Rangel’s ethics scandal, and called the health care overhaul “good for black America.” Davis lost his seat on Ways and Means when Republicans took control of the House in 2011.

In 2009, Davis weighed another bid for the Cook County board and filed to run for the job concurrently with filing for re-election, only to back out at the last minute. After Daley announced abruptly in 2010 he would not seek re-election as mayor, Davis jumped into the race, collecting endorsements from 15 African-American aldermen. But with pressure mounting to settle on a single black candidate in early January, he endorsed former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, who had stressed her fundraising advantages over Davis. She eventually lost to former Obama White House staff chief Rahm Emanuel, who is white.