Dem
47
GOP
53
Rep. Jesús "Chuy" Garcia (D-IL) has been a fixture of Illinois politics for a very long time. He was a Chicago alderman from 1986 to 1993, then a member of the Illinois state Senate from 1993-99. Following a stinging defeat in his 1998 reelection campaign, he spent a decade in the wilderness, then was a member of the Cook County Board of Commissioners from 2011-18. From there he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he is now in the middle of his fourth term.
Naturally, if your political career started nearly 40 years ago, you're probably not a spring chicken anymore. To be more precise, Garcia is 69. And while that's not especially old by the standards of Congress (especially the Senate), there is much pressure right now on older Democrats to stand down. It looks like Garcia is one of those members who will ride off into the sunset for the good of his party, and not necessarily due to his own needs. He had said he was running again, and he even filed the paperwork to run again. Yesterday, however, he announced he was changing his mind, and that he would withdraw his declaration of candidacy. So, he's out.
Garcia's district, IL-04, is D+17, so it is certain to remain in Democratic hands, regardless of what's going on nationally. It's also close to 70% Latino, so he is likely to be succeeded by another Latino. However, there is one somewhat unusual twist here. IL-04 was the product of some very aggressive gerrymandering meant to create a majority-Latino district. And to do that, the mapmakers performed some Olympic-level gymnastics and connected a solidly Puerto Rican neighborhood with a solidly Mexican-American neighborhood.
Garcia, who is very lefty, has learned his lesson about what can happen when a lefty Latino is pitted against a more centrist Latino, as that is what caused him to lose his seat in 1998. And while his Mexican-American community is pretty progressive, the Puerto Ricans are much more centrist, and maybe even a little right-leaning. Why does the Representative care, given that he's standing down, and that his replacement is sure to be a Democrat (even if there is a messy primary)? Well, he would strongly prefer to be succeeded by his chief of staff, Patty Garcia, who is Mexican-American.
So, in a move that demonstrates seasoned-veteran political smarts, but not necessarily a love for democracy, Chuy announced his plans to stand down about an hour before the deadline for candidates to declare. Conveniently, Patty was right there, with paperwork in hand, to file to run. It's actually possible that the Representative never had any intention of running again, and he only filed so as to keep wannabes from declaring. In any event, through these machinations, it appears that Patty will be spared a primary, since—barring a very, very late filing—she will be the only Democrat in the race. She is going to face off against, and defeat, Republican Lupe Castillo and Working Class Party candidate Ed Hershey. Both of those folks ran in 2024, as well, and Chuy crushed them, outdistancing Castillo by 40 points, and Hershey by 62. Expect Patty, your next representative from IL-04, to do the same. (Z)