Democrat Jonathan Jackson, 60, had no opposition in the Democratic primary for the 1st District, which includes much of Chicago’s South Side as well as Cook County suburbs such as Alsip, Harvey and Orland Park, along with parts of Will and Kankakee County.
Few districts have so storied a history. The 1st was the first to send a Black representative to Congress in the 20th century (Republican Oscar Stanton De Priest) and the seat has been held by a Black representative for longer than any other district. It has been held by a Democrat since 1935; the recent longtime incumbent was Bobby Rush.
Jonathan Jackson, the son of the late civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson and his wife Jacqueline, has held the seat since 2023.
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Jackson’s opposition, such as it is, comes in the form of Christian Maxwell, 36, a businesswoman, marketing consultant and, she has emphasized, homeschooling mother of four children. We did not make an endorsement in the Republican primary, not least because we had no time for the otherwise intriguing Maxwell’s argument at the time that Joe Biden was not duly elected as president.
Maxwell has clapped back at us, telling us that she is not seeking our endorsement in the general election due to her “concerns about whether the Tribune’s endorsement process and broader coverage of Chicago politics fully reflect the range of voices, frustrations, and priorities across Illinois’ 1st Congressional District.”
She went on to say that “many families in this district feel overlooked by the political establishment. They are concerned about public safety, education, affordability, housing, taxes, and whether government programs are actually producing results. My campaign is focused on speaking directly to those concerns and engaging voters where they are.”
Fair enough. An endorsement would not have been coming her way anyway.
As was the case in 2024, we are endorsing Jackson as an able and service-oriented representative of this historically significant district with the caveat that we do not agree with all of his progressive positions, once again noting our difference of opinion on matters both far from home (the Middle East) and close to home (the need for Chicago Public Schools to consolidate dramatically underenrolled schools). That said, we were glad to hear Jackson say this summer that he did not embrace the label of democratic socialism.
We also were impressed with his answer to our question about Immigration and Customs Enforcement and its methods: “Detainees at the Broadview facility reported being crowded into unsanitary rooms, denied adequate food and water, and pressured to sign documents they did not understand,” he told us. “When my Illinois colleagues and I came to inspect it in June 2025, ICE locked the door on members of Congress, and it took a federal court ruling before we were allowed inside. This isn’t law enforcement, it’s a campaign of fear designed for television, making absolutely no one in this country safer. A government confident in how it treats people in its custody would not need to hide it from Congress.” Indeed not.
Jonathan Jackson is endorsed.
Read all of the Tribune Editorial Board’s endorsements for the 2026 Illinois general election here.
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email [email protected].
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