IL 9 D Primary: Biss Defeats Abughazaleh

[Prairie Gates]

7. Very easy to misread this one

Abughazaleh actually overperformed - in fact shockingly so. I think another two weeks and she would have won.

Biss had massive structural advantages here: he has been Mayor of Evanston. The district probably has the highest percentage of pro-Israel Orthodox Jews outside of Brooklyn. (Unfortunately for your analysis, they are almost all in Cook County).

A few weeks ago, she was considered a merely OK third-place finisher, with the real battle between Biss and Fine. The fact that she trounced Fine is probably something that all national Democratic consultants are looking at this morning and for the next several weeks.

I think Kat Abughazaleh's remarkable overperformance in IL-9 is the political story of the night, and maybe of the primary season.