Kat Abughazaleh loses primary election bid for Illinois U.S. House seat

[orangecrush]

Kat Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old political newcomer whose scrappy House campaign slogans “What if we didn’t suck?” and “I’m done waiting for change” reflected a push for new party leadership, has lost her competitive Democratic primary in Illinois’ 9th Congressional District to Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss.

Since the Chicago-area district is drawn to heavily favor Democrats, Biss is all but destined to win the U.S. House seat in the November midterm elections.

Biss was the front-runner for much of the race, with Abughazaleh and state Sen. Laura Fine rounding out the top tier. In the final days of campaigning, Abughazaleh started to close the gap and Fine dropped deeper into third place. Just a week out from the primary, as much as 15 percent of the district’s Democratic electorate remained undecided.

https://19thnews.org/2026/03/illinois-election-results-house-abughazaleh/