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Dave Nayak
Dave Nayak (Democratic Party) ran in a special election to the Illinois State Senate to represent District 20. He lost in the special Democratic primary on March 19, 2024.
Nayak completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Dave Nayak was born in Peoria, Illinois. He earned a bachelor's degree from Cornell University in 2003 and an M.D. from the University of Illinois, College of Medicine in 2010. Nayak's career experience includes working as a physician, farmer, and community activist.[1]
Elections
2024
See also: Illinois state legislative special elections, 2024
General election
Special general election for Illinois State Senate District 20
Graciela Guzman defeated Jason Proctor in the special general election for Illinois State Senate District 20 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Graciela Guzman (D)  | 81.2 | 61,803 |
 | Jason Proctor (R) | 18.8 | 14,281 | |
| Total votes: 76,084 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Special Democratic primary for Illinois State Senate District 20
Graciela Guzman defeated incumbent Natalie Toro, Dave Nayak, and Geary Yonker in the special Democratic primary for Illinois State Senate District 20 on March 19, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Graciela Guzman | 51.3 | 13,521 |
 | Natalie Toro | 29.2 | 7,701 | |
 | Dave Nayak | 15.1 | 3,973 | |
 | Geary Yonker | 4.4 | 1,153 | |
| Total votes: 26,348 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Special Republican primary for Illinois State Senate District 20
Jason Proctor advanced from the special Republican primary for Illinois State Senate District 20 on March 19, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Jason Proctor | 100.0 | 1,924 |
| Total votes: 1,924 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign finance
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Nayak in this election.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Dave Nayak completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Nayak's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I have been serving our Chicago and Illinois communities for many decades. As a lung physician, I've cared for our ailing veterans at the Edward Hines VA Hospital. In 2019, I opened a Free Asthma and Allergy Clinic serving uninsured patients.
I am also a farmer, and to me, food is medicine. Nayak Farms is one of the largest growers of sweet corn and green beans in the Illinois. My mission is to feed the hungry of Chicago and Illinois with our nutritious produce. Over the last 2 years, I fed over 600,000 people in Chicago and Illinois. We are honored to be part of the Biden Administration's Program to End Hunger by 2030. I'm committed to feeding over 1 million people by 2025 with our healthy produce.
As a parent to two young children, the gun violence epidemic in our communities has impacted our well-being. For years, I have assisted families bury their murdered children. I wrote the Mychal Moultry Funeral and Burial Assistance Act for Murdered Children. Now, any family whose child is murdered by gun violence can receive financial assistance within 3 days to bury their child. We must do more to end gun violence.- Healthcare is a Human Right. As a lung physician, Dr. Dave operates his Free Asthma and Allergy Clinic in Chicago. All of his patients are uninsured,
- Food is Medicine. We are creating equitable food sources by tackling hunger in the 20th District, Chicago and Illinois. As a farmer, Dr. Dave has fed over 500,000 food insecure people in Chicago and Illinois the fresh specialty crops grown on his farm.
- Healing through legislation. Our legislative achievements have decreased the pain of our constituents. Dr. Dave has written and passed key legislation in the Illinois Legislature. For example, his Murdered Children Funeral and Burial Assistance Act provides immediate financial assistance to families for burials and funerals of children murdered by gun violence. Dr. Dave also authored the Illinois Farmers Who Fight Hunger Act that will create over 200,000,000 NEW meals for food insecure Illinoisans
Food security
Right to Reproductive Freedom
Strengthening Unions
Improving public safety
Strength to Love by Martin Luther King
2) Illinois has consistently maintained a structural revenue deficit which has created extreme difficulty in providing adequate funding for our schools, infrastructure and pension systems.
3) Strengthening our unions.
4) Providing adequate nutrition and healthy food options to our food insecure
5) Increasing benefits to our seniors.
1) Health and Human Services
2) Agriculture
3) Appropriations-Health and Human
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
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Candidate Illinois State Senate District 20 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on January 19, 2024
