David Ehrlich
David Ehrlich (Democratic Party) is running for election to the U.S. House to represent Illinois' 7th Congressional District. He is on the ballot in the Democratic primary on March 17, 2026.[source]
Ehrlich completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2026. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
David Ehrlich earned a graduated from Grosse Pointe South High School. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan in 1981, a graduate degree from Georgetown University in 1989, and a Ph.D. from Wayne State University in 2004. His career experience includes working as a professor.[1]
2026 battleground election
Ballotpedia identified the March 17, 2026, Democratic primary for Illinois' 7th Congressional District as a battleground election. The summary below is from our coverage of this election, found here.
Thirteen candidates are running in the Democratic primary for Illinois' 7th Congressional District on March 17, 2026.
Incumbent Danny K. Davis (D) is retiring. The last time the district was open was 1996, when Davis was first elected. Davis was most recently re-elected in 2024 with 83% of the vote. For a list of U.S. Representatives who are not running for re-election in 2026, click here.
The section below lists candidates leading in media attention and fundraising. To read more about how Ballotpedia defines noteworthy candidates, click here.
- Richard Boykin (D) is a lawyer who served on the Cook County Board of Commissioners from 2014 to 2018 and previously worked as Davis’s chief of staff.[2][3] Boykin says he would focus on lowering the cost of living and promoting public safety.[4]
- Kina Collins (D) is a political organizer.[5] Collins says she would support "Medicare for All, housing as a human right, fair wages, clean air and water, and an economy that centers people over profit."[6]
- Melissa Conyears-Ervin (D) was elected Chicago City Treasurer in 2019 and previously served in the Illinois House of Representatives from 2017 to 2019.[7] Conyears-Ervin says she would focus on the economy and would support "apprenticeships, fair wages, and local manufacturing."[8] Chicago City Clerk Anna Valencia and former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot endorsed Conyears-Ervin.[9]
- Thomas Fisher (D) is an emergency physician.[10] Highlighting his experience as a doctor, Fisher says he would support universal healthcare and would address "inadequate insurance, inflexible jobs, and a frayed safety net."[11] 314 Action endorsed Fisher.[12]
- La Shawn Ford (D) is a former teacher who was elected to the Illinois House in 2007. Ford says he would focus on creating jobs, improving public health, and supporting criminal justice reform.[13] Davis endorsed Ford.[14]
- Jason Friedman (D) is the owner and former president of a real estate business.[15][16] Friedman says he would work to create jobs, support unions, and improve the education system.[17] The Joint Action Committee for Political Affairs endorsed Friedman.[18]
Multiple candidates are campaigning on their political experience. Boykins says he "spent decades developing relationships at all levels of government" and would be able to allocate federal funding to the district.[3] Highlighting her experience as Chicago Treasurer, Conyears-Ervin says she would be able to "expand pathways for homeownership, grow small-business opportunities, and encourage responsible investment."[8] Ford says his legislative career has been "rooted in trust, accessibility, and the belief that government should open doors."[13] Highlighting his work in the office of U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Friedman says he has a "background in public service and Democratic causes."[15]
Collins and Conyears-Ervin both ran in previous Democratic primaries for the district. Collins received 14% of the vote in 2020, 46% in 2022, and 19% in 2024. Conyears-Ervin received 21% of the vote in 2024.
As of November 2025, The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter, Inside Elections with Nathan Gonzales, and Larry J. Sabato's Crystal Ball each rated the general election Safe/Solid Democratic.
Also running in the primary are Anthony Driver Jr. (D), David Ehrlich (D), Rory Hoskins (D), Anabel Mendoza (D), Jazmin Robinson (D), Reed Showalter (D), and Felix Tello (D).
Elections
2026
See also: Illinois' 7th Congressional District election, 2026
General election
The primary will occur on March 17, 2026. The general election will occur on November 3, 2026. General election candidates will be added here following the primary.
The candidate list in this election may not be complete.
General election for U.S. House Illinois District 7
Nathan Billips (Independent) and Anita Rao (Independent) are running in the general election for U.S. House Illinois District 7 on November 3, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Nathan Billips (Independent) | |
| Anita Rao (Independent) | ||
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 = 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
The candidate list in this election may not be complete.
Democratic primary for U.S. House Illinois District 7
The following candidates are running in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Illinois District 7 on March 17, 2026.
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| = 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. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Jerico Brown (D)
- Kamaria Kali (D)
- Danica Leigh (D)
- John McCombs (D)
- William Volny (D)
Republican primary
The candidate list in this election may not be complete.
Republican primary for U.S. House Illinois District 7
Patricia Easley (R) and Chad Koppie (R) are running in the Republican primary for U.S. House Illinois District 7 on March 17, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Patricia Easley | |
 | Chad Koppie | |
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| = 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. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Tekita Martinez (R)
Polls
- See also: Ballotpedia's approach to covering polls
We provide results for polls that are included in polling aggregation from RealClearPolitics, when available. We will regularly check for polling aggregation for this race and add polls here once available. To notify us of polls available for this race, please email us.
Election campaign finance
Candidate spending
| Name | Party | Receipts* | Disbursements** | Cash on hand | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Richard Boykin | Democratic Party | $328,111 | $222,640 | $105,471 | As of December 31, 2025 |
| Kina Collins | Democratic Party | $39,471 | $34,574 | $4,896 | As of December 31, 2025 |
| Melissa Conyears-Ervin | Democratic Party | $336,916 | $128,706 | $216,943 | As of December 31, 2025 |
| Anthony Driver Jr. | Democratic Party | $175,651 | $102,295 | $73,356 | As of December 31, 2025 |
| David Ehrlich | Democratic Party | $6,833 | $6,833 | $0 | As of December 31, 2025 |
| Thomas Fisher | Democratic Party | $626,991 | $171,752 | $455,239 | As of December 31, 2025 |
| La Shawn Ford | Democratic Party | $407,230 | $99,683 | $307,547 | As of December 31, 2025 |
| Jason Friedman | Democratic Party | $1,804,997 | $770,824 | $1,034,174 | As of December 31, 2025 |
| Rory Hoskins | Democratic Party | $160,607 | $149,002 | $11,605 | As of December 31, 2025 |
| Anabel Mendoza | Democratic Party | $128,645 | $73,288 | $55,357 | As of December 31, 2025 |
| Jazmin Robinson | Democratic Party | $21,215 | $16,316 | $4,899 | As of December 31, 2025 |
| Reed Showalter | Democratic Party | $253,569 | $118,888 | $134,681 | As of December 31, 2025 |
| Felix Tello | Democratic Party | $8,410 | $1,898 | $6,512 | As of September 30, 2025 |
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Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," 2026. This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* According to the FEC, "Receipts are anything of value (money, goods, services or property) received by a political committee." |
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Satellite spending
- See also: Satellite spending
Satellite spending describes political spending not controlled by candidates or their campaigns; that is, any political expenditures made by groups or individuals that are not directly affiliated with a candidate. This includes spending by political party committees, super PACs, trade associations, and 501(c)(4) nonprofit groups.[19][20][21]
If available, this section includes links to online resources tracking satellite spending in this election. To notify us of a resource to add, email us.
| By candidate | By election |
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Endorsements
Ballotpedia is gathering information about candidate endorsements. To send us an endorsement, click here.
Campaign themes
2026
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
David Ehrlich completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2026. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Ehrlich's responses.
| Collapse all
- I have three main goals in my first term: 1) CLEAN GOVERNMENT, 2) A CLEAN, FAIR, & STRONG SAFETY NET with SAFE STREETS, and 3) CLEAN ENERGY JOBS, CLEAN AIR, and FAST CLEAN TRANSIT. These are all achievable. CLEAN GOVERNMENT: Corruption is a tax & drain on every one of us: it makes health care less affordable and health care jobs harder to get, puts us in physical danger from gun violence, it means less opportunity to buy a house, start a business, or send a child to college. Stop the most corrupt administration in history, including attacks on our freedom, communities, democracy, and most of our Constitutional Bill of Rights such as by ICE. Our streets would be 3,000 police safer with no CPD $300 million 2025 corruption settlement.
- A CLEAN, FAIR, & STRONG SAFETY NET with SAFE STREETS. I’ll work to restore & improve the safety net of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, ACA SNAP, CHIP, the Child Tax Credit, with education & jobs & small business in the 7th. 60,000 neighbors don’t have health insurance. That’s unacceptable, and I’ll work to cover them and continue the health care legacies of Cong. Rangel & Pepper. I’ll work to ban assault weapons, stop gun trafficking with federal help, & increase waiting periods for gun licenses. Housing, a human right, needs fair lending and to be affordable. Expand the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit that Cong. Rangel created while I worked for him, which has financed 90% of the 3 million affordable homes built in the last 30 years.
- I’ll be a leader in Congress in clean energy jobs, the environment, & reducing GHG emissions, as an advocate and passing legislation. We have to stop the madness and change course 190 degrees. We need clean air, climate justice, and good jobs. We can get all three by turning the 7th into the US and world's center for clean energy jobs, research, manufacturing, and technology exports, to US and foreign markets. We can. We should. We have 2 million jobs in Chicagoland, but we need more and we need to start building now. Chicago is a logical place for a climate and renewable energy jobs cluster to grow. It will grow 25% a year whether here or somewhere else. We have all the building blocks even if Congress won't help right now.
I’m very passionate about environmental and climate issues, and have worked on them and taught them my entire career. For example, I designed and teach the first climate change policy course at the #1 public affairs and #1 environmental policy univer
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
2026 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on February 12, 2026
- ↑ Austin Weekly News, "Richard Boykin announces candidacy for 7th District congressional seat," September 19, 2025
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Richard Boykin 2026 campaign website, "Meet Richard, accessed November 23, 2025
- ↑ Richard Boykin 2026 campaign website, "The People’s Playbook: A Contract with the 7th District," accessed November 23, 2025
- ↑ Kina Collins 2026 campaign website, "About Me," accessed November 23, 2025
- ↑ Kina Collins 2026 campaign website, "Our Campaign's Top Issues," accessed November 23, 2025
- ↑ LegiStorm, "Former State Rep. Melissa Conyears-Ervin," accessed November 23, 2025
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Melissa Conyears-Ervin 2026 campaign website, "Home," accessed November 23, 2025
- ↑ Politico, "Will Durbin endorsement lose luster?" November 11, 2025
- ↑ Thomas Fisher 2026 campaign website, "Meet Dr. Thomas Fisher," accessed November 23, 2025
- ↑ Thomas Fisher 2026 campaign website, "Issues," accessed November 23, 2025
- ↑ 314 Action, "Thomas Fisher," accessed November 25, 2025
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 La Shawn Ford 2026 campaign website, "Experience That's Ready On Day One for the People of the 7th Congressional District," accessed November 23, 2025
- ↑ CBS News, "Congressman Danny Davis announces he won't run for re-election, endorses La Shawn Ford for his seat," July 31, 2025
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Jason Friedman 2026 campaign website, "Meet Jason," accessed November 23, 2025
- ↑ Chicago Tribune, "Top candidates for the US House in Illinois’ 2nd, 7th, 8th and 9th districts for the 2026 election," August 19, 2025
- ↑ Jason Friedman 2026 campaign website, "Jason on the Issues," accessed November 23, 2025
- ↑ JAC, "Jason Friedman," accessed November 25, 2025
- ↑ OpenSecrets.org, "Outside Spending," accessed December 12, 2021
- ↑ OpenSecrets.org, "Total Outside Spending by Election Cycle, All Groups," accessed December 12, 2021
- ↑ National Review.com, "Why the Media Hate Super PACs," December 12, 2021
