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Howard Rosenblum

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This candidate is participating in a 2026 battleground election. Click here to read more about that election.
Howard Rosenblum
Democratic Party
Candidate, U.S. House Illinois District 9
Elections and appointments
Next election
March 17, 2026
Education
High school
Evanston Township High School
Bachelor's
University of Arizona, 1988
Law
Chicago-Kent College of Law, 1992
Personal
Birthplace
Chicago, IL
Religion
Jewish
Profession
Lawyer
Contact
Campaign website
Campaign Facebook
Campaign X
Campaign Instagram
Campaign YouTube
Personal website
Personal LinkedIn

Howard Rosenblum (Democratic Party) is running for election to the U.S. House to represent Illinois' 9th Congressional District. He is on the ballot in the Democratic primary on March 17, 2026.[source]

Rosenblum completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Howard Rosenblum was born in Chicago, Illinois. He earned a high school diploma from Evanston Township High School. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona in 1988. He earned a law degree from the Chicago-Kent College of Law in 1992. His career experience includes working as a lawyer.[1]

2026 battleground election

See also: Illinois' 9th Congressional District election, 2026 (March 17 Democratic primary)

Ballotpedia identified the March 17 Democratic primary for Illinois' 9th Congressional District as a battleground election. The summary below is from our coverage of this election, found here.

Kat Abughazaleh (D), Daniel K. Biss (D), Laura Fine (D), and 13 others are running in the Democratic primary for Illinois' 9th Congressional District on March 17, 2026. As of December 2025, Abughazaleh, Biss, and Fine led in fundraising and polling.

Incumbent Jan Schakowsky (D) is not running for re-election. As of December 2025, major election forecasters rated the general election Solid Democratic. This is the first election in the 9th District without an incumbent on the ballot since Schakowsky was first elected in 1998. Axios' Justin Kaufmann said the primary "could pave the way for younger Democrats to take over the district that traditionally skews left."[2]

Abughazaleh is a former researcher and video producer with Media Matters for America, a group describing itself as "a web-based, not-for-profit, 501 (c)(3) progressive research and information center."[3][4] Abghazaleh says she is running "because the same old sh** isn't working — and it won't work to defeat Trump's agenda."[5] Abughazaleh said that "I've fought fascists before as a citizen, union rep, and independent journalist. Now, I'm going to do the same in Congress."[6]

Biss is the mayor of Evanston and a former state legislator. Biss ran for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2018. Biss says he is running "because we need Democrats who won't flinch, won't fold, won't forget what we're fighting for."[7] Biss' campaign website says he "has built coalitions and brought people together to solve problems that have gone unaddressed for too long...Daniel continues to stand up to Donald Trump on immigration, preserving access to abortion, expanding mental health services, and more."[8] Schakowsky endorsed Biss on January 7, 2026.[9]

Fine was elected to the Illinois Senate in 2018. Fine served six years in the Illinois House and worked in journalism. Fine says she is running "to continue her fight to make sure Illinois continues to have a champion in Washington that stands up for families, not special interests."[10] Fine's campaign website says: "For Laura, every bill, every battle, and every victory is personal – because she knows what it’s like to be the person counting on a system that too often says no."[11]

Also running in the primary are Bushra Amiwala (D), Phil Andrew (D), Natalie Angelo (D), Patricia Brown (D), Jeff Cohen (D), Justin Ford (D), Mark Fredrickson (D), Hoan Huynh (D), Bethany Johnson (D), Sam Polan (D), Nick Pyati (D), Howard Rosenblum (D), and Mike Simmons (D).

In the 2024 election, Schakowsky defeated Seth Alan Cohen (D) 68%–32%.

Elections

2026

See also: Illinois' 9th Congressional District election, 2026

General election

The primary will occur on March 17, 2026. The general election will occur on November 3, 2026. Additional general election candidates will be added here following the primary.

General election for U.S. House Illinois District 9

Delila Barrera is running in the general election for U.S. House Illinois District 9 on November 3, 2026.

Candidate
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Delila Barrera (Independent)

There are no incumbents in this race.

Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Illinois District 9

The following candidates are running in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Illinois District 9 on March 17, 2026.

Candidate
Image of Kat Abughazaleh
Kat Abughazaleh Candidate Connection
Image of Bushra Amiwala
Bushra Amiwala Candidate Connection
Image of Phil Andrew
Phil Andrew Candidate Connection
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Natalie Angelo
Image of Daniel K. Biss
Daniel K. Biss
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Submit photo
Patricia Brown
Image of Jeff Cohen
Jeff Cohen
Image of Laura Fine
Laura Fine
Image of Justin Ford
Justin Ford Candidate Connection
Image of Mark Fredrickson
Mark Fredrickson Candidate Connection
Image of Hoan Huynh
Hoan Huynh
Image of Bethany Johnson
Bethany Johnson Candidate Connection
Image of Sam Polan
Sam Polan Candidate Connection
Image of Nick Pyati
Nick Pyati Candidate Connection
Image of Howard Rosenblum
Howard Rosenblum Candidate Connection
Image of Mike Simmons
Mike Simmons

Incumbents are bolded and underlined.

Candidate Connection = 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

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Illinois District 9

Rocio Cleveland, John Elleson, Paul Friedman, and Mark Su are running in the Republican primary for U.S. House Illinois District 9 on March 17, 2026.

Candidate
Image of Rocio Cleveland
Rocio Cleveland
Image of John Elleson
John Elleson Candidate Connection
Image of Paul Friedman
Paul Friedman Candidate Connection
Image of Mark Su
Mark Su Candidate Connection

There are no incumbents in this race.

Candidate Connection = 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.

Polls

See also: Ballotpedia's approach to covering polls

Polls are conducted with a variety of methodologies and have margins of error or credibility intervals.[12] The Pew Research Center wrote, "A margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level means that if we fielded the same survey 100 times, we would expect the result to be within 3 percentage points of the true population value 95 of those times."[13] For tips on reading polls from FiveThirtyEight, click here. For tips from Pew, click here.

Below we provide results for polls from a wide variety of sources, including media outlets, social media, campaigns, and aggregation websites, when available. We only report polls for which we can find a margin of error or credibility interval. Know of something we're missing? Click here to let us know.


Illinois' 9th Congressional District Democratic primary, 2026 polls
PollDatesAbughazalehAmiwalaAndrewBissFineHuynhLeonSimmonsSomeone elseOtherUndecidedSample sizeMargin of errorSponsor
Impact Research
–
173331104262--21
500 LV
± 4.4%
Daniel Biss
Data for Progress
–
186--18105--6--631
569 LV
± 4.0%
Note: LV is likely voters, RV is registered voters, and EV is eligible voters.

Election campaign finance

Name Party Receipts* Disbursements** Cash on hand Date
Kat Abughazaleh Democratic Party $1,524,729 $512,454 $1,012,275 As of September 30, 2025
Bushra Amiwala Democratic Party $642,187 $159,962 $482,225 As of September 30, 2025
Phil Andrew Democratic Party $726,035 $78,297 $647,738 As of September 30, 2025
Natalie Angelo Democratic Party $0 $0 $0 Data not available***
Daniel K. Biss Democratic Party $1,325,884 $315,616 $1,010,268 As of September 30, 2025
Patricia Brown Democratic Party $0 $0 $0 Data not available***
Jeff Cohen Democratic Party $430,772 $34,295 $396,477 As of September 30, 2025
Laura Fine Democratic Party $660,741 $181,543 $479,198 As of September 30, 2025
Justin Ford Democratic Party $24,803 $24,079 $724 As of September 30, 2025
Mark Fredrickson Democratic Party $0 $0 $0 Data not available***
Hoan Huynh Democratic Party $363,957 $162,179 $201,779 As of September 30, 2025
Bethany Johnson Democratic Party $2,324 $370 $1,954 As of September 30, 2025
Sam Polan Democratic Party $343,412 $36,942 $306,470 As of September 30, 2025
Nick Pyati Democratic Party $252,931 $96,282 $156,649 As of September 30, 2025
Howard Rosenblum Democratic Party $75,242 $2,838 $72,404 As of September 30, 2025
Mike Simmons Democratic Party $211,694 $77,042 $134,651 As of September 30, 2025

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."
** According to the FEC, a disbursement "is a purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, deposit or gift of money or anything of value to influence a federal election," plus other kinds of payments not made to influence a federal election.
*** Candidate either did not report any receipts or disbursements to the FEC, or Ballotpedia did not find an FEC candidate ID.

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.[14][15][16]

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

Note: As of December 9, 2025, Natalie Angelo (D), Patricia Brown (D), and Mark Fredrickson (D) had not filed as candidates with the Federal Election Commission.


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

Candidate Connection

Howard Rosenblum completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Rosenblum's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

I am a Deaf civil rights lawyer with over 30 years of experience advocating for equal access. My career has combined 20 years of litigation in Illinois and 13 years of national leadership in disability rights, focusing on systemic change through law, policy, and public advocacy. My work has included landmark cases, such as requiring Netflix to provide captions on streaming content, holding Harvard and MIT accountable for website accessibility, reversing harmful USDA accommodation policies, and ensuring President Trump provided sign language interpreters at public briefings. I am running for Congress to continue this fight for civil rights and equal access for all Americans, and to make history as the first Deaf member of the U.S. House of Representative.
  • Restore the rule of law and the Constitution to prevent further abuses of power
  • Rewrite stronger civil rights protection and enforcement for all Americans, particularly those who have been marginalized
  • Reconstruct federal agencies and critically needed programs and services
I am most passionate about policies that promote equal access for all people, including civil rights protections on all bases including but not limited to: disability, race, color, gender, orientation, religion, national origin, and age. Every American deserves access to: quality education; full health care coverage; equitable wages; affordable housing; voting access; and safety from guns, crime, and federal overreach.
There are many people I look up to as role models. My parents are my very first role models, and I would not be where I am now if not for their perseverance in ensuring that I, as a Deaf child growing up, had every opportunity to receive a full education and well rounded development. Senator Tom Harkin is another role model, as someone who led the right for the civil rights of people with disabilities, and that made it possible for my career as a civil rights lawyer. The determination, contributions, and leadership of Justices Thurgood Marshall, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Ketanji Brown Jackson inspire me to persist in advocating for everyone’s civil rights. I also look to the strength and conviction of disability rights leaders that paved the way for me including but not limited to Ed Roberts, Marca Bristo, and Judy Heumann.
Elected officials should uphold the Constitution and laws of the country and prioritize the best interests of Americans over any party or individual. This includes advocating for optimal economic and social developments that enable all Americans to have their best lives.
The core responsibilities of a Congressional Representative for the 9th District of Illinois is to advocate for the needs and interests of all residents in this district as well as for all Americans. This includes doing everything possible to ensure that all residents have good wages, affordable housing, quality education, accessible health care, and safety from hate and federal overreach.
A safer and more equitable country for all residents without hate, with an optimal society that offers everyone good wages, affordable housing, quality education, and accessible health care. Moreover, through my candidacy, I would like to assist in creating more representation by people with disabilities within Congress.
When I was seven years old, Congress passed the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which is the first disability rights law in this country and possibly the world. I did not know until much later how much of an impact this law had on my civil rights.
My first job as a young person was as a camp counselor for children with developmental disabilities, and this was a job that I had for two summers. My first job as a professional was as an attorney with a private law firm for ten years.
To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. This book was instrumental in shaping my view of how the legal system can achieve or corrupt justice based on the prejudices of people, and how we must work to always ensure justice prevails for all of us.
Atticus Finch
Equal access to all parts of society, which is what most people with disabilities experience. It is my hope and goal to be a Representative that can help eradicate such barriers and discrimination for all people, especially those who are marginalized.
Each member of the U.S. House of Representatives represents their district and brings the views and experiences of their residents to this legislative chamber. Such direct representation for each district makes the House unique.
There are many ways for representatives to gain the skills necessary to perform their duties in Congress, and previous experience in government and politics can be beneficial. However, such experience need not be as elected officials. My experience working within the federal government through service on the United States Access Board and within state government via the Illinois Human Rights Commission has given me the unique experience in governmental operations particularly with respect to civil rights. Moreover, I have worked closely with Senators, Representatives, Senate and House committees, and various government agencies such as the Federal Communications Commission, Department of Transportation, Department of Labor, Department of Education, Housing and Urban Development, and Health and Human Services. Such experience qualifies me as someone who fully understands the work of federal Representatives.
Over the next decade, the greatest challenges for our country is how we will overcome polarizing differences and unite to ensure that we promote evidence based best practices for all aspects of federal governance.
Two years is enough time for representatives to make their impact, and re-election allows representatives to continue to expand on their impact.
Constituents have the right to elect the representatives they want, and term limits would deprive them of such choices.
Senator Tom Harkin, who was a Representative before he became a Senator, has been a steadfast and dedicated champion of democracy who advocated for and ensured the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. This law made it possible for millions of Americans with disabilities to lead a life of equality, including myself. Senator Tom Harkin was also the first legislator to use sign language on the floor of Congress, and I seek to become the second.
Many individuals in the district have shared their worries and concerns that the United States is losing its Democratic nature and is becoming or has become a fascist police state. It is important that we restore this country to its ideal of a Constitutional Democracy that has three equally separate branches of government.
Compromise is the best option for policymaking given the nature of our legislative system. At the same time, there are ways to pursue legislative progress where compromise is not possible.
If I am elected, I would take every action possible to ensure that Congress reclaims its powers over raising revenue and appropriations from the President.
Given how the current President is abusing the power of his office and repeatedly violating the separation of powers, giving rise to hundreds of lawsuits filed against the White House, it is imperative that the U.S. House use its investigative powers to bring attention to such abuses and use whatever options are available to reclaim how government agencies are funded.
Marlee Matlin
Senator Tom Harkin
Over my 33 years as a civil rights attorney and disability rights leader, I am most proud of having strategized significant systemic change including but not limited to: requiring Netflix and other streaming video service providers to fully caption their entire video content; mandating Harvard and MIT to ensure their websites are accessible; persuading the Department of Transportation to grant Commercial Drivers Licenses to over 2000 deaf and hard of hearing drivers; and compelling President Trump in the first ever civil rights lawsuit against the White House to provide sign language interpreters during COVID press briefings.
The United States government should have all of its science divisions involved in overseeing and monitoring all development and use of artificial intelligence, including but not limited to: the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP); the National Science Foundation (NSF). Moreover, we should create a new agency that has centralized responsibility to ensure that AI research is done reasonably, safely, and conforms to privacy safeguards.
Legislation is needed to ensure safe and equal access for every citizen to have equal access to voting anywhere in the country including through absentee ballots and voting by mail, and do so without oppression, discrimination, or barriers. We need such legislation to restore and strengthen the requirements of the Voting Rights Act. Further, it is necessary to eradicate the Electoral College so that each person’s vote counts equally.

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.

Howard Rosenblum campaign contribution history
YearOfficeStatusContributionsExpenditures
2026* U.S. House Illinois District 9On the Ballot primary$75,242 $2,838
Grand total$75,242 $2,838
Sources: OpenSecrets,  Federal Elections Commission ***This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* Data from this year may not be complete

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External links

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    Footnotes

    1. ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on September 17, 2025
    2. ↑ Axios, "Schakowsky's potential exit opens door for young Dems," May 2, 2025
    3. ↑ LinkedIn, "Kat A.," accessed December 12, 2025
    4. ↑ Media Matters for America, "About Us," accessed December 12, 2025
    5. ↑ Kat Abughazaleh campaign website, "About," accessed December 12, 2025
    6. ↑ Kat Abughazaleh campaign website, "Home page," accessed December 17, 2025
    7. ↑ YouTube, "Let's do this – Biss campaign advertisement," May 14, 2025
    8. ↑ Daniel K. Biss campaign website, "About," accessed December 17, 2025
    9. ↑ ABC 7 Chicago, "U.S. Rep. Schakowsky endorses Evanston Mayor Biss to take her congressional seat," January 7, 2026
    10. ↑ Laura Fine campaign website, "Meet Laura," accessed December 12, 2025
    11. ↑ Laura Fine campaign website, "Meet Laura," accessed December 17, 2025
    12. ↑ For more information on the difference between margins of error and credibility intervals, see explanations from the American Association for Public Opinion Research and Ipsos.
    13. ↑ Pew Research Center, "5 key things to know about the margin of error in election polls," September 8, 2016
    14. ↑ OpenSecrets.org, "Outside Spending," accessed December 12, 2021
    15. ↑ OpenSecrets.org, "Total Outside Spending by Election Cycle, All Groups," accessed December 12, 2021
    16. ↑ National Review.com, "Why the Media Hate Super PACs," December 12, 2021


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