James O'Brien (Illinois)
James O'Brien (Democratic Party) is running for election to the Illinois House of Representatives to represent District 13. He is on the ballot in the Democratic primary on March 17, 2026.[source]
O'Brien completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2026. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
James O'Brien earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Dayton in 2013, a graduate degree from Johns Hopkins University, and a law degree from the Chicago-Kent College of Law in 2021.[1]
Elections
2026
See also: Illinois House of Representatives elections, 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.
Democratic primary
The candidate list in this election may not be complete.
Democratic primary for Illinois House of Representatives District 13
Adam Braun (D), Ridge Knapp (D), Sunjay Kumar (D), James O'Brien (D), and Demi Palecek (D) are running in the Democratic primary for Illinois House of Representatives District 13 on March 17, 2026.
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 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Republican primary
The candidate list in this election may not be complete.
Republican primary for Illinois House of Representatives District 13
Terry Le (R) is running in the Republican primary for Illinois House of Representatives District 13 on March 17, 2026.
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 | Terry Le | |
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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. | ||||
Endorsements
O'Brien received the following endorsements. To send us additional endorsements, click here.
Campaign themes
2026
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
James O'Brien completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2026. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by O'Brien's responses.
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I have extensive experience on negotiating compassionate and balanced budgets, building coalitions to pass legislation, and achieving systemic reforms some thought impossible.
I'm not afraid of a fight and have taken on big tech companies for digital privacy rights, held utilities accountable, and passed historic statewide school funding reform to help provide underserved students resources they need to succeed.
These are serious times and I am ready to hit the ground running on day one at a time when we desperately need results, not empty rhetoric.- I'm tired of Chicagoans getting teargassed and taken, we need to better defend our city against ICE. We need a state government that matches the resiliency of our people. I will work tirelessly to hold anyone that breaks the law, including federal agents, accountable, build up our volunteer networks with state support, and enhance protections to make Chicago welcoming for all.
- We need to make Chicago more affordable. Cost of rent, utilities, medical bills student loans, property taxes, you name it - everything is getting unsustainably expensive. As the only person in the race with extensive experience on public budgets, education funding, and holding utilities accountable I will wake up every day on a mission to put money back in your pocket and more equitably provide critical services to those in need.
- I'll be laser focused on getting results, not empty rhetoric. At every stage of my career in public service I've helped deliver major systemic reforms, always centered on building up everyday people. This includes work on historic statewide school funding reform, digital privacy rights, protections for special education students, implementing Illinois' climate goals, energy affordability initiatives, and more. The stakes are too high for politicians that beat their chest about an issue and never follow up. I can't promise you I will fix all our problems, no one can. But I do promise I will work day and night, using my wealth of experience to focus on building up the people behind each policy.
- 40th Ward Democrats
- 47th Ward Democrats
- Illinois Education Association
- Ironworkers Local 63
- Better Streets Chicago Action Fund
- Chicago Growth Project
- Run For Something
Elected Officials
- Former IL Secretary of State Jesse White
- State Senator Robert Martwick
- State Representative Will Davis
- State Representative Michelle Mussman
- MWRD Commissioner Cam Davis
- MWRD Commissioner Sharon Waller
- MWRD Vice President Patricia Theresa Flynn
- State Representative Rita Mayfield
- State Representative Fred Crespo
- State Representative Larry Walsh, Jr.
- State Representative Natalie Manley
- State Representative Sonya Harper
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
Campaign finance information for this candidate is not yet available from OpenSecrets. That information will be published here once it is available.
See also
2026 Elections
External links
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Candidate Illinois House of Representatives District 13 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on January 21, 2026
