Michael Thompson (Illinois)
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Michael Thompson (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Illinois' 1st Congressional District. He lost in the Democratic primary on June 28, 2022.
Thompson completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2021. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Michael Thompson was born in Chicago, Illinois. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2013 and a J.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago John Marshall Law School in 2017. Thompson’s career experience includes working as a manager of workforce and business solutions.[1]
Elections
2022
See also: Illinois' 1st Congressional District election, 2022
General election
General election for U.S. House Illinois District 1
Jonathan Jackson defeated Eric Carlson, Tori Nicholson, and Babette Peyton in the general election for U.S. House Illinois District 1 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Jonathan Jackson (D)  | 67.0 | 159,142 |
 | Eric Carlson (R) | 33.0 | 78,258 | |
| Tori Nicholson (Independent) (Write-in) | 0.0 | 13 | ||
 | Babette Peyton (Independent) (Write-in) | 0.0 | 12 | |
| Total votes: 237,425 | |||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Mitchel Davilo (Independent)
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for U.S. House Illinois District 1
The following candidates ran in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Illinois District 1 on June 28, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Jonathan Jackson | 28.2 | 21,607 |
 | Pat Dowell | 19.0 | 14,594 | |
 | Karin Norington-Reaves | 14.1 | 10,825 | |
 | Jacqueline Collins | 12.1 | 9,299 | |
 | Chris Butler | 5.4 | 4,141 | |
 | Jahmal Cole | 5.3 | 4,045 | |
 | Jonathan Swain | 3.3 | 2,554 | |
 | Michael Thompson | 2.2 | 1,680 | |
| Charise Williams | 2.1 | 1,601 | ||
 | Cassandra Goodrum | 1.9 | 1,422 | |
 | Marcus Lewis | 1.2 | 901 | |
 | Robert Palmer | 1.2 | 899 | |
| Nykea Pippion McGriff | 1.2 | 892 | ||
 | Terre Layng Rosner | 1.0 | 780 | |
| Ameena Nuur Matthews | 0.9 | 686 | ||
 | Kirby Birgans | 0.7 | 511 | |
 | Steven DeJoie | 0.3 | 251 | |
| Total votes: 76,688 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Darius Dee Nix (D)
- J. Darnell Jones (D)
- Howard Spiller (D)
- Michael Payne (D)
- Stephany Rose Spaulding (D)
Republican primary election
Republican primary for U.S. House Illinois District 1
Eric Carlson defeated Jeff Regnier, Geno Young, and Philanise White in the Republican primary for U.S. House Illinois District 1 on June 28, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Eric Carlson | 40.5 | 10,755 |
 | Jeff Regnier | 39.0 | 10,375 | |
| Geno Young | 14.5 | 3,853 | ||
 | Philanise White | 6.0 | 1,598 | |
| Total votes: 26,581 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Matthew O'Keefe (R)
Campaign themes
2022
Video for Ballotpedia
| Video submitted to Ballotpedia Released June 6, 2021 |
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Michael Thompson completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2021. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Thompson's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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My name is Michael Thompson. I was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, and a product of Chicago Public Schools. My entire life has been dedicated to public service. My family instilled community as a cornerstone of my life. The most important value being that you are a member of your community, and you do your part to help. Volunteering in homeless shelters, delivering toys to children whose parents were incarcerated, and tutoring students at the schools my mother worked as a CPS teacher, these values have stayed with me my entire life. As a law student, I continued to serve my community. However, whether it was in criminal defense or immigration, I constantly felt like I was in a sinking ship just throwing out water. Yet, when I worked with the John Marshall Law School Restorative Justice Project, I saw how policy can make a real difference in people’s lives. My belief is that investment in mental health and skill development through educational programming is a catalyst towards securing economic self-sufficiency and self-determination in our communities. Through personal experiences I saw how people not from the South-Side viewed the South-Side. I saw how good intentions were often corrupted by arrogance, apathy, and a lack of connection to the community. This more than anything is what inspires me to run for office now. I want to share the power of political office, give constituents results, and make everyone as proud to be from this district as I am.
- The pedagogy of the campaign, and in which I will legislate, is the idea that communities matter. The idea that the micro, is just as important, if not more important than the macro. Providing resources that help individual people, is the first step towards building resources for a community. It is the sum of the people, that make a community.
- Politics should not be a place for celebrity or the idea of a savior. Politics, whether it is actually this way, ought to be a space where the needs of people are heard and responded to. Sharing the power of the office with constituents through elevated forms of constituent service will be how we provide transparency and legislate from a position of humility through the incorporation of all voices.
- Education will be the key to building a stronger country for all of us. Whether from a national security or human services perspective, education will be how we support American's needs in the future.
I am personally passionate about workforce development and education. Ultimately, I would like to see an amendment to the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act that better aligns with our public education system. This can provide resources to students that promote access to diverse post-secondary opportunities, and ultimately career pathways that lead to economic self-sufficiency.
My parents. Veronica and Michael Thompson Sr. are the two most compassionate and hardest working people I have ever met in my life. They also balance each other. My parents, in their own ways, have been a matriarch and patriarch to their family and greater community. They both have taken on the needs and traumas of others, and did their best to return love and support. No one is perfect, but my parents exemplify the type of life we all should live. Love of family, love and service to their community, and steadfast in their morals.
Listening
Humility
Follow-through
Bearing
Initiative
Tact
Ability to legislate
Ability to listen to constituents and incorporate their concerns
I would like to leave a legacy where I can be an example of what politics ought to be. People should feel like their representation, actually represents who they are. People should be listened to, understood, and made to feel like their concerns are being directly responded to.
The first major historical event in my lifetime was the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States of America. I was a 19 year old freshman in college in November 2008 when he won and it was the first election I voted in. The feeling on campus was euphoric to say the least. But even deeper than that, it created a belief in me that all of us could do more than what we had the ability to see.
My very first job was in high school as a bus boy for Chicago's Home of Chicken and Waffles on 39th and King Drive, in the South Side of Chicago. It was valuable experience, but also was a stark reminder of how class issues affect the way people view each other. It affirmed in me a belief that a lot of people do not follow when they become successful; you are better than no one, and you are never too important to be nice to people.
Plato's Republic
Big Sean - Thank You
The U.S. House of Representatives is a unique institution because it is a place designed to hear new and diverse ideas. Eligibility requirements and constitutional history are evidence of the fact that the U.S. House is a place where the people's voice is meant to be amplified.
I do not think it is necessary to have experience directly in government or politics. However, I do believe it is necessary to have experience working with and supporting people in some fashion. Politics ought to be about how we respond to people's needs. Experiences that speak to that skill is what I believe is most necessary to be a good politician.
I believe our greatest challenge in the next decade will be healing the divide that was caused in the last presidency and repairing the infrastructure of our country. I use the term infrastructure inclusive of not just roads and bridges; but also schools, public resources, and the overall efficiency in which we deliver on the promises of government.
I would like to be a part of the Education and Labor committee. With my background in workforce development, I believe this would be the best place to share expertise on the topic of helping people find jobs to support their families.
No. With two-year terms, House members are constantly campaigning, which leaves less time for actual legislation. I would like to see House members have similar terms to senators, with term limits like the President. This can eliminate the need for constant campaigning, and avoid "career politicians" who may have antiquated ideas.
There was a cruise ship sailing in the ocean and one day it sank. Then a group of sharks came and ate everyone on the ship except for two lawyers. When the coast guard rescued the lawyers, they asked the sharks why the lawyers were not eaten. The shark's response; professional courtesy.
I think compromise will always be a necessary component of legislating because you have to work with people that do not always agree with you because of specific and legitimate circumstances. However, compromise should never be a hinderance on someone's morals. No one desires compromise, but it is necessary when engaging in an interpersonal connection with diverse people from diverse backgrounds.
Taxes are a necessary part of a functioning government. And yet, we have a tax system that can be inherently unfair to struggling people, but exceedingly beneficial to corporations and the wealthiest members of our society. We need fair revenue raising strategies that do not break the backs of the middle class, makes the wealthiest among us pay their fair share, and attempts to invest in strategies that create self-sustaining revenue streams for government services in order to be less reliant on taxes over time.
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.
See also
2022 Elections
External links
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Candidate U.S. House Illinois District 1 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on June 6, 2021
Senators
Tammy Duckworth (D)
Dick Durbin (D)
Representatives
District 1
Jonathan Jackson (D)
District 2
Robin Kelly (D)
District 3
Delia Ramirez (D)
District 4
Jesus Garcia (D)
District 5
Mike Quigley (D)
District 6
Sean Casten (D)
District 7
Danny Davis (D)
District 8
District 9
Jan Schakowsky (D)
District 10
Brad Schneider (D)
District 11
Bill Foster (D)
District 12
Mike Bost (R)
District 13
Nikki Budzinski (D)
District 14
Lauren Underwood (D)
District 15
Mary Miller (R)
District 16
Darin LaHood (R)
District 17
Eric Sorensen (D)
Democratic Party (16)
Republican Party (3)
