Patricia Brown
Patricia Brown (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Illinois' 9th Congressional District. Brown lost in the Democratic primary on March 17, 2026.
2026 battleground election
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.
Daniel K. Biss (D) defeated 15 other candidates in the Democratic primary for Illinois' 9th Congressional District on March 17, 2026. As of March 2026, Biss, Kat Abughazaleh, and Laura Fine led in fundraising and polling. Click here for detailed results.
Incumbent Jan Schakowsky (D) did not run for re-election. As of March 2026, major election forecasters rated the general election Solid Democratic. This was the first election in the 9th District without an incumbent on the ballot since Schakowsky was first elected in 1998. Writing in Crain's Chicago Business, Greg Hinz described the primary as "an almost unpredictable cattle call of a race for Congress," citing the "millions of dollars in campaign cash, the fallout from Trump-inspired immigration raids, highly divisive Middle East politics and the impact of social media in a city known for old-school precinct politics."[1]
Biss was, as of the primary, the mayor of Evanston and a former state legislator. Biss ran for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2018. Biss said he was running "because we need Democrats who won't flinch, won't fold, won't forget what we're fighting for."[2] Biss' campaign website said 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."[3] Schakowsky endorsed Biss on January 7, 2026.[4]
Abughazaleh was 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."[5][6] Abghazaleh said she was running "because the same old sh** isn't working — and it won't work to defeat Trump's agenda."[7] 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."[8]
Fine was elected to the Illinois Senate in 2018. Fine served six years in the Illinois House and worked in journalism. Fine said she was running "to continue her fight to make sure Illinois continues to have a champion in Washington that stands up for families, not special interests."[9] Fine's campaign website said: "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."[10]
Also running in the primary were 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 (R) 68%–32%.
Elections
2026
See also: Illinois' 9th Congressional District election, 2026
General election
The general election will occur on November 3, 2026.
The candidate list in this election may not be complete.
General election for U.S. House Illinois District 9
Daniel K. Biss (D), John Elleson (R), and Delila Barrera (Independent) are running in the general election for U.S. House Illinois District 9 on November 3, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Daniel K. Biss (D) | |
 | John Elleson (R)  | |
| Delila Barrera (Independent) | ||
| ||||
| = 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 9
The following candidates ran in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Illinois District 9 on March 17, 2026.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Daniel K. Biss | 29.5 | 34,216 |
 | Kat Abughazaleh | 25.9 | 30,075 | |
 | Laura Fine | 20.2 | 23,398 | |
 | Mike Simmons | 7.3 | 8,451 | |
 | Phil Andrew | 6.2 | 7,220 | |
 | Bushra Amiwala | 5.1 | 5,939 | |
 | Hoan Huynh | 1.7 | 2,029 | |
 | Patricia Brown | 1.3 | 1,459 | |
 | Jeff Cohen | 0.8 | 951 | |
 | Justin Ford | 0.6 | 656 | |
 | Bethany Johnson | 0.5 | 534 | |
 | Sam Polan | 0.4 | 458 | |
 | Howard Rosenblum | 0.2 | 259 | |
 | Nick Pyati | 0.2 | 211 | |
 | Mark Fredrickson | 0.2 | 188 | |
| Natalie Angelo (Withdrew, still on ballot) | 0.0 | 0 | ||
| Total votes: 116,044 | |||
| = 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
- Jan Schakowsky (D)
- David Abrevaya (D)
- Tamika La'Shon Hill (D)
- Miracle Jenkins (D)
- Bruce Leon (D)
- Jill Manrique (D)
- Lauren Million (D)
Republican primary
The candidate list in this election may not be complete.
Republican primary for U.S. House Illinois District 9
John Elleson (R) defeated Paul Friedman (R), Rocio Cleveland (R), and Mark Su (R) in the Republican primary for U.S. House Illinois District 9 on March 17, 2026.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | John Elleson | 48.5 | 5,825 |
 | Paul Friedman | 33.5 | 4,023 | |
 | Rocio Cleveland | 9.2 | 1,110 | |
 | Mark Su | 8.7 | 1,046 | |
| Total votes: 12,004 | |||
| = 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.[11] 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."[12] 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.
| Poll | Dates | Abughazaleh | Amiwala | Andrew | Biss | Fine | Ford | Huynh | Leon | Simmons | Someone else | Other | Undecided | Sample size | Margin of error | Sponsor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
– | 20 | 6 | 7 | 24 | 14 | 1 | 1 | -- | 10 | -- | -- | 17 | 741 LV | ± 3.6% | Evanston RoundTable | |
– | 17 | 4 | 5 | 24 | 16 | -- | 2 | -- | 6 | -- | 4 | 22 | 501 LV | ± 4.4% | Evanston RoundTable | |
– | 14 | 4 | 4 | 21 | 21 | -- | 2 | -- | 7 | -- | 3 | 23 | 500 LV | ± 4.4% | Laura Fine | |
– | 17 | 3 | 3 | 31 | 10 | -- | 4 | 2 | 6 | 2 | -- | 21 | 500 LV | ± 4.4% | Daniel Biss | |
– | 18 | 6 | -- | 18 | 10 | -- | 5 | -- | 6 | -- | 6 | 31 | 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 | $3,359,876 | $2,977,254 | $382,621 | As of February 25, 2026 |
| Bushra Amiwala | Democratic Party | $1,134,018 | $949,350 | $184,668 | As of February 25, 2026 |
| Phil Andrew | Democratic Party | $1,339,123 | $1,166,048 | $173,075 | As of February 25, 2026 |
| Natalie Angelo | Democratic Party | $0 | $0 | $0 | Data not available*** |
| Daniel K. Biss | Democratic Party | $2,539,961 | $1,894,042 | $645,919 | As of February 25, 2026 |
| Patricia Brown | Democratic Party | $0 | $0 | $0 | Data not available*** |
| Jeff Cohen | Democratic Party | $788,225 | $270,049 | $518,176 | As of February 25, 2026 |
| Laura Fine | Democratic Party | $2,556,808 | $2,095,129 | $461,679 | As of February 25, 2026 |
| Justin Ford | Democratic Party | $28,078 | $27,371 | $341 | As of February 25, 2026 |
| Mark Fredrickson | Democratic Party | $0 | $0 | $0 | Data not available*** |
| Hoan Huynh | Democratic Party | $1,017,941 | $640,503 | $372,813 | As of February 25, 2026 |
| Bethany Johnson | Democratic Party | $2,724 | $486 | $2,238 | As of February 25, 2026 |
| Sam Polan | Democratic Party | $371,106 | $327,024 | $44,082 | As of February 25, 2026 |
| Nick Pyati | Democratic Party | $262,443 | $216,441 | $46,002 | As of February 25, 2026 |
| Howard Rosenblum | Democratic Party | $136,040 | $90,530 | $34,616 | As of February 25, 2026 |
| Mike Simmons | Democratic Party | $414,048 | $278,898 | $135,150 | As of February 25, 2026 |
|
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.[13][14][15]
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
Patricia Brown did not complete Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign ads
View more ads here:
Campaign finance summary
Campaign finance information for this candidate is not yet available from the Federal Election Commission. That information will be published here once it is available.
See also
2026 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Crain's Chicago Business, "Greg Hinz: 9th District race offers snapshot of Democrats' identity crisis," November 4, 2025
- ↑ YouTube, "Let's do this – Biss campaign advertisement," May 14, 2025
- ↑ Daniel K. Biss campaign website, "About," accessed December 17, 2025
- ↑ ABC 7 Chicago, "U.S. Rep. Schakowsky endorses Evanston Mayor Biss to take her congressional seat," January 7, 2026
- ↑ LinkedIn, "Kat A.," accessed December 12, 2025
- ↑ Media Matters for America, "About Us," accessed December 12, 2025
- ↑ Kat Abughazaleh campaign website, "About," accessed December 12, 2025
- ↑ Kat Abughazaleh campaign website, "Home page," accessed December 17, 2025
- ↑ Laura Fine campaign website, "Meet Laura," accessed December 12, 2025
- ↑ Laura Fine campaign website, "Meet Laura," accessed December 17, 2025
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Pew Research Center, "5 key things to know about the margin of error in election polls," September 8, 2016
- ↑ 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
