Illinois Dem leaders Welch, Harmon eye same state central committee post

SPRINGFIELD — Democrats played familiar summertime tunes of unity amid the corndogs, farm animals and deep-fried goodies Wednesday at the Illinois State Fair, which marks the unofficial launch of the primary election season.

But between the party’s annual downstate pep rallies, two of the state’s most influential power brokers continued to eye the same key political post that could pit them against each other on the campaign trail.

Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch launched his campaign for the 7th Congressional District state central committeeperson seat within hours of U.S. Rep. Danny Davis’ announcement last month that he’ll vacate it as he retires after three decades in Congress.

Welch’s counterpart in the General Assembly, Illinois Senate President Don Harmon, is collecting petition signatures to get on the ballot, but he says he hasn’t decided whether he’ll run for the obscure post. It’s one of 34 committeeperson seats that govern the Democratic Party of Illinois, two from each of the state’s 17 congressional districts.

The west suburban Democratic heavyweights each control the purse strings of massive campaign funds backing members of their supermajority caucuses, and they’ve occasionally butted heads on legislative issues in the Capitol.

But they downplayed the idea of a potential power struggle playing out in the months ahead.

“I don’t think there’s a fissure,” Welch told the Sun-Times as he mingled among supporters before a Governor’s Day rally on the Springfield state fairgrounds. “He’s circulated for it in the past. He’s been in that district before. Before the [2021 congressional district] remap, I was in the 4th Congressional, now I’m in the 7th Congressional. It’s something I had never thought about, but the congressman himself [Davis] said it was something I should at least look at.”

Harmon said he’s still evaluating if he’ll run. He has until early November to submit the necessary signatures to get on the ballot as a committeeperson candidate, which only requires a few hundred names from the district.

“We worked for a long time with a state party that didn’t serve the entire state, and it’s important to me that the Democratic Party of Illinois serve the entirety of the Democratic Party apparatus, not just the Illinois House,” Harmon said.

He collected committeeperson signatures in 2009 and 2022, but didn’t submit them as Davis continued his lengthy tenure. Harmon maintains a committeeperson campaign fund that had more than $413,000 in it entering July.

Both men are already township committeepeople for the Cook County Democratic Party. Serving as a state central committeeperson would give either of the legislative leaders more levers to pull from the command center of the Democratic Party of Illinois, which is responsible for driving voter registration and turnout.

Welch, who transferred $107,000 to his committeeperson campaign fund last week, has rounded up a slew of weighty endorsements, including from Davis, former Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White and Illinois Democratic Party Chair Lisa Hernandez.

Welch said Harmon “has done a great job in helping us build our party,” but asserted the seat should be held by a Black man.

“It’s important that, losing a voice like Danny Davis in a district that is 60% Black, that we continue to have a strong Black voice at that table,” Welch said. “The Democratic Party is losing Black men and Black women in droves, and we as a party need to figure out what we’re doing to help rebuild our party.

“Clearly, we’re doing something right in Illinois, but I think we can do it better, and we want to take this blueprint and take it nationally. And I really believe I can help with that,” Welch said.