Former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. will officially launch his campaign for the 2nd Congressional District Wednesday to honor his father’s 84th birthday.
In a video, Jackson Jr. says he chose the date to honor “a man who inspired my life to public service. A man who blessed me with his name.” He also references the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s 1984 Democratic National Convention speech and says his father’s historic speech made him want to run for office, and has resonated with him on his own “journey toward redemption.”
“In that speech, my father said, ‘If in my low moments in word, deed, or attitude’ — and I might add judgment — ‘through some error of temper, taste or tone, I’ve caused anyone discomfort, created pain, or revived someone’s fears, that was not my truest self.'” Jackson Jr. recites in the video. “‘I am not a perfect servant. I am a public servant, doing my best against the odds. … Be patient. God is not finished with me yet.’”
Jackson Jr., 60, is staging a political comeback after leaving Congress in 2012 amid mental health issues, and ultimately, federal charges lodged against him for misusing his campaign funds. He spent 17 months of his 30-month sentence in federal prison before being released in 2015 to a halfway house.
In his announcement, Jackson Jr. says he’s “borne the burden of self-inflicted pain and suffering.”
“Like my father before me, I ask for your vote as a vote for a new direction for this district, this party and this nation,” he says.
Declared candidates in the race include state Sen. Robert Peters; Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller; state Sen. Willie Preston; Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Commissioner Yumeka Brown; businessman Eric France; policy strategist Adal Regis; and youth pastor Jeremy Young.
Rep. Robin Kelly is vacating the seat to run for the seat of retiring U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin.
Jackson is not the first former incumbent to try to reclaim the seat. Mel Reynolds, the disgraced Rhodes scholar who left the congressional seat in the mid-1990s before starting his first prison term, twice tried to make a political comeback, challenging Jackson Jr. in the 2004 primary and running in the 2013 special election after Jackson Jr. left his seat. Reynolds failed to break out of single digits in 2013.
Jackson Jr.’s campaign said his exploratory committee will convert into his principal campaign committee. He has been raising funds and asking for contributions on social media. He also traveled to Washington, D.C., Sept. 26 for a Congressional Black Caucus fundraiser. The Federal Election Commission requires candidates to declare within 15 days of receiving more than $5,000.
His campaign said all receipts and disbursements made during his exploratory phase will be disclosed retroactively in the first campaign finance report. An estimate of his fundraising haul was not provided.
Jackson Jr. this week wrote on social media that he had collected 8,000 nominating petitions and plans to get 2,000 more signatures. In that post, Jackson Jr. said 80% of signatures he obtained were gathered in front of the Markham courthouse.
“I will be nominated for the Democratic nomination by people in the struggle for their lives. I want to represent people who’ve been through something. People who know struggle, people who have erred, [sacrificed], falsely accused, or even guilty, but time served and debt paid, people who know suffering,” Jackson Jr. wrote. “I feel their pain.”
Hermene Hartman, a longtime Jackson family friend and publisher, said he has paid his dues and is ready to deal with his critics.
“He’s really grieved about what he did, the embarrassment that he brought forth. He’s been through a divorce. Life hasn’t been easy for him. It’s been difficult for him. It’s been challenging for him. I think he has understood from his own personal experience what second chance means, what pardon means. He’s also in the sandwich generation with a sick father and college student children,” Hartman said. “It’s been hard. He’s had a lot of lessons to learn.”
Jackson, the civil rights leader and two-time presidential candidate, stepped down in 2023 as president of Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the organization he founded, several years after disclosing a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis.
“It is a devastating disease. He’s fighting it. He’s one of the strongest people I think I’ve ever met, I’ve ever known, and it’s very hard,” Hartman said.
Hartman said Jackson Jr. discussed with her the decision to announce on his father’s birthday.
“It’s the best gift that he could give his father at this time, and to recall in his announcement, his father’s energy, his words, his strength, his wisdom when he ran for president,” Hartman said. “The message still resonates today, but it resonates with Jesse Jr. now.”