U.S. Rep. Danny Davis won’t seek reelection after 29 years in Congress

Democratic U.S. Rep. Danny Davis on Thursday announced he’ll retire after finishing his 15th term in Congress, handing a hefty endorsement to state Rep. La Shawn Ford to succeed him in a crowded primary.

Davis, 83, had hinted at his retirement for weeks. On Thursday morning, he made it official outside his West Side office, surrounded by dozens of supporters.

“I would hope that I helped inspire, motivate and activate people to be engaged in public policy decision-making at a different level than what was taking place when I started doing this,” Davis said. “If people don’t feel that they have a responsibility, a citizenship responsibility, then tyrants like Donald Trump end up leading the country.”

With Davis’s exodus, there are now four open congressional seats in Illinois — a shuffle that began when Sen. Dick Durbin announced he wouldn’t be seeking another term and after longtime U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, who represents the 9th Congressional District, announced her retirement.

U.S. Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who represents the 8th Congressional District, and Robin Kelly, who represents the 2nd Congressional District, join Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton in vying for Durbin’s seat.

Davis has represented the 7th Congressional District since 1996. The district encompasses Chicago’s West Side, and stretches from west suburban Hillside into the Loop and down to the South Side.

Born in Arkansas, Davis moved to Chicago in 1961 and worked as a teacher. He became executive director of the Greater Lawndale Conservation Commission and was elected alderperson of the 29th Ward in 1979, which he served for 11 years. He was elected to the Cook County Board of Commissioners in 1990 and served eight years.

Davis ran unsuccessfully in the primary for the 7th Congressional District in 1984 and 1986. He has run for Chicago mayor three times — in the 1989 special election to replace the late Mayor Harold Washington, which he later withdrew from; in 1991, which he lost to Mayor Richard M. Daley in the primary; and in 2011, after Daley retired. Davis withdrew and ultimately endorsed former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun in the race that Rahm Emanuel ultimately won.

Davis currently serves on the Committee on Ways and Means and is chairman of the Worker and Family Support Subcommittee. He is known for his work on civil rights, voting rights, women’s rights, health care and criminal justice reform, among other key issues.

Among his top achievements, Davis pointed to securing federal funds that spurred the growth of the Illinois Medical District, as well as massive development in the South Loop and Near West Side. He also said he was “delighted to be instrumental in writing” the Affordable Care Act.

“There has been change, positive and progressive change,” Davis said. “There also comes a time when one decides that there are new avenues, new approaches, new opportunities, new needs.”

After Davis won in a crowded Democratic primary last year, a defiant Davis called out critics who’d said he was “getting scared” in his five-way race, claiming the incumbent had to call the “big guns” of the state Democratic Party to help him across the finish line.

He also challenged those who were focused on his age: “Don’t ever write off the senior citizens.”

Davis acknowledged his age — a key issue in Congress — was a factor in deciding to step down, though he said he still remembers “stuff that happened when I was five or six years old” and is fit to serve through the end of his term in January 2027.

According to the New York Times, there are nearly 120 members who are 70 or older — 86 in the House and 33 in the Senate. There are also a record number of octogenarians serving in Congress, including five in the Senate. Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, is 91.

“I don’t want to be a distraction,” Davis said. “The young people who are running for office — I hope they will put in the time, energy, and effort that I put in … I have no problem thinking and all of that. But I just decided that this would be a good time.”

He called Ford “young, energetic, and super ready.”

Ford, 53, is likely to see a boost from Davis’s endorsement, but there are several others vying for the seat.

The longtime state representative announced a bid for Davis’s seat in May. He was born in the Cabrini Green housing project, adopted by his grandmother and was raised in the West Side’s Austin community. He’s a former Chicago Public Schools teacher and is currently a licensed real estate broker. He also ran for mayor in 2019.

The West Side native joked to the Sun-Times that he didn’t believe Davis would ever retire. Ford said the person who replaces Davis has big shoes to fill, but he believes the two share the same values, including his passion for criminal justice reform and access to healthcare. Ford said healthcare and reintegrating people into the workforce are among his top priorities.

“I think that there’s got to be someone that shares those same values, because those are very pressing issues in the seventh congressional district. People suffering from substance use disorder, people suffering from the impact of the criminal justice system, people needing health care in the areas where the life expectancy is lower than other parts of in certain parts of the district,” Ford said. “And Congressman Davis dealt with those types of issues head on. Those are issues that actually have both state and federal applications.”