Attorney Reed Showalter, who was born and raised in Oak Park, is petitioning this October to secure a spot on the ballot for the 7th Congressional District. 

Following what he described as the “abuses of the Trump administration,” Showalter said it is important to make sure working families are receiving the care they need. “It’s not enough for Democrats to just sit back and say, we’re going to defend institutions and we’re going to wind the clock back to how it was a couple years ago, because what we had a couple of years ago also wasn’t delivering enough for working families,” he said.

The 7th District, which covers broad stretches of Chicago’s South and West sides, has been represented by Congressman Danny K. Davis since 1996. On July 31, Davis announced that he will retire following the completion of his current term. Showalter is among 16 Democrats vying for Davis’s open seat, according to Ballotpedia. 

Davis has endorsed La Shawn Ford, a state representative for Illinois’ 8th District, to take over his seat, according to Davis’s website.
Preceding his journey towards Congress, Showalter has worked as an “antimonopoly” attorney, according to his campaign website, Reed4Congress.com. In a monopoly, a single company controls the entire market for a good or service. Monopolies concentrate power in the hands of a few large corporations.

Showalter has served as a senior policy advisor to the National Economic Council, counsel in the U.S. Justice Department, attorney in the Federal Trade Commission, and staff of the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. Congress, his website states.

Showalter worked in the White House for the Biden Administration, where he helped make it easier for workers to switch jobs if conditions were not just. Additionally, he worked to stop price gouging by giant corporations. Running as a Democratic candidate, Showalter’s campaign, at its core, is about making “the basics of living a dignified life” more affordable, he said. 

Showalter is dedicated to pointing out “the ways people are ripped off by bullies in both the economy and by politicians who don’t seem to care about them,” he added. 

 He aims to create “a meaningful new mission for how our democratic government can deliver for us,” noting the recent funding cuts to public health resources such as Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). 

Showalter has plans for what he wants to accomplish. “If we want more housing, we should build housing ourselves and sell it at cost for people so that they can afford a place to live,” he said. “I would fight to make sure that healthcare is not the playground of the ultra wealthy and large corporations who are extracting everything that they can to make themselves better off.” 

Showalter also believes change is necessary in regards to immigration. Working to welcome immigrants into American communities, Showalter plans to “make sure that we have ICE and federal troops out of our cities and are not kidnapping and deporting people without due process.”

Showalter’s campaign manager, Catherine Larsen, provides an inside perspective on how Showalter’s message is being provided to the public. Having worked alongside Showalter for the past five years, Larsen emphasized the importance of showing the public simply who Showalter is as a person. Larsen labeled Showalter as “an extremely smart, extremely principled person.” 

Whether it be knocking on doors, going to farmer’s markets and gathering places, or coordinating campaign events for Showalter, Larsen and her campaign team are dedicated to making Showalter an approachable and reliable candidate. 

“We’re not trying to, you know, create this sort of alternative alias of Reed the candidate versus Reed the person,” Larsen said. “Our goal as a campaign is to find ways for us to connect with people in the communities and to show them who he is so that they can see that he is a person who will fight for them in Congress.”

Showalter, 32, currently lives in the West Loop with his wife, Marina, and their two dogs, according to his website. His parents currently live in Oak Park. 

On Oct. 1, Showalter had gathered around 1,000 signatures, he said. To secure a spot on the ballot, around 1,170 signatures will be needed. Due to the processes of signature validation, Showalter and his team are aiming for around 3,000 to 4,000 signatures by the Oct. 27 deadline to ensure Showalter’s name appears on the ballot. 

As we head into an election season, Oak Park and River Forest High School civics teacher Michael Stephen recognized the importance of active civic engagement. 

“Get educated and then vote,” Stephen said as his advice for those eligible to engage in the election process. Stephen stressed the importance of understanding your own personal values and the values of candidates as well as creating the change you want to see. 

Stephen encouraged students to make their voices heard in politics by reaching out to elected officials. “They want to hear from you, but you have to go to them,” he said. 

For Showalter, running for Congress is an opportunity to represent values he has formed throughout his time as an attorney. “When we have a bunch of giant companies that can tell us what to do, that doesn’t look like a democracy,” Showalter said. “To my mind, having a democracy means having the right to choice not [only] at the ballot box, but also in the marketplace.”