Illinois Rep. Bobby Rush is not seeking another term in the House, joining the growing ranks of House Democrats who will not return to the chamber.
Rush will be the 16th House Democrat to retire at the end of his term while additional members will leave to seek another office. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle will leave the House to retire or seek another office, but Democrats are doing so in slightly larger numbers ahead of an election cycle projected to favor Republicans. Some Democrats have expressed concern that a growing number of departures is an additional burden on their efforts to maintain their majority after November’s midterm elections.
Republicans have painted those departures as proof they are on track to win a majority this year. Republicans would need to net five seats in order to reclaim the majority they lost in 2018. Rush’s district is a safe Democratic seat and is not likely to become competitive beyond the party primary.
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Rush was first elected to represent Illinois’s 1st Congressional District in 1992. He was previously what the Chicago Sun-Times described as “a 1960s radical” and co-founded the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party.
Rush’s son, Huey, was killed in Chicago in 1999 at the age of 29, and gun violence became a signature issue for the lawmaker.
In 2000, Rush defeated a primary challenge from then-state Sen. Barack Obama, marking the only election defeat for the future president outside of individual presidential primary contests.
Rush told the Sun-Times he finalized his decision not to return to Congress after a conversation with his 19-year-old grandson, Jonathan, who had asked to know more about his life’s story.
“I don’t want my grandchildren … to know me from a television news clip or something they read in a newspaper,” Rush said. “I want them to know me on an intimate level, know something about me, and I want to know something about them. I don’t want to be a historical figure to my grandchildren.”
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Rush previously had cancer. He recently disclosed on Twitter that he tested positive for COVID-19 but said he was asymptomatic.
I want to thank everyone who has reached out to check in on how I am feeling. Fortunately, I am still asymptomatic and feeling fine. I thank God for the COVID-19 vaccines and boosters, and I am sure that the protection afforded by those shots is what has helped keep my case mild.
— Bobby L. Rush (@RepBobbyRush) January 2, 2022
