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Rep. Sean Casten beat Rep. Marie Newman Tuesday in Illinois’s only faceoff between two House Democratic incumbents in a primary election.
The bitter battle for the suburban Chicago 6th Congressional District nomination saw the candidates fighting for their political lives, trading barbs, and dragging their opponent through the mud on everything from ethics complaints to their positions on abortion following Friday’s Supreme Court reversal of Roe v. Wade.
The state’s Democrats tried to give their party an advantage in winning congressional seats this year but passed a redistricting map that ultimately pitted the two incumbents against one another in a pricey kill-or-be-killed scenario.
Casten has outraised and outspent Newman by a wide margin. Casten has spent $3.1 million and has over $886,000 on hand, while Newman has spent $1.4 million and has over $394,000 on hand, according to an FEC filing.
Newman, who currently represents the 3rd District, found that the new map placed her in the 4th District, though the majority of her constituents lived in the new 6th District. Casten faced a different dilemma. He lives in the new 6th, but only a fraction of his current constituents have remained there. In all, 41% of the new 6th District are Newman constituents, while only 23% are Casten constituents.
Election 2020 Congress Illinois
Despite both candidates having liberal voting records in Congress, Newman pitched herself as the more progressive option, while Casten worked to connect with moderate and conservative-leaning voters.
“If we do not have a proven ability to find the common ground across all voters, regardless of their political perspective, we’re not going to hold this seat in the Democratic camp,” he said.
Casten won the 6th District in 2018 when he beat Republican Rep. Peter Roskam, a 12-year House veteran. The election was considered a massive win for Democrats in a seat that had been held by conservative GOP Rep. Henry Hyde for decades prior to Roskam’s reign.
Casten supporters attacked Newman for a bribery scandal that stemmed from her 2020 campaign. A congressional ethics watchdog concluded in late January that there was “substantial reason to believe” that Newman offered one of her opponents, Iymen Chehade, a job in her congressional office on the condition he dropped out of the race, which he did.
When Newman did not hire Chehade, he filed a lawsuit to enforce a contract he had with her regarding promises of future employment. In a motion to dismiss the case, Newman’s counsel acknowledged that her contract was in violation of House employment and federal contracting rules.
Marie Newman
Newman grabbed headlines again following Friday’s Roe v. Wade reversal. She admitted to getting an abortion when she was 19 years old and said she “thought it was time as a member of Congress to speak out and let folks know that it’s a common medical procedure and people should not feel ashamed.”
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Newman contrasted her personal experience with Casten’s vote decades ago for “anti-choice” former President George H.W. Bush.
Planned Parenthood endorsed both Newman and Casten ahead of Tuesday’s race.
