* Politico…

State Sen. Willie Preston is talking to allies about jumping into the open 2nd Congressional District seat now held by U.S. Rep Robin Kelly, who’s running for Senate. In an interview, Preston, a Chicago Democrat, said he wants to see his party work to “defeat MAGA Republicans and Donald Trump.” Preston is chair of the Illinois Senate Black Caucus and said his focus is on making sure safety-net hospitals are properly funded. “We don’t need to fight over progressive or moderate politics,” he said. “The Democratic party is a family and we need to find our voice.”

Preston (D-Chicago) announced on Facebook that he was forming an exploratory committee: “There’s too much at stake in this country—and far too many voices from the South Side of Chicago to the Southland, all the way to the southernmost parts of this district calling on me to bring the same fire to Washington that I’ve brought to Springfield. I hear you. And I agree.”

Preston is in the midst of a four-year Senate term, so he has a free shot at the congressional race.

* There is an oppo book on Preston, however. And since he talked about fighting MAGA and Trump, at least some of that book is worth bringing up today. Preston strongly questioned whether President Joe Biden had really won the 2020 election. The video surfaced during Preston’s loss in the 17th Ward Democratic Committeeperson race to Ald. David Moore…

Transcript…

Yeah, I think that—I think that we’re—we should be in a post-election mode in the country, but we’re not. And I think that the reason that we’re not is that the media has been very clearly—the mainstream media—have been very clearly in the tank for Joe Biden and Kamala Harrison [sic]. And so, right, what we see right now is essentially them getting the country used to the thought that Joe Biden has been elected, which they’ve been doing for two years now, at least, getting the country used to Joe Biden being- accepting the fact that he’s the president-elect, which it looks to me that it is very, very possible that he did not secure the Electoral College.

* Meanwhile, more from Politico…

In IL-07: Attorney Richard Boykin has made it official. He filed paperwork to run for Congress in the seat now held by U.S. Rep. Danny Davis. Boykin is a former chief of staff to Davis and later served as a Cook County commissioner. And before all that he was a Congressional Black Caucus fellow with then-Sen. Carol Moseley Braun.

* Leon filed paperwork to join the Democratic primary for US Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s seat last week. Evanston Now local political reporter Matthew Eadie…

$610k puts him just behind both Daniel Biss and Kat Abughazaleh, who are both reporting around $640-650k in cash on hand as of July 1.

No one else has filed or announced Q2 fundraising yet

— Matthew Eadie (@mattheweadie22) July 10, 2025