Former Democratic Rep. Melissa Bean — known as one of Wall Street’s favorite Democrats during her first tenure in Congress — announced last week she’s running for her old seat in suburban Illinois, joining a Democratic primary contest with nine other candidates.
The crowded field in the state’s 8th Congressional District to replace Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who is running for Senate, reflects Democratic optimism about retaking control of the House of Representatives and checking President Donald Trump’s power in 2027. The district is safely Democratic.
“I can no longer sit on the sidelines as Trump and Republicans in Congress hurt working families by decimating health care, giving billionaires tax breaks, and undermining our democracy,” Bean said in her campaign announcement. “Republicans in Congress have made it clear they won’t stand up for the Constitution and will rubber stamp any of President Trump’s reckless policies.”
Before she can get to Trump, Bean will have to defeat her fellow Democrats, some of whom will use her record against her. Until she left office in 2011, Bean was a moderate who mixed progressivism on social issues with a willingness to water down Wall Street reform legislation that was key to the Democratic agenda in the wake of the 2007 financial crisis.
Dan Tully, one of the other Democrats running for the seat, said Bean’s entry “clarifies” the race.
“I was in grade school when she was first elected, and now I am an attorney, veteran and a former civil servant, and I’m running for Congress because we’re all still living with the consequences of the actions and inactions of the politicians of the past – including the politicians of the past who let the perpetrators of the financial crisis off the hook, which led to the conditions for the rise of Donald Trump,” Tully told HuffPost.
Bean, whose campaign did not respond to a request for comment, has previously defended herself as a champion for financial reform, even if there were aspects of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act she sought to make less onerous for the financial industry.
“I agree with the progressives on 15 things then disagree with them on one, and they slam me,” Bean told HuffPost in 2011. “Unbelievable.”
Other candidates in the race include Hanover Park Trustee Yasmeen Bankole, who has the backing of retiring Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and Cook County Commissioner Kevin Morrison, who has the backing of five members of Congress and the LGBTQ Victory Fund.