Field grows in 6th Congressional race

The race for the Democratic nomination for Illinois’ 6th Congressional District in the March 2018 primary election continues to get crowded.

Grace Haaf, the co-owner of a small business that specializes in data analysis and operations integration for industrial and manufacturing clients, is the latest person to announce their candidacy. Whoever wins the Democratic nod will likely face U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Wheaton, in the November 2018 general election. Roskam was first elected to Congress in 2006.

“We are desperate for leaders in Washington that will elevate the level of political discourse beyond partisan ranting,” Haaf said in a news release Sept. 5 announcing her candidacy. “We need representatives in Congress developing innovative solutions to our nation’s challenges like fixing health care, creating jobs, protecting Social Security and keeping our country safe. To that extent, Peter Roskam has failed us. I will bring much-needed thoughtfulness, sound judgment and experience to Congress.”

Haaf is a former cyber security analyst for the CIA and investment banker at JP Morgan. According to the bio on her website, Haaf married her husband, Tim, in Ravenswood, Chicago, in 2013.

Other candidates for the Democratic nomination for Illinois’ 6th Congressional District include regulatory attorney and Clarendon Hills resident Jennifer Zordani; Becky Anderson Wilkins, co-owner of Anderson’s Bookshops and a member of the Naperville City Council; scientist and engineer Sean Casten of Downers Grove; Carole Cheney, former district chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, D-Naperville; College of Lake County trustee Amanda Howland, who lost to Roskam in the November 2016 general election; College of DuPage adjunct faculty member Suzyn Price; Lake Zurich resident Geoffrey Petzel; Chicago resident Austin Songer; and Barrington Hills Plan Commissioner Kelly Mazeski.