Election 2024: AP declares win for Foster, Evans in 11th U.S. House district

U.S. Rep. Bill Foster got an early lead over challenger Qasim Rashid in the Democratic primary for Illinois’ 11th Congressional District seat Tuesday night and never looked back.

Music school owner Jerry Evans of Warrenville won the three-way race for the Republican nomination.

With 84% of ballots counted, Foster was ahead with 33,295 votes to Rashid’s 9,971 votes, unofficial results showed, more than enough for The Associated Press to call the race for Foster.

Evans had 17,381 votes, or almost 51% of the total, unofficial results showed. He was followed by Geneva’s Susan Hathaway Altman, who had 12,705 votes, and Bartlett’s Kent Mercado, who had 4,168 votes.

The 11th District includes parts of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, Will, DeKalb and Boone counties.

Foster, seeking a seventh term representing the 11th, has campaigned as an advocate of the Affordable Care Act. Rashid, a human rights lawyer, pointed out that Foster sided with Republican majorities by voting three times to weaken the law against then-President Barack Obama’s wishes.

Rashid, whose family moved to Illinois when he was young, touted his suburban roots. Foster blasted Rashid for repeatedly leaving out that he spent a decade or so of his adulthood living in Virginia, moving back to the Chicago area only in 2022. While in Virginia, Rashid twice ran for elected office and lost – something else Foster used as a zinger.

Of the pair, Rashid has been far more critical of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza against Hamas after the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks there.

Both men claimed endorsements from different offices of the United Auto Workers labor union until a regional office for those autoworkers rescinded its backing of Rashid and gave it to Foster. Foster had worked with President Joe Biden to save a Belvidere factory that employs UAW workers who live in the 11th.

Evans and Hathaway Altman, a chief sales officer for a travel company, both ran unsuccessfully in 2022. Mercado, a doctor and lawyer, was running for the first time.

The three disagreed on whether the U.S. should continue helping Ukraine in its war with Russia. Mercado said he supports aid. Evans said assistance should stop until the U.S. secures its southern border. Hathaway-Altman said the U.S. should focus on domestic issues and not intervene in foreign affairs.

Hathaway-Altman set herself apart by denying that the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol was an act of insurrection and calling for many facing charges to be released. Both Evans and Mercado condemned the violence of that day.

https://www.dailyherald.com/20240319/us-congress-politics/foster-has-early-lead-in-democratic-primary-for-11th-u-s-house-seat/