As Jesse Jackson Jr. campaigns for his old U.S. House seat across Chicago-area churches, banquet halls and Black radio shows, he opens conversations by addressing the question that hangs over his political comeback: what voters will make of his 2013 campaign-fraud conviction and the 17-year gap it brought to his career. At recent events, Jackson has said the conviction is now “part of my story,” and that he wants to move beyond the past while acknowledging its weight.
Jackson, 60, is pursuing the Democratic primary in the largely Black 2nd District where he began his career, and he describes his return as a chance to offer something different after years in which voters and party leaders confronted the broader issue of political trust. The redemption theme runs through his appearances alongside accounts of incarceration, sparse job prospects and caring for his ailing father, the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
In one of the outreach stops described by supporters and attendees, Jackson told people gathered on a Saturday to hear his plan for Chicago’s south suburbs that he has accepted the consequences of his conviction and the personal losses that followed. He said, “It’s now part of my story,” adding, “I’ve cried enough. I’m divorced now. I’ve lost my home in foreclosure. I’ve been through everything that comes with that process.”
Jackson also has framed his candidacy around the idea that voters decide whether a past conviction is disqualifying, and that trust is something to be demonstrated rather than asserted. While campaigning recently, he told The Associated Press, “What I think matters is that trust has to be earned,” and he added, “I’m cognizant of that.”
In person, Jackson presents a blend of preacher-style delivery and policy pitch. The AP report described him as an experienced orator who, at times, sounds like a preacher and, at others, like a professor, and who paces among poster boards outlining what he argues is a long-delayed economic lift for the district. The centerpiece proposal presented at a suburban school gym event was a potential third Chicago airport, promoted as a way to improve access to the global economy.
Jackson said at that event that “the one thing that is missing from this congressional district is access to the global economy,” describing daily flights to Hong Kong as an example. Attendees received thick packets describing “nearly $1 billion in federal funds Jackson secured over the years,” according to the AP account, and the campaign displayed church-style signage with Jackson portraits under the slogan “A New Hope.” The crowd response included calls for a 10,000-foot runway, with Jackson directing the chants.
The campaign also draws on Jackson’s attempts to connect his personal circumstances to politics as a lived experience rather than a resume. The AP report described that before he made his run official, Jackson discussed his family and care work, including attention to his father’s progressive supranuclear palsy, a neurodegenerative disorder that left the Rev. Jesse Jackson communicating through hand gestures after losing his ability to speak. Jackson, who wrote about elderly parent care for USA Today during his father’s November hospitalization, said, “I get very emotional knowing that those speeches belong to the ages now,” when discussing his father’s recorded speeches.
Jackson’s political story includes several turning points that his rivals are likely to emphasize as evidence that the district needs new representation. He was first elected to Congress in 1995 and won subsequent reelections, and in 2012 he disappeared from public view and later disclosed he was treated for bipolar disorder at the Mayo Clinic, before resigning in November amid a federal investigation. The next year, Jackson pleaded guilty to charges that he engaged in a scheme to spend $750,000 in campaign funds on luxury items, including Bruce Lee memorabilia, and his then-wife, former Chicago Ald. Sandi Jackson, also pleaded guilty. He served 30 months.
As the March 17 primary approaches, the 2nd District seat is open because Rep. Robin Kelly is running for Senate after Dick Durbin’s retirement, and the AP report said early voting begins Thursday. The territory includes city neighborhoods, working-class suburbs and some rural areas, and the field is crowded with 10 Democrats. Donna Miller, a county commissioner who leads fundraising, brought in about $1 million in the last quarter and has that much on hand, while the report said Jackson raised about $100,000 and has roughly equal to spend.
Jackson says fundraising in the district has always been tough and points to an organizing strategy based on voter registration, telling the AP report that his campaign has signed up roughly 2,000. He also describes reaching disenfranchised voters, including Black men who “abandoned” the party, and his events often begin with a show of hands from people who have been imprisoned or know someone in jail, reflecting how his message of redemption is tied to incarceration.
Rival Democrats, meanwhile, have attacked Jackson’s record and personal history. State Sen. Willie Preston has highlighted Jackson’s “Ferragamo shoes” as evidence, Preston says, that Jackson has not reformed spending habits, while Jackson responded that he “wears shoes that fit my feet.” Other candidates argue the district needs change: candidate Yumeka Brown, Matteson’s village clerk, said, “We’re ready for new chapter,” and added that “Voters have a right to expect honesty, accountability.”
Among voters listening at events, some supporters say Jackson’s background should be seen as a completed learning process, while others emphasize familiarity from his father’s legacy and his own performance style. Warren Cottrell, 71 and a retiree from Homewood, told the AP report that he “believe[s] in second chances” and said Jackson “sounds just as eloquent as his father.” Jackson, for his part, argues the comeback is about more than his own name, saying he consulted both his daughter, who lives in France, and his son Jesse III, who is in college, and that it matters for them to see their father “stand up and fight for the dignity of their name.”