U.S. Rep. Danny Davis announced Thursday that he won’t seek reelection next year after 15 terms in office, making him the latest longtime Illinois Democrat to announce their retirement from Congress.
Davis, 83, sits on the powerful House Committee on Ways and Means. First elected in 1996, he represents a solidly Democratic district that includes downtown Chicago, large sections of the city’s South and West Sides, and inner ring suburbs.
“We’re not going to go away,” Davis said, flanked by his wife, local pastors and congressmen at a parking lot in East Garfield Park on Chicago’s West Side. “But the time has come.”
Davis’s retirement adds to an already unsettled 2026 congressional landscape in Illinois, where there are now four open seats.
His announcement comes months after longtime U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky said she won’t run again and U.S Sen. Dick Durbin, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, decided he won’t seek a sixth term in 2026. There are two other open congressional seats, with U.S. Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi and Robin Kelly planning to run for Senate.
Davis has easily won reelection for decades, enjoying his status as a respected elder statesman. Known for his deep and distinct voice, he remained visible in his district, which includes large low-income pockets. However, his last two primaries were challenging, with questions about his age and whether he remained the right fit for the district. During the campaign, he fended off questions about his acumen by playing up his experience and using humor.
“I’m not running to be the quarterback for the (Chicago) Bears. I’m not running to carry the torch in the Olympics,” he told the Associated Press last year. “I’m running to use my knowledges, my expertise, my intellect.”
Davis — among the most liberal members of Congress and a member of the Congressional Black Caucus — has made issues of racial equality central to his political career.
Before announcing his retirement, Davis warned about efforts to undo his and other Democratic officials’ health care advocacy efforts.
“There are efforts right now underway to try to diminish Medicare, Medicaid,” he said Thursday. “If those programs are seriously diminished, thousands and thousands and thousands of people will not have access to health care.”
Davis was among the House Democrats who took part in a 2016 sit-in to demand a vote on gun control measures. His advocacy took a personal turn later that year when his 15-year-old grandson was fatally shot in Chicago after a dispute over basketball shoes.
He also pushed for legislation that would ban racial profiling, saying he was a victim of it himself when he was pulled over by two white police officers in Chicago. He was co-chair of the Congressional Black Men and Boys Caucus, which was formed in 2013 after the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, the Florida teenager who was shot and killed during a confrontation with a neighborhood watch volunteer.
Over the years, he has also pushed for legislation to help former prison inmates find jobs and has helped inmates in his district by sponsoring workshops. He has spent Christmas Day with inmates at Cook County Jail.
Born in Arkansas, Davis worked as a school teacher and Civil Rights activist. Before Congress, he served as a Chicago city alderman and Cook County board member. In 1991, he ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Chicago against Mayor Richard M. Daley.
He actively sought other offices while in Congress too.
He contemplated another Chicago mayoral run in 2010 after Daley announced he was leaving office. In 2009, he threw his name in the hat for Cook County Board president, filing as a candidate for Congress and for board president. He eventually dropped the board president bid.
Until former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s arrest in December 2008, Davis was interested in replacing Barack Obama in the Senate after Obama’s presidential victory. Davis said Blagojevich eventually offered him the appointment but he rejected it because of the scandal surrounding the governor.
Word of Davis’ retirement set off a scramble among potential replacements, including on Thursday when Davis endorsed longtime state legislator, Rep. La Shawn Ford of Chicago.
Davis called Ford “young, energetic, super ready,” calling it “my honor, my pleasure, my delight” to endorse him.
Several others have floated the idea of running, including Chicago City Chicago Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin, who unsuccessfully challenged Davis last year, and businessman Jason Friedman.
