So what happened in HD 16? For starters, former leader Lang’s second choice for the district made no friends. Her colleagues were annoyed, advocates couldn’t work with her, and she made the unthinkable decision to hire someone who is accused of downplaying the rape of girls. 
One only has to look at the fact that the least liked person in the GA, Rep. Morrison, had a better session this year to see she wasn’t effective. She had Drury vibes. However, she was an incumbent in a district that was tired of turnover. She should have won last night.
My employer endorsed Kevin along with several other unions but the most stinging endorsements came from @GPacIllinois which directly undercut her biggest talking point. When local politicians jumped in the race got real.
Revenge of Kalish? Looking at precinct totals a couple things obviously stand out. In 2020 Kalish won the city by 822 votes and still lost - Olickal won it by 1032. Kevin competed in the suburbs but won the election in the city.
In 2020 DWS, trounced Kalish by over 2,772 votes in the suburbs. In 2022 she only won the suburbs by 567 votes. Infact for the first time in a long time (if ever) Chicago vote totals exceeded the suburbs.
This might explain the electoral confidence House Dems were pushing; She was winning the suburbs. Problem was the suburbs weren’t showing up to vote. She wasn’t working hard the city because the suburbs were where her win came from meanwhile Olickal was filling that Chicago void.
There were other factors too, while the media was talking about how hard DWS was working Olickal actually was. The guy was a beast at the doors. The 50th ward progressive wing has been organizing - they are a bigger player then in the past and Sen. Villivalam went all in.
The 16th might be looking for a new Rep in 2 years, who knows it seems to be the thing to do in the 16th, but for now a lot of people are happy to be moving on. #twill
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
