Democrats routinely dominate politics in the district, with the main focus of competition being the party
primary. Only twice since 1966 has a Republican candidate for Congress received over 20% of the vote, and the Democratic nominee has topped 80% in every
presidential race during that time. The district's expansion into the suburbs in the 1990s has incorporated a population that has voted Republican more often; Republican support has passed the 10% mark, and
George W. Bush received 17% of the vote here in
2004. His was the best showing by a Republican presidential candidate in the district in over 40 years. The district has since the early 1970s elected representatives who dissented from the city's Democratic establishment.
William L. Dawson, U.S. Representative from 1943 to 1970, maintained the district's loyalty to Mayor
Richard J. Daley. His successor
Ralph Metcalfe initially continued that stance but publicly broke with Daley over an incident of police brutality in 1972, establishing a rift that persists. When Metcalfe died less than one month before the election in
1978, Democratic party officials named loyalist
Bennett M. Stewart to take his place on the ballot, and Republicans replaced their candidate with
A.A. "Sammy" Rayner, a former Democratic alderman. Despite the campaign support of Jackson for Rayner, Stewart won the election, although Rayner did get over 40% of the vote. Stewart served only one term and lost the 1980 Democratic primary to reform candidate
Harold Washington. He left Congress in 1983 upon being elected mayor, after winning a contentious three-way primary with 37% of the vote. His successor in Congress was union organizer
Charles Hayes. Hayes lost the
1992 primary to
Bobby Rush by a 42–39% margin following the
House banking scandal, in which it was revealed that Hayes had 716 overdrafts on his congressional checking account. Rush had previously lost the 1988 and 1990 primaries to Hayes. Rush was a co-founder of the Illinois
Black Panthers in 1968, establishing a program for free breakfasts for poor children and a clinic for
sickle cell anemia screenings. He served as a Chicago alderman from 1983 until his election to Congress in 1993, and he was an ally of Mayor Washington in the
Council Wars of the 1980s. While in Congress, Rush consistently voted with the Democratic position over 90% of the time. When he did break from the party, he usually took positions more liberal than other Democrats, rather than taking positions held by Republicans. Rush ran against incumbent
Richard M. Daley in the 1999 election for Mayor of Chicago. Despite the support of fellow congressmen
Jesse Jackson Jr. and
Danny Davis, he was backed by only three out of 50 aldermen and lost the election by a margin of 72–28%. He had a 55–45% advantage among black voters. In the
2000 congressional primary Rush emerged with a 61–30% win over challenger
Barack Obama resulting in Obama's only electoral defeat. In Congress, Rush focused on
urban revitalization issues, and he was a staunch supporter of
gun control efforts before his adult son Huey (named for Black Panther leader
Huey Newton) was killed in a 1999
mugging. Following his son's murder, Rush remained a strong supporter of gun control.
Prominent representatives Historical boundaries The district was adjacent to the
2nd district to the east and south, the
7th district to the north, and the
3rd and
13th districts to the west, and also bordered the
11th district at its southwest corner. The district's northeast border followed
Lake Michigan's shoreline for almost a mile. The district was created following the
1830 U.S. census and came into existence in 1833, five months before Chicago was organized as a town; the state was previously represented in
the U.S. House of Representatives with representative elected on an
at-large basis. The district included
Southwestern Illinois until 1853. It included the state's
northern edge until 1863. Since that time, the district has included all or part of Cook County; since 1883 the population of the district has been primarily residing on
Chicago's South Side. Historical populations reflected waves of immigration into the area: previous majority populations were ethnic Irish, German, and east European. Beginning in the mid-19th century, the Irish were the first to establish their physical and political control of the area within the city's South Side. The current 1st district has a
minority-majority population: 51.3% of the residents are
African-American. It has been represented in Congress by African Americans since 1929. Tens of thousands of African Americans moved to Chicago from the rural South in the
Great Migration. They were confined by discrimination to the South Side of Chicago and gradually replaced ethnic whites who moved out to suburbs. At one point during the 1980s, more than 90% of the district's residents were black. While successive redistrictings have given the district a larger percentage of white voters, it is still one of the most reliably Democratic districts in the country; with a
Cook Partisan Voting Index of D+28, it is the fourth most Democratic district of the eight that divide Chicago. The district has not sent a
Republican to the U.S. House of Representatives since
1935. After the
civil rights movement gained support from national Democratic Party for major legislation to restore constitutional rights, including the franchise in the South, most African Americans shifted to support the Democratic Party. Democratic congressional candidates routinely receive over 80% of the vote here. The Democratic trend runs right through to the national level; since the 1950s, Democratic presidential candidates have usually carry the district with well over 70 percent of the vote, and have done no worse than 64 percent. In 2011, following the
2010 census, the state legislature redistricted. It expanded the district to cover parts of
Cook and
Will Counties. After
redistricting, all or parts of
Alsip,
Blue Island,
Calumet Park,
Chicago,
Country Club Hills,
Crestwood,
Dixmoor,
Elwood,
Evergreen Park,
Frankfort,
Frankfort Square,
Harvey,
Manhattan,
Markham,
Merrionette Park,
Midlothian,
Mokena,
New Lenox,
Oak Forest,
Oak Lawn,
Orland Hills,
Orland Park,
Palos Heights,
Posen,
Riverdale,
Robbins,
Tinley Park, and
Worth are included. The representative for these districts were elected in the 2012 primary and general elections, and the boundaries became effective on January 3, 2013.
Demographics In the twentieth century after the Great Migration from the South and concentration of blacks on the South Side due to
de facto residential segregation, the district became the nation's first with a black-majority population. Since the 1920s, it has included the central area of Chicago's South Side African-American community. Over 85% of the district's residents were black during the period from the 1950s through the 1980s, but redistricting since that time – which redrew the district lines with the goal of maintaining three Chicago districts with black populations exceeding 60% – has reduced the percentage of black residents in the district to 70% in the 1990s. The current figure is 65%. Outward migration has caused the South Side's population to decrease over the years, and the district was expanded geographically to the southwest to gain residents, particularly as the state's congressional delegation has been reduced in numbers due to population changes and reapportionment. The district, which covered only nine square miles in the 1950s, is now more than ten times that size. Nearly half its current area was added for the 2000s. The district's population dropped by 27% in the 1950s, and by 20% in both the 1970s and 1980s, due to outward migration for suburbanization and because of people leaving the area due to loss of jobs. In redistricting after the
1990 U.S. census, the district was extended into the suburbs for the first time in 90 years. Chicago is home to 70% of the district's residents (down from 90% in the 1990s), although roughly 60% of the district's area is outside the city border. The district's white population (almost 30% of its residents) is concentrated in the suburban areas and in a few Chicago neighborhoods such as Hyde Park. The district's largest white ethnic groups are
Irish (7.1%),
German (6.2%),
Polish (4.5%) and
Italian (3.2%), mirroring the demographics of the neighboring third and thirteenth congressional districts. There are also sizable
Dutch,
Swedish,
Czech,
Palestinian,
Greek and
Lithuanian populations in the area of Oak Forest, Orland Park and Tinley Park, the district's three largest suburbs. The Kenwood-Hyde Park area for several decades had a significant
Jewish community. Existing buildings attest to its history, as the former Kehilath Anshe Ma'ariv temple (its second location) has been the headquarters of
Jesse Jackson's
Operation PUSH/Rainbow Coalition since 1971 . The area also includes a notable presence of
Black Muslims and is the home of
Nation of Islam leader
Louis Farrakhan in Kenwood. == List of members representing the district ==