March 17th, 2026 Democratic Primaries

Written By Nata Abbott

Hello, Lakeview’s 44th Ward!

Welcome to our 44th Ward Action progressive voter guide and call to action. We are not going to cover every single race in these primaries. Instead, we will focus on the most consequential, which all happen to intersect with our ward geographically. First things first.

The Democratic Primary is March 17. In most of our races, there are no Republicans running—whoever wins the Democratic Primary will be our next representative. On paper, we have a Democratic supermajority in our city and state, but what we really need? We need to elect better Democrats.

VOTE BY MAIL

The deadline to apply to vote by mail is March 12 at 5:00 PM. You may apply to Vote By Mail through the Chicago Board of Elections’ online system or using their mail-in form. Be sure to request the Democratic Primary ballot! Please note: only residents in the city of Chicago may apply using these forms.

Mail ballots must be returned via dropbox or postmarked by Election Day (March 17). More information is available on the Chicago Board of Elections website.

EARLY VOTING

Early voting is now open at the Downtown Chicago Super Site or Chicago Board of Elections office. Through March 8, the Super Site’s hours are 9:00 AM-6:00 PM on weekdays, 9:00 AM-5:00 PM on Saturday, and 10:00 AM-4:00 PM on Sunday.

Early voting begins right here in Lakeview onMonday, March 2 at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center (814 W Nelson)! The site will be open 9:00am-6:00pm on weekdays, 9:00am-5:00pm on Saturdays, and 10:00am-4:00pm on Sundays, making it easy to cast your ballot on a schedule that works for you. Early voting is also available now downtown at the Supersite at 137 S State and at 69 W Washington, 6th Floor. You can find more information about locations, hours, and what to bring here.

ELECTION DAY

Election Day is March 17. Make sure you’re registered to vote at your current address so your voice is heard: https://chicagoelections.gov

Why we endorse the independent democratic challengers?

The conventional wisdom suggests that under-resourced candidates don’t have a “chance in hell” of being elected, but at this time we need fighters, not corporate sponsored bench warmers to represent us. We need our local, state and federal elected representatives to be free from corporate, billionaire ownership, and for that they need to run truly grass-roots campaigns, which is insanely hard. The primary reason why we have establishment telling us over and over again, what we can’t have, is the MONEY in POLITICS. This is why we are looking for independent progressive democratic challengers who are NOT TAKING ANY CORPORATE/PAC MONEY, so that they have a fighting chance of representing PEOPLE over PROFITS when they are in office. As we’ve seen in NYC Mayoral race and right here in Chicago with our own 2023 Mayoral race, when we fight, we win! We have a scrappy progressive coalition that keeps fighting for basic dignity of every Chicagoan.

What questions we ASK ABOUT each candidate to assess if we have the same shared values of integrated, equitable, and just future for Chicago? They have to stand for:

  1. Abolishing ICE

  2. Progressive Tax Reform

  3. Ending Political Support, Funding and Military Aid for Genocide in Gaza

  4. Campaign Finance Reform- Publicly Funded Campaigns

  5. Investing in Underserved Communities Instead of Prisons and Policing

  6. Universal Healthcare

  7. Affordable Housing

  8. Labor Protections - Livable Wage, Family, Health and Annual Paid Time-Off

  9. Ending Illegal Policing and Surveillance State

  10. Comprehensive Human-Centered Immigration Reform

Important NOTE

We did not submit questionnaires to candidates, instead we studied their platforms directly, and compared them based on their campaign communications and additional data gathered by the following organizations:

Nata Abbott