What’s in a famous name?
The Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. One of the famed names of our time. Forty-plus years as a civil rights leader and activist, two-time presidential candidate, globetrotting peacemaker and negotiator. An iconic, historic name.
His son, former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., shares that name and all that it connotes, as he mounts a comeback to regain his seat in Illinois’ 2nd Congressional District.
He’s got a brutally long way to go. From 1995 to 2012, Jackson Jr. carved out his own national image as a can-do, uber-ambitious politician. He flew high and aimed higher.
Then in 2013, he winged his way to scandal and personal ruin, in the blaze of his guilty plea to federal charges of defrauding his campaign fund of about $750,000. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison. During his darkest times, he combated substance abuse and mental health ills, and an ugly divorce.
Now, he wants the voters to take him back.
The 2nd District stretches from Chicago’s South Side to its southern exurbs. The Democratic primary is packed with at least eight announced candidates. The one who prevails in the March 17 primary in this deeply blue district is the likely victor in the November general election.
Jackson Jr. will tout his 17 years of congressional experience and the hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds that flowed to the district during his congressional tenure. He will resume his crusade, he said, to bring an international airport to the south suburbs and push for massive economic development projects, access to health care and more.
Jackson Jr. launched his campaign on Oct. 8, on the birthday of the man who started it all, whose legacy he wants to continue.
“My dad turns 84 years old today,” he told me over coffee that morning. “He is probably sole, the sole motivation for why I entered public life in the first place.”
His father is declining from a 10-year battle with Parkinson’s disease. The son has been spending evenings with his dad, who is in hospice care at his South Side home.
The man who fathered him, endowed him with his name, charisma and connections, is now inspiring him to return to politics.
“I’ve wrestled with the expectations placed on me by people, trying to strike the balance between a name that I’ve been blessed with and who Jesse Jackson is and what is expected of him as a leader,” the younger Jackson reflected. “And there are times when I believe I’ve risen to the occasion, and there have been times where I simply hadn’t. Those are disappointing and difficult times.”
Now, the “reality of how finite his life is,” Jackson Jr. added, “has created a slightly different dynamic for me, and that is, who is going to fill the void of his voice and just how important his voice is at this time.”
The nation is under assault from the Donald Trump administration. “I see myself as being helpful wherever I can be. These are desperate times, requiring desperate measures,” he said.
Jackson Jr. recalled attending the 1984 Democratic National Convention in San Francisco during the first of his father’s two high-profile presidential runs as he advanced his “Rainbow Coalition” agenda. He was 19.
He harks to his father’s speech at the convention. “If, in my low moments, in word, deed or attitude, through some error of temper, taste or tone, I have caused anyone discomfort, created pain or revived someone’s fears, that was not my truest self,” Jackson Sr. orated. “If there were occasions when my grape turned into a raisin and my joy bell lost its resonance, please forgive me. Charge it to my head and not to my heart.”
Jackson Jr.’s supporters have been stationed outside the Cook County Circuit Court building in south suburban Markham to circulate petitions to get him on the 2026 ballot.
“So, of the petitions that we will file, 80% of them will have been gathered in front of the Markham courthouse, the single busiest building in the 2nd Congressional District,” he said.
Thousands of people flow through the courthouse every week, Jackson Jr. said, and they are “walking past our circulators, signing our petitions. So, I’m not running away from the criminal justice system. I’m not running away from what I’ve been through or the story that men and women in this district are experiencing every single day.”
Jackson Jr. says he will advocate for those who have been caught up in the criminal justice system and are seeking second chances, a job, a way to live and contribute.
“When I spoke in a church this past Sunday, I asked the question, which is a kind of a refrain from my dad, but my own spin on it: ‘How many of you know someone who’s gone to jail?’ Everybody raises their hand. ‘How many of you know someone who’s been to prison?’ Everybody raises their hand.”
His brother, Jonathan Jackson, represents Illinois’ 1st Congressional District. Some critics will say, enough already, it’s time to end this political family dynasty.
Jackson Jr. is a convicted felon who cannot be trusted, others will say, and it is time for new leadership.
For better or worse, the voters of the 2nd Congressional District will decide.
Laura Washington is a political commentator and longtime Chicago journalist. Her columns appear in the Tribune each Wednesday. Write to her at LauraLauraWashington@gmail.com.
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