Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), who is Jewish and who has served in Congress since 1999, announced on Monday that she won’t seek re-election.
“For the last 26 years, I have had the distinct honor and privilege of representing the 9th Congressional District of Illinois, my lifelong home and the best district in the nation,” she said. “It is with profound gratitude and the utmost appreciation for my constituents that I announce my decision not to seek re-election at the end of my current term.”
The Jewish Democratic Council of America said Schakowsky had served an “incredible 25 years,” adding that the “staunch advocate for our Jewish and Democratic values” will “be dearly missed in the House of Representatives.”
Schakowsky, whom Commentary magazine editor John Podhoretz called “by far the Jewish Democrat in the House most unfriendly to Israel,” has called herself a “proud friend” of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), whom she said shouldn’t have been removed from the House Foreign Affairs Committee for her anti-Israel remarks.
Schakowsky also skipped Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to a joint session of Congress on July 24, 2024.
Less than a week after Oct. 7, 2023, Schakowsky was one of 55 members of Congress who told then-U.S. President Joe Biden to provide aid to Gazans, and she was one of 25 Democrats to tell then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken in February 2024 that “we remain concerned that not enough steps have been taken to safeguard the lives of the civilian population in Gaza, including journalists.”
A year ago, the retiring congresswoman criticized the Antisemitism Awareness Act—a vote that was delayed last month—which she said “does absolutely nothing to counter antisemitism” and was a “Republican attempt” to pit Jews against Democrats.
Schakowsky said the Trump administration’s efforts to deport an anti-Israel activist and recent Columbia University graduate represent “an alarming violation of immigration law and the First Amendment, and will only make our Jewish communities less safe.” In 2023, she called herself “one of the most outspoken voices for justice for the Palestinians and currently a vocal critic of this current administration in the State of Israel.”
The congresswoman called for an investigation and praised police after a 39-year-old, visibly Orthodox Jewish man was shot in Chicago as he walked to synagogue.
Her announcement that she won’t seek re-election next year came days after Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the longest-serving senator in the state’s history who has a mixed voting history on Israel, said that he won’t run again for office.