It appears Sean Casten and Niki Conforti will battle it out for the 6th District Congressional seat for the second straight time in November.
Casten earned the Democratic nod on March 17 by unofficially defeating Joseph “Joey” Ruzevich in the primaries while Conforti won on the Republican side with a convincing victory over Skylar Duensing.
In DuPage County, Casten enjoyed a 79.6-20.4% lead over Ruzevich and a 73.66-26.34% advantage in Cook County.
Results will become official in the coming weeks when all the votes will be ratified.
In 2024, Casten won 54.2-45.8% with 196,647 votes against Conforti.
Casten is ready to go to war against the Donald Trump administration.
“Donald Trump is an out-of-control warmonger who is focused on enriching himself and his friends at the expense of the American people,” Casten said in his victory speech. “In the next election, Americans will have an opportunity to put a check on his recklessness. Those are the stakes in November.”
He promised to keep fighting for Americans.
“As long as I’m fortunate enough to have this job, I will use my public voice to remind us that we are all Americans and we have a shared set of values,” Casten said. “We want access to affordable, high-quality health care. We believe women should have control over their bodies.
“We don’t want ICE bringing chaos and violence to our community. We want to pass a livable planet on to our children and grandchildren. We believe democracy is worth protecting.”
The 28-year-old Ruzevich, who lives in Chicago and grew up in Orland Park, is a software engineer who said that he would be on top of harnessing AI and other technological issues that arise because he is in the business.
This was his first time running for office and said he was seeking affordable living, security and a government without corrupt leaders. He also had the backing of local Palestinian groups.
During his concession speech, Ruzevich said he was not going anywhere and named some people in history – including Bernie Sanders, who lost elections and bounced back.
“If I go away now, then this was for nothing,” he said. “All the hard work and all of the hours and hours and hours and hours and sacrifice and sleepless nights…we have a belief that a better future is possible.
“Human beings don’t like change. It’s better to go with a known known than an unknown unknown. This was training camp. This was practice. This was the setup. We’re not done.”
It was an uphill climb for Ruzevich as Casten came into the primaries winning seven straight elections in which he was opposed.
In 2018, Casten opened his congressional career winning the Democratic Primary with 29.5% of the votes (19,774) over six other candidates. He went on to beat out incumbent Peter Roskam 53.6-46.4% amassing 169,001 votes.
In 2020, he ran unopposed in the primary and scored 52.8% of the vote (213,777 overall) in his victory over Jeanne Ives, who was at 45.4% (183,891).
The boundaries changed for the 2022 election and the south suburban area was included on the new map. After easily holding off Marie Newman in the primary (45,654-19,726), Casten beat former Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau 54.4-45.6% and garnered 150,496 votes.
In 2024, he had another easy time in the primary with 77.1% of the votes (56,750) while Mahoor Ahmad gained 14.2% and Charles Hughes had 8.6%.
That set up the first showdown with Conforti, which he won.
The district includes all or portions of Orland Park, Palos Heights, Palos Park, Oak Lawn, Hickory Hills, Evergreen Park, Worth, Chicago Ridge, Palos Hills, Bridgeview, Willow Springs, Countryside, Hodgkins, and Chicago’s Clearing and Garfield Ridge neighborhoods.
It also includes a slew of west suburban communities.