Barring any nominating petition challenges, the November general election ballot for the 4th Congressional District will have six candidates to choose from, after 25th Ward Chicago Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez and social activists Mayra Macias submitted nominating petitions to the Illinois State Board of Elections.
The other three candidates, who qualified for the ballot through the March 17 primary election are Democrat Patty Garcia, Republican Lupe Castillo and Ed Hershey of the Working Party.
Lyons Mayor Chris Getty filed approximately 18,000 signatures on May 18. Macias and Sigcho-Lopez, both filed nominating petitions on May 26. Sigcho-Lopez filed as many as 22,788 signatures, while Macias filed as many as 19,570 signatures.
U.S. Navy veteran and LGBTQ activist Lindsay Church did not file, choosing instead to withdraw and throw her support to Macias.
Candidates were required to file a minimum of 10,816 signatures to qualify as independents; they routinely file many more signatures in order to assure they can withstand formal petition challenges.
As of 10 a.m. Tuesday morning, the ISBE website showed no objections had been filed to any of the three independent candidates. The deadline for filing an objection is 5 p.m. June 6, after the Landmark’s press time.
The 4th Congressional District is overwhelmingly Democratic and majority Hispanic. Since 2018, Jesus “Chuy” Garcia won by no less than 40 points. In 2024 he garnered 139,343 votes to Republican Castillo’s 56,323. Hershey received 10,704 votes, 5.%.
Just how the presence of four Democrats on the general election ballot plays out is the question that will keep each campaign occupied throughout the summer and fall.
Getty, Sigcho-Lopez and Macias, who are all Democrats, declared as independents after widespread criticism of Jesus Garcia (no relation to Patty Garcia) dropped out of contention without a public announcement until after the filing deadline for nominating petitions had passed. That allowed Patty Garcia, his chief of staff, to gather the required number of signatures and be the sole candidate on the Democratic primary ballot.
“I know that’s there’s a fight ahead,” Patty Garcia said at a political gathering in Oak Park in early May.