Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House. I'm Elena Moore. I cover politics. And I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent. Today on the show, it's primary day in Illinois. And in the suburbs of Chicago, 15 Democrats 15 are competing for an open house seat in a safe blue district.

The race offers clues for how Democratic voters see their party's future.

Elena, you spent some time in the district. Tell us about the race.

Yeah, well, you know, Democrats have two battles going on right now. They're trying to flip seats,

but they're also trying to create the next generation of Democratic leaders that get people excited. And if you look at this district, it kind of shows that dynamic on display. Illinois's 9th district is held by Jan Shikowsky. She's 81 years old and she's retiring after this term. And there are,

like you said, 15 Democrats hungry to take that spot with the top few spanning three different

generations from Gen X to Millennials to Gen Z. The two top candidates, Daniel Biss, who is

48, a Gen Xer, Mayor of Evanston, and Kat Abagazale, she is 26. And so, you know, that's generational change no matter what, how this ends up. But I was like, I got to go there. I cover young voters. I need to see this. Yeah. So tell us about this field of candidates. Obviously, don't tell us about all 15.

Yeah. How much time do you have? Well, I mean, they have a lot of similarities. They're running on a very similar platform that really focuses on this idea of affordability concerns, wealth inequality, and then pushing for Democrats to fight harder in Washington. But I think that the big differentiator here is how,

you know, direct are they going to criticize their own party? How much are they running to change

party norms? And I think that's where you see a split between Abigazale and Biss.

Biss obviously has a lot more establishment support. And Abugazale is saying we need to change

the way we run primaries and the way we legislate in office. Yeah, it's interesting because, you know,

the younger progressives in these blue districts have really pushed a lot of the Democratic

leaders to adopt a more left-wing progressive populist message when it comes to, you know, economics in particular. So I don't know that there's

that much of a difference between these candidates on the message, but there certainly is a

difference on willingness to accept outside money. And the idea, I think, with that,

is not so much that you take money, but it's the access,

the thought of who would you be doing favors for. And would you really be pushing for this left

wing populist message with the same fervor that somebody else who isn't taking that money is?

I guess that's the argument that those younger progressives would make.

And also to state the obvious, whoever wins this primary is going to be the person that represents

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