BREAKING, John:
Today, Justice Democrats is proud to announce our eighth and final endorsement before the new year: Junaid Ahmed in Illinois’s 8th congressional district!
Junaid is a progressive community leader and small-business owner running to stand up to the Trump administration and turn the page on corporate special interests who put profit over people.
This is an open House seat, with current Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi running for Senate, so Junaid’s running in a crowded primary full of corporate candidates — including one former Congresswoman who has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from AIPAC’s friends in the Israel lobby.
Junaid is the son of immigrant working-class parents who moved to the Chicagoland area when he was a child. Growing up, he watched his dad work multiple jobs to make ends meet and provide a better life for his family, so he knows the struggle of Chicago’s working families.
After Junaid started at community college and went on to study computer science at DePaul University, he began his career as a software developer before building his own small business tech company, which currently employs over 20 people in the state.
When the COVID-19 epidemic upended lives in March 2020, Junaid helped launch a nonprofit called Chi-Care to deliver hot meals and survival supplies directly to unhoused neighbors. What started as one truck in Belmont now runs a daily fleet stretching from Chicago’s North Side to its southern suburbs and has delivered over 1 million meals.
Beyond Chi-Care, Junaid has supported organizations establishing transitional housing for women and families fleeing domestic violence and worked for decades to organize his community around issues like healthcare access, climate change, and immigration reform. He’s also stood up to ICE and successfully protested an ICE detention center in 2021, a fight that has only worsened with Trump’s second administration.
Junaid stands up and fights for what he believes in, and he’s ready to bring that moral courage and commitment to the working class to Congress. If we rally around Junaid in this race, he’ll join the rest of our progressive, working-class bloc in fighting for an economy that works for us all, healthcare as a human right, quality public education, and a just immigration system.
On the other hand, one of his most well-funded opponents – Melissa Bean — is a former Congresswoman who was closely aligned with AIPAC, took hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Israel lobby, voted against 9/11 first responders' healthcare and marriage equality, and was known as “Wall Street’s Favorite Democrat.”
In solidarity,
Alexandra Rojas
Executive Director
