An 87-year-old Kane County man seeking to run in the March 17 Republican primary for the 7th Congressional district is facing a formal challenge to his nominating petitions.
Chad Koppie, who lost to Danny K. Davis in the November 2024 general election, filed approximately 500 petition signatures with the Illinois State Board of Elections last week. On Nov. 10, an individual named Omari J. Davis filed an objection to those petitions.
According to the sworn affidavits Koppie signed on all 53 of his nominating petition sheets, he personally circulated all 53 sheets and gathered some 500 signatures from voters with addresses 40 or more miles from his rural Kane County home.
Illinois law does not require a candidate for Congress to live in the Congressional district he seeks to represent, only to be a resident of the state for at least one year.
A copy of Davis’s written objection was not immediately available. Growing Community Media is filing a FOIA with the Illinois State Board of Elections to obtain a copy of the objection.
While it’s not clear on what grounds Davis is objecting to Koppie’s petitions, a review of the 53 petition sheets Koppie submitted to the ISBE raises some questions. Unlike every other numbered petition sheet Koppie submitted, which shows firm, steady and neat handwriting throughout the affidavit section, sheet number 49 features a very shaky, wobbly printing of “Chad Koppie.” The difference is notable, and the handwriting in sheet number 49 is the only printing similar to Koppie’s signature on all 53 petition affidavits.
Under Illinois election law, no other person other than that signer may legally circulate the sheet. By signing as a circulator, the signer attests that all registered voters signed the sheet in his or her presence.
Koppie has a unique electoral history. He is one of a small number of people who have run and lost in races for two different Congressional districts in the same year.
In 2022, Koppie finished last in the seven candidate Republican primary for the 8th Congressional district with 4,886 votes. Candidates who lose in a primary are prohibited from running in the general election for any other established political party. So that November, Koppie ran in the 7th Congressional general election as a write in candidate, getting 83 votes.
In 2022 Koppie said in a candidate questionnaire that his main goal, “is trying to ban abortion in every part of the U.S., since it’s murder. I also want to cut tax rates and spending.”
“I’m the only candidate in the race,” Koppie said, “who says that ICE should try to arrest and deport all illegal aliens.”