Commissioner Dennis Deer and Rep. Danny K. Davis
Crediting Representative Danny Davis (D-7th) with years of experience, integrity, and a history of supporting Cook County’s hospital system, several Cook County officials on Thursday, January 25, endorsed his re-election efforts, calling him a “fighter for the people.”
Saying Davis has been a mentor to him, Cook County Commissioner Dennis Deer (2nd District) gave an enthusiastic endorsement to the Congressman, running for his 15th term.
Deer listed several issues first raised by Davis, such as the Child Tax Credit or back in the 1990s when he talked about the returning citizens. “He has been a fighter for the people,” said Deer.
Besides being recognized as a health care advocate, Commissioner Donna Miller (6th District) praised Davis for also being a “women’s reproductive rights’ advocate.”
Explaining, Miller said before she became a Cook County Commissioner, she was on the Board of Planned Parenthood and Board Chair for Illinois.
“Long before we were talking about women’s reproductive rights and women’s freedom for reproductive rights, before it was a thing to talk about, Congressman Davis was doing the work of women’s reproductive rights before we had a Planned Parenthood in Illinois,” said Miller.
She praised Davis for spearheading the funding for the first Planned Parenthood building in Illinois. “There would be no Planned Parenthood here in the state of Illinois,” had he not stepped up and used his resources, relationships, and his personal capital at that time to make something happen for health care for women,” Miller stated.
Today, she said, “We stand on those shoulders, on that story of how it all happens. We need to thank you for being a leader for standing up for women before it was popular,” Miller said, thanking him for his consistent leadership.
“Thank you for continuing the fight on health care disparities, such as sickle cell, of all the health care disparities he fights for in Congress and brings back, not only to Illinois but across the entire country.”
Saying Davis “has the voice of God,” Commissioner Bill Lowry (3rd District) said the Congressman “also has the voice of Illinois, the voice of Chicago…the South Side, the West Side, and he has the voice of the southern suburbs.
“For years, he has brought resources home to us…for our children and resources for everyone in between,” said Lowry. “He is steeped in knowledge and experience, and Congressman Davis is greatly respected throughout D.C., as well as here at home.”
In accepting the endorsements, including those of two other Commissioners, Stanley Moore (4th) and Tara Stamps (1st), who were unable to attend, Davis thanked them for supporting his candidacy, especially Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who said he has been a “champion” for the County’s hospital system.
Davis praised the state of Cook County government, saying it had come out of the “shadows” when many people shied away from but now “they look forward to going. They look forward to being a part of the County’s health care delivery system.”
Davis said [Cook] County government “is one of the most effective county governments in the U.S. To have the endorsement of the leadership of this body that provides health care to the medically indigent of the County…, I couldn’t be happier,” he said.
