Dan Lipinski Concedes Congressional Primary Race To Marie Newman

OAK LAWN, IL — It was the end of an era in Chicago Democratic politics as Congressman Dan Lipinski conceded the 3rd Congressional District primary to chief opponent Marie Newman. Lipinski conceded the election Wednesday afternoon at his campaign headquarters in Oak Lawn.

In repeat of the 2018 primary where Lipinski won over repeat-challenger Marie Newman by 2,000 votes, this time the results were flipped in Newman’s favor in another squeaker. Lipinski sent out an email late Tuesday evening, stating there were still votes to be counted after AP declared Newman the projected winner, who ran as a progressive Democrat.

With city mail ballots yet to be counted by the Chicago Election Board, Lipinski said as the numbers stood the day after the election “it appears I will not prevail.”

“We ran a good campaign against tremendous headwind,” Lipinski said. “The current numbers do not hold. I called Ms. Newman and spoke to her. As I said during the primary I would support the winner of the primary.”

According to unofficial vote tallies, Newman, who received backing from pro-life and progressibe groups — including the endorsement of Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot — led Lipinski by 2,386 votes, a few hundred over what she lost by in 2018. Some felt the entry of Palos Heights multimedia business owner Rush Darwish into the Democratic primary, who came in third with 5,983 votes, would siphon voters away from Newman, including some members of Lipinski’s own campaign team.

Lipinski said there were many issues in the campaign but the one that loomed especially large during was his stance on abortion, when he joined 200 House Republicans in signing an amicus brief to repeal the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Roe vs Wade.

“I was pilloried in millions of dollars in TV ads,” he said. “I was shunned by many of my colleagues and other Democratic Party members and operators. I was shunned because of my pro-life stance.”

A devout Catholic, Lipinski said his view to protect the unborn was not only based on his faith, but on science which says that “life begins at conception.”

The seven-term congressman still has nine months to left to serve in the U.S. House, during which he intended to focus on transportation issues and President Trump’s stimulus package to help workers displaced by the coronavirus pandemic.

Newman will face Will County Commissioner Mike Fricilone, who won the Republican primary, in November.

Watch Lipinski's concession speech.