Chicago's U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush Won't Seek Re-Election: Reports

CHICAGO — U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, the co-found of the Chicago chapter of the Black Panthers and the only politician to ever defeat former President Barack Obama in an election will announce his retirement on Tuesday, multiple news outlets reported on Monday.

Rush, 75, was first elected to the Chicago City Council in 1983 and has served as the Washington delegate representing Chicago’s South Side and the south suburbs for 30 years as a Democrat. Crain's Business, said that Rush will make his decision not to seek re-election public in a news conference on Tuesday morning.

A spokesman for Rush confirmed Monday night that the long-time politician will make an announcement about his future at a news conference at a Chicago church Tuesday morning.

Rush announced on Twitter in late December that he had tested positive for a breakthrough case of COVID-19. In the tweet, Rush said he had been exposed to someone who had previously tested positive but that he was not experiencing any symptoms and was feeling fine.

On New Year’s day, Rush said he was “still asymptomatic and feeling fine.

“I thank God for the COVID-19 vaccines and boosters, and I am sure the protection afforded by those shots is what he helped keep my case mild,” Rush tweeted.

The Rush spokesman said Monday night that Rush tested negative for COVID-19 on Monday. Rush has been in declining health, Crain’s reported, and is now focused on finishing out his term.

Rush made an unsuccessful run for Mayor in Chicago in 1999 and held off Obama in 2000 for his seat in Congress. Rush won handily before Obama – then and Illinois state senator, won election to the White House in 2008.

In his book, "A Promised Land", Obama wrote that at the time, he felt like he could beat Rush, whose campaign "had been uninspired" other than to continue (former Chicago Mayor) Harold Washington's legacy."

"I figured I could do better,"Obama wrote in the book.

He said later. "Almost from the start, the race was a disaster. A few weeks later, the rumblings front the Rush camp began: Obama's an outsider, he's backed by white folks, he's a Harvard elitist. And that name –is he even Black?"

Rush told the Chicago Sun-Times on Monday that he will remain active as a minister and in a ministry that has continued during his three decades since his career in Washington began. Rush, a civil rights activist has kept his focus on the city as well as the Black community long after he was a co-founder of the Chicago chapter of the Black Panther party.

Rush told the Sun-Times that he made his decision not to seek re-election in the past several weeks and that his choice was cemented after conversations with one of his grandsons.

“I don’t want my grandchildren . . . to know me from a television news clip or something they read in a newspaper,” Rush told the Sun-Times.

“I want them to know me on an intimate level, know something about me and I want to know something about them. I don’t want to be a historical figure to my grandchildren.”

This article originally appeared on the South Side Patch