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The district is clearly gerrymandered to provide safe haven for Democrats in the general election, so sorting through the array of hopefuls in the March 17 primary is especially critical. The winner is likely to go on to be elected even though the size of the field means that candidate probably will be nominated without a majority of the vote.

A number of those candidates are worthy. We could make a case for many of them. We very much like many of them.

For instance, Army veteran Sam Polan of Wilmette presents a solid candidacy as a level-headed left-of-center moderate who practically had us applauding when he said Democrats must understand that it's “crucial that we become the common-sense party again.” Crisis management expert Phil Andrew, also of Wilmette, is another extraordinarily good moderate option; with a personal story that is frankly inspirational, he speaks forcefully but thoughtfully without resorting to slogans or simplistic solutions. Polan, Andrew and others would be appealing nominees.

“For more than a century, American economic strength and prosperity have gone hand in hand with an independent Federal Reserve.

The Fed’s independence is not a technical detail or a bureaucratic preference. It is a guardrail that protects working families, small businesses, and long-term economic stability from short-term political pressure. When monetary policy is insulated from politics, inflation is better controlled, markets are more stable, and people can plan their lives with greater confidence.

History shows us what happens when central banks are politicized: higher inflation, economic volatility, and a loss of trust that hurts everyday Americans first and hardest. That is not a risk we should be willing to take.

I strongly support the independence of the Federal Reserve because strong institutions matter. A healthy democracy and a resilient economy both depend on leaders who respect the lines that keep power in check and decision-making grounded in expertise, evidence, and the long-term public good.”

Chicago, IL -An unarmed woman was killed by an ICE officer in Minneapolis. Three children will never see their mother again. That fact alone demands accountability, truth, and justice.

We all saw and heard what happened. Yet we are still seeing alternate narratives. That is unacceptable. Watch the videos. Believe your eyes and your ears.

Even by ICE’s own standards, this officer failed to follow basic use-of-force guidelines laid out in the agency’s training manual. This was not a moment of unavoidable danger. It was a failure to follow protocol, and it must be investigated as such.

The harm extends far beyond one family. Schools across Minneapolis are closed because city leaders are trying to keep children and staff safe from federal law enforcement agents. When parents are afraid to send their children to school, trust in public safety has collapsed.

If ICE has nothing to hide, it must fully comply with local law enforcement and independent investigators. That means immediately releasing all body camera footage, audio, and related records, and cooperating fully with a transparent investigation.

Law enforcement legitimacy depends on public trust. Actions like this erode that trust, put communities at risk, and make everyone less safe. No agency is above the law.

Justice requires truth. And the public deserves nothing less.

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Chicago, IL - The recent actions taken by the United States in Venezuela raise serious questions that deserve clear, public answers.

At this moment, there are significant unknowns. The legal rationale for this operation has not been fully articulated. Congress and the American people have not been adequately informed about why this action was taken, under what authority it was authorized, or what specific objectives it is meant to achieve. Most concerning, there has been no clear explanation of how this operation advances a broader, coherent policy toward Venezuela or regional stability.

What is clear is that actions which violate state sovereignty and stretch the bounds of international law set a dangerous precedent. A rules-based international order cannot be selectively applied without undermining its legitimacy. The legal justification for this operation appears dubious at best, and the lack of transparency only deepens those concerns.

We should also be honest about the real-world consequences. This operation will not lower food prices for American families. It will not reduce medical costs. It will not ease household debt. It may, however, disrupt energy markets and raise oil prices, increasing costs at the pump and across the economy.

History also shows that instability in Venezuela drives migration north. Actions that increase uncertainty and unrest without a clear diplomatic or humanitarian strategy risk accelerating displacement and further straining already overburdened migration systems.

As someone who has served in the U.S. Army and worked on national security policy, I believe deeply that American power must be exercised with discipline, legality, and clear purpose. Congress must be informed, the law must be respected, and the American people deserve to know not just that we are acting—but why, and to what end.

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Sam Polan is a U.S. Army veteran and Democratic candidate for Congress in Illinois' Ninth Congressional District. He served in Army Air Defense and was later selected for special operations, deploying multiple times to the Middle East. After his military service, Sam worked as an intelligence analyst and then as a strategy and policy adviser supporting the North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command, and he later served as a Pentagon policy adviser focused on homeland defense and national security. A native of the Chicago area, Sam is running for Congress as part of a new generation of service-based leadership, with priorities that include defending the Constitution and the rule of law, restoring and protecting civil liberties, expanding opportunity, and building an equitable path to the American Dream.

www.sampolan.com For more information, contact: Eleiza Braun at press@Sampolan.com

Chicago, IL. – “I’m horrified by the antisemitic attack in Sydney targeting people gathered to celebrate Hanukkah. Antisemitism is on the rise globally, and it is unacceptable. Jewish communities around the world are facing increased intimidation and fear simply for practicing their faith, gathering in public, and celebrating their traditions.

Everyone should be able to live, worship, and celebrate freely, without harassment or violence. Hatred directed at any community corrodes our shared humanity and weakens the fabric of democratic societies.

We must be clear and united in rejecting antisemitism wherever it appears and in standing with those who are targeted by hate. There is no place for violence in our public life, and no place for antisemitism in our world.”

Chicago, IL. -- This week, Illinois Veterans for Change (IVFC) announced its endorsement of U.S. Army veteran and national security expert Sam Polan for Congress in Illinois' Ninth Congressional District. The organization highlighted his record of military service, his work on national security policy, and his commitment to expanding support for veterans and their families.

“After reviewing Sam’s vision and hearing his commitment to Illinois veterans, we believe he is ready to stand up for those who served our country,” said Jesse Rojo, Chair of Illinois Veterans for Change. “Sam understands the sacrifices veterans make when they serve and when they return home. He has laid out clear policies to expand housing options, ensure accessible mental health services, and streamline the benefits process. We are proud to endorse Sam Polan because he will make veterans a priority in office.”

“I am honored to receive the endorsement of Illinois Veterans for Change,” said Sam Polan. “Veterans built this country, and they deserve a partner in government who listens, acts, and delivers results. I pledge to champion the men and women who served by improving transitional housing, strengthening mental health programs, and cutting through red tape so they receive the benefits they have earned. I will not let them down.”

Key Focus Areas Highlighted by the Endorsement

Veteran housing: Sam supports expanding affordable housing options for veterans exiting service.

Mental health services: He advocates for accessible, high-quality mental health and PTSD support programs for veterans.

Veteran benefits and rights: His plan emphasizes streamlining access to earned benefits and eliminating bureaucratic bottlenecks.

Service-driven leadership: Drawing on his own experience, Sam is committed to strong leadership that respects veterans and their contributions at home and abroad.

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About Illinois Veterans for Change

Illinois Veterans for Change is a statewide coalition of Democratic veterans and veteran advocacy leaders. The organization supports Democratic veteran candidates who embody integrity, champion progress, and are committed to strengthening communities. It works to increase the number of veteran elected officials at every level of government.

About Sam Polan

Sam Polan is a U.S. Army veteran and Democratic candidate for Congress in Illinois' Ninth Congressional District. He served in Army Air Defense and was later selected for Special Operations, deploying multiple times to the Middle East. After his military service, Sam worked as an intelligence analyst and then as a strategy and policy adviser supporting the North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command, and he later served as a Pentagon policy adviser focused on homeland defense and national security. A native of the Chicago area, Sam is running for Congress as part of a new generation of service-based leadership, with priorities that include defending the Constitution and the rule of law, restoring and protecting civil liberties, expanding opportunity, and building an equitable path to the American Dream. www.sampolan.com

For more information, contact: Eleiza Braun or Tim Rusch at press@Sampolan.com

IL-9 Congressional Candidate Sam Polan:

“SNAP Benefits Are a Lifeline, Not a Bargaining Chip”

Evanston, IL — “As Illinois families struggle to make ends meet, one thing is clear: SNAP benefits are not a bargaining chip. They are a lifeline.Right now, nearly 1.94 million Illinois residents, or about 15 percent of our state’s population, rely on SNAP food assistance each month. In the Chicago and Cook County region, hundreds of thousands of households depend on this support to put food on the table.

Instead of working to strengthen economic opportunity and job growth, some policymakers are choosing to play petty games with people’s basic survival. Using SNAP assistance as a bargaining chip is unacceptable. It shows a complete disregard for working families, children, individuals with disabilities, and seniors who are already vulnerable.

I call on every public official, at every level of government, to put an end to the games. Stop the threats. Stop using lives as leverage. We should focus on real solutions: quality jobs, accessible training, a stronger economy, and dignity for every Illinoisan.

To those who are counting on SNAP today: we see you. We hear you. And we will not let you be used as a political pawn.”

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Sam Polan is a U.S. Army veteran, former Pentagon policy advisor, and Democratic candidate for Congress in Illinois’ 9th Congressional District. He served his country and is now running to defend our democracy, restore integrity in public service, and ensure that the values he swore to uphold are reflected in Washington. For more information, go to www.sampolan.com

Russell Lissau, Daily Herald

September 24, 2025

Another Chicago Democrat, Sam Polan, said harmful and hateful rhetoric “erodes the trust the public should be able to place in its leaders.”

“Those who ask for that trust must hold ourselves to a higher standard,” Polan said. “Every elected official has a responsibility to lower the temperature and coarseness of our national discourse.”

(Chicago, Illinois) - Today, Sam Polan, a Wilmette native and Special Operations Veteran who deployed to the Middle East three times, released the following statement on news that President Trump has expressed interest in deploying the National Guard to Chicago:

“The President’s suggestion that he would federalize the National Guard in Chicago is a political stunt by a weak commander-in-chief, desperate to distract from his own failures and criminal record. It is insulting to every servicemember.

“I’ve seen what happens when politicians treat military forces as tools for their own power instead of instruments of national defense. The National Guard is not a political tool, Chicagoans should never be used as pawns in a manufactured crisis, and turning the Guard against American cities is an unacceptable abuse of power.”

by My Ly, Evanston RoundTable

August 22nd, 2025

Yet another candidate announced his plan to run in the Democratic primary for the state’s 9th Congressional District seat, which now has nearly two dozen people competing for the role that’s been held since 1999 by U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, an Evanston resident.

Sam Polan, an Army Special Operations veteran and former senior policy advisor at the Pentagon, filed paperwork on Thursday in tandem with an announcement on his campaign’s social media page for the primary slated for March 17, 2026.

In IL-09: Sam Polan, a former policy adviser with the North American Aerospace Defense Command, is running as a Democrat for Congress in the 9th District. He served in the Army Air Defense and was later selected for special operations and deployed three times to the Middle East.

“We are at an inflection point where our Democratic leaders have also failed us — failed to stop the Trump attacks, failed to put up candidates with fresh ideas that excite voters and failed to provide a clear vision,” Polan said in his launch announcement. “We can’t keep doing the same thing and expecting different results. We need a new generation of leadership”

The Iranian people have the same fundamental rights as people everywhere: the right to live in freedom, dignity, and self-determination. For decades, those aspirations have been met with repression at home and violence exported abroad.

The people of Iran, and people across the region, owe a profound debt of gratitude to the brave women and men who, over the past several years, have risked everything to stand up for their rights and the rights of their fellow Iranians. Their courage has inspired millions and made clear that the demand for freedom is neither abstract nor distant. It is lived, daily, by those who refuse to be silenced.

A future shaped by the will of the Iranian people would not only be transformative for Iran, but stabilizing for the entire region. An Iran that is accountable to its people would no longer be able to funnel money, weapons, and support to groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, whose campaigns of terror have brought suffering to civilians across the Middle East and stood in the way of lasting peace.

The people of the region want the same things we all do: safety for their families, opportunity for their children, and the chance to live without fear.

Supporting this movement for freedom is not only a moral imperative, it is a strategic one.

We must support the people of Iran with clarity and responsibility. Any role the United States plays must be measured, lawful, and coordinated with the international community. Lasting change cannot be imposed from the outside. It must come from the people themselves, supported by global solidarity and a commitment to international norms.

More than 7,000 protesters have been killed for daring to demand a voice in their own future. We should never look away from that reality. To the people of Iran, especially the women who have led this movement at extraordinary personal cost, I want to be clear: I see you, I hear you, and I am with you.

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“There is a long and proud tradition in our country of citizens exercising their moral and civic voices through peaceful, non-violent protest. From the civil rights movement to labor marches to community walkouts that highlight injustice and demand change, what we are witnessing in Minnesota today builds on that history.

Across the state, thousands of Minnesotan neighbors, business owners, faith leaders, workers, families, and students have chosen to pause their normal routines to participate in demonstrations, closures, and actions under the banner of a Day of Truth & Freedom. By closing their doors, organizing marches and prayer vigils, and standing shoulder-to-shoulder in freezing temperatures, they are using every tool available to take care of their neighbors and to affirm the dignity and humanity of all in their communities. Hundreds of businesses, schools, and nonprofits have chosen solidarity over business as usual, embodying a collective ethic of care.

This is a powerful example of how community care and peaceful civil engagement can draw attention to policies and practices that many feel have overstepped, and how people can come together in non-violent action to seek accountability, respect, and justice.

I have been immensely proud of the ways our broader community has responded with compassion, resilience, and peaceful resolve. As the people of Minnesota, exercise our rights to assemble and to advocate for humane, just, and equitable treatment of all members of society. Their courage and unity today is not only a tribute to our democratic traditions but an affirmation that when communities act with care for one another, we move closer to the justice we seek.”

The shooting by ICE agents in Minneapolis is a profound failure of judgment, training, and accountability.

It has now been reported that the individual who was killed was lawfully carrying a firearm, was disarmed while on the ground, and posed no imminent threat at the time deadly force was used. Acknowledging that he was carrying does not justify what followed. The escalation was unnecessary, the response was excessive, and the shooting was unwarranted.

This kind of conduct violates the most basic principles of de-escalation and makes everyone less safe. It damages trust with communities and undermines the work of legitimate law enforcement officers who rely on cooperation to keep people safe.

During my service in the U.S. Army, if I had engaged in behavior like this, escalating a situation, disregarding rules of engagement, or using force without clear justification, I would have, and should have, been held accountable immediately.

There is no reason ICE agents operating on American soil should be held to a lower standard than service members in a war zone.

What we are seeing is not isolated. It reflects an agency deploying personnel who are not adequately trained, not adequately supervised, and not equipped to operate safely in civilian communities. That is a recipe for tragedy, and we are seeing the consequences.

Things are getting worse, not better. The American people do not support this kind of militarized enforcement, and they do not want communities turned into battlegrounds. It is time to de-escalate, to stop putting unqualified agents into volatile situations, and to hold those responsible fully accountable.

We can, and must, do better than this.

On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we honor the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, along with the millions of others targeted and killed by the Nazi regime. We remember not only the victims, but the lessons the world must carry forward.

The Holocaust did not begin in the camps. It did not begin with gas chambers. It was the result of a long series of human choices. It began with words that spread fear and hatred, with ideas that reduced people to stereotypes, and with laws that excluded and isolated entire communities. Over time, indifference took hold, neighbors were no longer seen as human beings, and violence followed until it culminated in systematic and industrialized murder.

This history matters because genocide is not sudden. It builds slowly when prejudice goes unchallenged, and responsibility is deferred. Remembering the Holocaust means recognizing our obligation to speak out, to protect those who are vulnerable, and to refuse the normalization of cruelty and dehumanization in any form.

Holocaust remembrance has always carried special significance in Illinois’ 9th District. For many years, the community of Holocaust survivors in the district has shared their stories publicly so that the world would hear firsthand what happened. Their courage ensured that memory did not fade into abstraction, and that future generations would understand not only what was lost, but how it was lost.

We honor them by remembering, by educating, and by recommitting ourselves to the promise that Never Again is not just a reflection on the past, but a responsibility and commitment in the present and future.

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Sam Polan is a U.S. Army veteran and Democratic candidate for Congress in Illinois' Ninth Congressional District. He served in Army Air Defense and was later selected for special operations, deploying multiple times to the Middle East. After his military service, Sam worked as an intelligence analyst and then as a strategy and policy adviser supporting the North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command, and he later served as a Pentagon policy adviser focused on homeland defense and national security. A native of the Chicago area, Sam is running for Congress as part of a new generation of service-based leadership, with priorities that include defending the Constitution and the rule of law, restoring and protecting civil liberties, expanding opportunity, and building an equitable path to the American Dream. www.sampolan.com

For more information, contact: Eleiza Braun at press@Sampolan.com

Wilmette, IL — The Alliance for American Leadership (A4AL) is proud to endorse Sam Polan for Congress in Illinois’ 9th District. A veteran, policy expert, and community leader, Polan is running to bring serious, accountable leadership to Washington at a moment when American credibility and global leadership are being dangerously undermined.

The Alliance for American Leadership was formed in response to the erosion of U.S. international engagement and the dismantling of institutions that have long advanced American interests, stability, and humanitarian leadership abroad. In Sam Polan, A4AL sees a candidate who understands that American leadership is not an abstract ideal but a strategic necessity.

“Sam Polan understands that American leadership on the world stage is inseparable from our national security and moral standing,” said Asher Moss, Executive Director of A4AL. “He brings a clear-eyed understanding of how international assistance, diplomacy, and alliances protect American lives, prevent conflict, and strengthen our country. That is why we are proud to support his campaign.”

Polan, a veteran, emphasized that U.S. leadership abroad directly impacts the safety and security of Americans at home.

“As someone who has worn the uniform, I know that smart diplomacy and international assistance saves lives,” Polan said. “When we retreat from the world, we don’t create peace or security. We create vacuums that our adversaries fill. American leadership means showing up strategically, responsibly, and with our values in the lead.”

The Alliance for American Leadership is a bipartisan political action committee dedicated to restoring American leadership through smart, strategic, and effective international assistance. U.S. foreign assistance accounts for less than 1% of the federal budget, yet it plays a critical role in strengthening alliances, countering adversaries, preventing humanitarian crises, and reducing the likelihood of future military conflict.

“International assistance works,” Moss added. “Over the past two decades, it has helped save tens of millions of lives, strengthened U.S. alliances, and prevented instability that would otherwise demand far greater military and economic costs.”

A4AL will support Polan’s campaign through grassroots organizing, volunteer mobilization, and voter outreach. With hundreds of volunteers nationwide and a growing presence in key congressional districts, the organization is building a broad, bipartisan coalition committed to restoring America’s role as a principled global leader.

“Sam Polan understands the stakes of this moment,” said Jesse Rojo, Chair, Illinois Veterans for Change. “He recognizes that American leadership is about responsibility, credibility, and results. We are ready to mobilize our supporters to help send him to Congress.”

With more than 500 volunteers across 46 states, the Alliance for American Leadership is on track to mobilize 10,000 advocates by the 2026 midterm elections.

(Chicago, Illinois) - Today, Sam Polan announced his candidacy as a Democrat for Congress in Illinois’ Ninth Congressional District.

Sam is a Wilmette native and Special Operations Veteran who deployed to the Middle East three times and rose to the rank of Captain in the U.S. Army.