ETHS Holds Debate for 9th District Congressional Candidates

Seven candidates for Illinois’s Ninth Congressional District (IL-09) participated in a student-led debate March 6 at Evanston Township High School to share their perspectives on various policies and reforms in the approaching election.

The debate was hosted by the Evanston Youth Advisory Committee (YAC), according to a flyer sent out by Evanston Township High School. The content of the debate revolved around the candidates’ goals in office and  their perspective on the current Trump administration’s actions. 

The present candidates were Kat Abughazaleh, Bushra Amiwala, Phil Andrew, Jeff Cohen, Sam Polan, Nick Pyati and Mike Simmons. Seven out of the ten invited IL-09 candidates were present at the debate. 

Candidates were asked questions by a panel of high school students Eva Hansen, Tristan Bond and Corina Li Caldwell, who monitored the debate and timed responses. Each candidate had two minutes to share their answers.

The debate included four types of questioning followed by the candidates’ opening statements. 

The questions ranged from one general question for all the candidates to individualized questions for each candidate. They were then cross-examined and given time to answer questions from the audience.

Abughazaleh, a Gen Z woman and previously a reporter for Media Matters for America, said her time covering right-wing media on FOX news and other platforms can benefit her fight against the Trump administration in office.

“We need democrats who understand how to handle the far right and how to tamp down on extremism,” Abughazaleh said.

She said Democrats also need to understand the value of leverage when it comes to passing legislation in partnership with the far-right and should refrain from compromising with their ideology.

“We don’t negotiate with bullies, we don’t negotiate with fascists,” Abughazaleh said.

Other candidates emphasized the importance of honesty, integrity and negotiation when attempting to pass bipartisan legislation.

Andrew, previously a hostage negotiator for the FBI, said he considers negotiation to be an unlearned skill in today’s politics, yet an important one.

“Listening is important,” Andrew said. “It’s in listening where you understand where the difference is.” 

Once being a U.S. Army Captain, intelligence analyst and a strategy and policy advisor to NORAD and U.S. Northern Command for the Department of Defense, Polan said he hopes to put an end to the politicization of the military and bring back deliberate diplomacy. 

He said he desires honesty in Congress, placing an emphasis on providing truth for constituents in such an uncertain administration. 

Investigating and interrogating the Trump administration is something of high importance for whoever wins the election, according to Pyati, an ex-public school teacher, corporate crime prosecutor in the Obama Justice Department and a senior strategy leader at Microsoft.

As a citizen of the 9th congressional district, Pyati said he considers the recent politics within the district to be “beneath” him and other citizens, regarding recent unspecified elections in the district.

“We have faced mountains of money pouring in from outside the district and the torrent of negative advertising that is tainting our politics,” Pyati said.

Pyati said he worries his children will be “turned off” from the current performance of democracy from Trump’s administration, and hopes to tackle these false narratives of democracy.

The current economic state of the United States was a priority for Cohen, who’s worked in the field of law and economics for the last three decades.

He said he believes the economy gets under everything, including the current social rift in the United States. He said he also considers Trump’s tariffs to be “chaotic economic nonsense” and hopes to implement policies geared towards affordability, such as a saving plan for senior citizens. He also said he wants to enact policies which support employment opportunities amidst the development of AI.

While most candidates are new to elected positions, both Amiwala and Simmons have experience campaigning and winning elections.

Amiwala, a Gen Z elected board member of the Skokie School District 73.5 Board of Education, focused on the importance of education in the United States. 

Along with others, Amiwala helped pass the Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History Act in 2021and said she finds importance in the curriculum being taught to students. 

Amiwala said she feels Western imperialism isn’t taught well enough in the United States and strives to change this if elected. 

Simmons, a current Illinois State Senator, used his position to help pass numerous acts, and he emphasizes the need for improvement on Illinois public transit systems. Simmons has been in the Illinois Senate since 2021 and is currently serving his third term.

Simmons described himself as a “public transit champion and geek” and said he has and will continue to back legislation that calls for those changes, with the Northern Illinois Transit Authority Act being one of those bills.

He said he’s also an advocate for policies supporting Medicaid benefits, an increase in minimum wage and adequate access to women’s healthcare. 

The debate wasn’t only a chance for the candidates to share their goals if elected, but also an opportunity for undecided voters to learn more about the candidates, according to 16-year-old Olin Wilson-Thomas, a junior at Evanston Township High School.

Inspired by the persistent amount of undecided voters in the district, Wilson-Thomas said he proposed the idea of a debate to his classmates, who showed an influx of support.

Through the planning process, Wilson-Thomas and others tried to center the debate on candidates’ canvas strengths and how they could best serve the voters, Wilson-Thomas said.

“My hope is that people walked away tonight with a real idea of who the candidates are, when they don’t have to put up their guardrails against all the hate,” Wilson-Thomas said.

Seventeen-year-old Eva Hansen, president of the Student Union, member of the YAC and a senior at Evanston Township High School, said she also helped plan and conduct the debate.

As a first time voter, Hansen said she felt it was important for her and others to be educated voters.

In December, Hansen, Wilson-Thomas and others contacted and researched the candidates in order to put the debate together. Through this process, Hansen said she was able to learn more about each candidate and was able to solidify her own vote.

Third-year student at Northwestern University Amiya Tess said she felt the debate was “very well run.”

“I think back to high school, and I can’t imagine running an event with this many people and it going so smoothly,” Tess said.

Tess said she enjoyed seeing the candidates’ personalities and their specific ways of addressing conflict in a debate setting.

Overall, the students’ goal of a peaceful debate succeeded, according to Hansen.

“I think it was really beautiful how kind everyone was to each other, and I think that sets a really good example for politics as a whole,” Hansen said. “We don’t always have to clash.”