Skip navigation menu

Reed Showalter is an antimonopoly attorney and advocate running for Congress in Illinois’ 7th District to take on the oligarchs raising our housing, healthcare, and food prices.

Reed lives in the West Loop with his wife and high school sweetheart, Marina, and their dogs, Toast and Bubble. He was born and raised in Oak Park, where his parents ran small businesses. He grew up watching them work hard, take risks, and give back to their community. When his dad lost his job in the 2008 financial crash, he started over as a handyman and built a contracting business from scratch. At his side, Reed learned how to paint a room, install a toilet, and build a deck.

But Reed also learned something else: while working families were told to tighten their belts, Wall Street and big corporations got bailed out. The system wasn’t broken; it was rigged. That moment shaped his path and Reed decided to fight back against a system that protects the powerful while punishing ordinary people.

After earning a degree from New York University, Reed worked in financial regulation at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, going after traders that gambled with people’s livelihoods. During law school he worked at Chicago Legal Aid defending people’s right to housing. After graduating from Columbia, he worked in Congress on the Judiciary Committee staff. He continued working in public service as an attorney at the Federal Trade Commission, a counsel in the U.S. Justice Department, and a senior policy advisor in the White House National Economic Council.

Throughout his career, Reed has gone after those with power holding both Chicago and the country back:

HOUSING

Reed cracked down on landlords conspiring to hike rents and defended people facing eviction.

FOOD

Reed investigated and regulated Big Ag for inflating prices at grocery stores and abusing farmers.

HEALTHCARE

Reed took on health insurers driving up rates and denying care, and pharmaceutical companies ratcheting up costs and discontinuing cheaper drugs.

TECH

Reed sued the Big Tech companies corrupting our democracy, undermining innovative businesses, and extracting money from our wallets.

Families in Illinois’s 7th District aren’t struggling by accident. Housing costs, medical bills, and grocery prices are high because powerful corporations profit from keeping them that way, and politicians have let it happen.

Reed is running for Congress to make government work for people, not corporations. He isn’t afraid to take on the biggest fights; he already has. Chicago deserves a representative who’s as tough, honest, and no-nonsense as the city itself.

It’s time to take back our city—and our country—from bullies inside and outside the government. Together, we can fight back against concentrated power, and win.

Let’s Fight for a Change