With Democratic U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and Rep. Jan Schakowsky set to retire and Rep. Danny Davis potentially ready to join them, next year’s election will mark a significant changing of the guard in Illinois’ congressional delegation.

But one member of the old guard says he’s gearing up for a comeback attempt. Former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. this week filed paperwork to create an exploratory committee for a possible run in the state’s 2nd Congressional District, the seat he held for almost 17 years before resigning amid a corruption probe.

Jackson said in a statement that “it is my intention to secure a place on the ballot” by circulating nominating petitions in the 2nd Congressional District.

Jackson’s attempt at political redemption comes a decade after he was released from federal prison for violating campaign finance laws by using $750,000 in campaign money for personal purchases that included a Rolex watch and Michael Jackson and Bruce Lee memorabilia.

The 2nd District would be one of what could be four hotly contested Chicago-area congressional races in reliably Democratic districts, with candidates this week filing campaign fundraising reports covering the three-month period that scrambled Illinois politics.

The seat Jackson occupied from 1995 to 2012 is open because his successor, Rep. Robin Kelly of Matteson, is seeking to replace Durbin rather than running for another term representing a district that now stretches south along the Lake Michigan shoreline and the Indiana border from 43rd Street in Chicago to Danville in central Illinois.

Jackson would be joining a field that includes seven declared Democratic candidates in the heavily blue district.

Leading the way in fundraising so far is state Sen. Robert Peters, a South Side native who’s held a seat previously occupied by Attorney General Kwame Raoul and President Barack Obama since 2019. In the three months ending June 30, Peters raised more than $415,000, and he entered July with nearly $375,000 in his campaign account, Federal Election Commission records show.

The largest contribution to Peters, whose endorsements include U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, is $10,000 from the Progressive Turnout Project, a Chicago-based political action committee. He’s also received several contributions from current and former Illinois Senate colleagues.

“To see this kind of enthusiasm fueling our campaign in just the first six weeks is humbling,” Peters, who entered the race in mid-May, said in a statement. “This is grassroots energy we will need as we build a big, broad coalition to take on Donald Trump and his wrecking crew in Congress.”

The quarterly reports for others in the race show Adal Regis, who worked in Kelly’s district office on grants, raised nearly $22,000 and had almost $15,000 on hand as of July 1; while management consultant Eric France raised more than $13,000 and had more than $1,800 on hand. Yumeka Brown, the three-term village clerk of Matteson and a commissioner on the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Board, had $500 in the bank at the end of June.

Also in the race is Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller of south suburban Lynwood, who officially entered the race after the end of the previous reporting period.

The lone declared Republican candidate is Ashley Ramos, who lost to Kelly in the 2024 general election and didn’t report raising any money in the previous quarter.

Jackson could dramatically alter the Democratic primary race.

The son of civil rights icon the Rev. Jesse Jackson and brother of U.S. Rep. Jonathan Jackson, Jesse Jackson Jr. resigned the 2nd District seat Nov. 21, 2012, just weeks after he won reelection despite the revelation a month earlier that federal prosecutors and the FBI were investigating possible misuse of campaign funds.

Jackson had largely disappeared from public view the previous June after taking a medical leave from the House for what aides initially described as exhaustion but was later diagnosed at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota as bipolar depression.

In February 2013, Jackson pleaded guilty to one count of wire and mail fraud and was sentenced that August to 30 months in prison. Jackson’s now former wife, former Chicago Ald. Sandi Jackson, later served time for federal tax fraud in covering up the spending violations.

Now a talk show host on WVON-AM, Jackson unsuccessfully sought a pardon during Joe Biden’s tenure in the White House.

Jackson was also involved in disgraced former Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s attempt to sell the U.S. Senate seat of then-incoming President Obama in 2008. Jackson actively sought an appointment to the seat from Blagojevich and federal authorities alleged Blagojevich fundraiser and Jackson family friend Raghuveer Nayak offered to raise up to $6 million in campaign funds for the then governor in exchange for naming Jackson to the Senate.

Jackson said he had no knowledge of the offer. Blagojevich, impeached and imprisoned on federal corruption charges, was pardoned in February by President Donald Trump.

Chicago Tribune’s Rick Pearson contributed.