Reed Showalter

Reed Showalter was born in Oak Park, Illinois, and lives in Chicago, Illinois. He attended Fenwick High School. He earned a bachelor's degree from New York University in 2014 and a law degree from Columbia Law School in 2020. His career experience includes roles at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the Chicago Legal Aid during law school, the U.S. Congress on the Judiciary Committee staff, the Federal Trade Commission as an attorney, the U.S. Department of Justice as counsel, and the White House National Economic Council as a senior policy advisor.[1][2]

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

We must make housing more affordable. Housing is the most expensive thing in our lives, and it's getting worse. In Chicago, housing costs are rising 4 times faster than the national average. To combat this injustice, we have to both recommit the federal government to building housing, as well as addressing the issues with the private market.

I’ll push to have the government directly build more housing for people to sell at cost, so everyone can afford a home.

I’ll fight to stop giant, for-profit investors from buying up homes just to get rich, not to live in them.

I’ll ban big landlords from using the collusive algorithms that jack up rent prices for Chicagoans by over $450 a year.We must fix our broken healthcare system, so that it is accessible and affordable for everyone. I support Medicare-for-All.

In the meantime, as we build power to pass universal healthcare, I will work wherever possible to cap co-pays, deductibles, and out of pocket costs.

I will fight to ban the middlemen that eat up profits in our pharmaceutical system or make them obsolete by doing that work ourselves.

I will work to ban the corporate practice of medicine, expanding the existing bans in 33 states.

And I will also push for our government to make critical drugs like insulin, inhalers, and chemo here in America, so we don’t have to depend on big pharma and insurance execs that hold healthcare hostage.No one should struggle to afford food. We have a duty to take back power in our food system from giant multinational corporations and return it to local communities that need good, healthy, affordable, responsible food.

I support the creation of public grocery stores, as well as expanding food assistance through these public institutions.

I will fight to ban junk fees on grocery and food delivery.

I support a moratorium on consolidation in Big Ag markets, as well as increased regulation of bad agricultural actors, so that giant corporations cannot continue to drive up the price of food.

And I will work toward creative solutions to make fertilizer and other basic costs cheaper for farmers so food is cheaper for all of us.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I believe that we must take back power from giant corporations that are fueling the crises of affordability and democracy in our country.

As an anti-monopoly attorney working in federal government service, I have seen how corporate power has not only driven up prices in every sector of our economy, but also completely overtaken our politics. We can take that power back for the people.

What organizations or individuals have endorsed your campaign?

Former Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division, Jonathan Kanter