It also includes many of Chicago's northern suburbs, including Arlington Heights, Des Plaines, Evanston, Glenview, Kenilworth, Mount Prospect, Niles, Park Ridge, Rosemont, Skokie, Wilmette, and Winnetka, as of the decennial redistricting following the 2010 United States census.

[2][3] Schakowsky graduated with a Bachelor of Science in elementary education from the University of Illinois, where she was a member of Delta Phi Epsilon sorority.

[13] Journalist James Ylisela Jr. observed that Pritzker, Schakowsky, and Carroll largely all ran on platforms aligned with the Democratic Party agenda" that Yates had championed.

She also focused on protections for trade union workers and on national healthcare reform to address issues of affordability.

[11] At the time, the election was one of the most-expensive congressional primaries in U.S. history, and Prizker spent nearly $1 million of his own money to fund his run[11] (including $500,000 on television ads in the Chicago market).

897) in the House of Representatives, seeking information from leading federal agencies on their contracts for work in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In hearings held by the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee in July 2006, Schakowsky expressed concern that a report from the National Academy of Sciences showing discrepancies among scientists studying global warming might be "used in a way to discredit the whole notion that our country and the rest of the industrialized and developing world ought to do anything about global warming".

[26] In March 2015, Schakowsky did not attend Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to Congress because, she wrote in the Huffington Post, it could scuttle delicate negotiations with Iran: "The prime minister wants the negotiations to end, and his purpose in speaking to the Congress is to convince us that the president is about to agree to a deal that threatens Israel's existence.

And, in the meantime, Iran has essentially halted its weapons program under the Joint Plan of Action while the talks are ongoing.

[30][31] During the 2017 confirmation hearings of then-Secretary of State appointee Rex Tillerson, Schakowsky criticized his support of policies that she alleged were detrimental to the future of Assyrian existence in Iraq.

[42][43] After the drone strikes on aid workers from World Central Kitchen in April 2024, Mark Pocan, James P. McGovern, Jan Schakowsky, Nancy Pelosi and 36 more members of Congress from the Democratic party urged U.S. President Joe Biden in an open letter to reconsider planned arms shippments to the Israeli military.

[46] In January 2023, Schakowsky was one of 13 cosponsors of an amendment to the Constitution of the United States extending the right to vote to citizens 16 years of age or older.

[47] The Nation endorsed Schakowsky as the best possible choice for vice president in the 2004 United States presidential election, writing that she was "the truest heir to Paul Wellstone in the current Congress".

[50] The purpose of the objection was not to prevent Bush's certification as president-elect, but rather was to register protest and raise public awareness of alleged irregularities in Ohio.

[51] Schakowsky hailed the protest as an opportunity to raise attention to the need for congress to pass electoral reforms.

[52] In April 2009, Schakowsky pointedly criticized the tax day Tea Party protests: "It's despicable that right-wing Republicans would attempt to cheapen a significant, honorable moment of American history with a shameful political stunt.

In December 2016, she was elected the Congressional Progressive Caucus' vice chair and liaison to the Democratic Party Seniors taskforce.

[94] In 2005, Creamer pleaded guilty to failure to collect withholding tax and to bank fraud for writing checks with insufficient funds.

[95] While she served on the organization's board during the time the crimes occurred,[96] and signed the IRS filings along with Creamer,[97] the U.S. district judge noted that no one suffered "out of pocket losses", and Creamer acted not out of greed but in an effort to keep his community action group going without cutting programs, though he paid his own $100,000 salary with fraudulently obtained funds.

[98] On July 20, 2022, Schakowsky was arrested in front of the Supreme Court building after she and 33 others, including 15 members of Congress, allegedly refused to comply with orders to stop blocking traffic.