Illinois's 3rd congressional district

2011 redistricting

The district covers parts of Cook, Du Page and Will counties, as of the 2011 redistricting which followed the 2010 census. All or parts of Chicago, Bridgeview, Burbank, Crest Hill, Hickory Hills, Homer Glen, Justice, La Grange, Lemont, Lockport, Oak Lawn, Palos Heights, Palos Hills, Romeoville, Summit, Western Springs and Worth are included. The representatives for these districts were elected in the 2012 primary and general elections, and the boundaries became effective on January 3, 2013.

Geography

The District includes the municipalities of Bedford Park, Bridgeview, Burbank, Chicago Ridge, Countryside, Forest View, Hickory Hills, Hodgkins, Hometown, Indian Head Park, Justice, La Grange, La Grange Park, Lyons, McCook, Merrionette Park, Oak Lawn, Palos Hills, Riverside, Stickney and Summit, nearly all of Berwyn, Brookfield, Western Springs and Willow Springs, and parts of Alsip, Burr Ridge, Cicero, Forest Park, Hillside, North Riverside, Palos Heights, Palos Park, Westchester and Worth.

In the City of Chicago, it includes the communities of Bridgeport (home of mayor Richard M. Daley until he relocated in the late 1990s to the Near South Side's Central Station development), Clearing, Garfield Ridge, Mount Greenwood and West Lawn; almost all of Beverly; those portions of Archer Heights and West Elsdon west of Pulaski Road; the western portions of Ashburn, Chicago Lawn and Morgan Park; the portion of McKinley Park south of Archer Avenue; parts of Gage Park and New City; and a small section (1/16 m²) of Armour Square.

Demographics

The District, situated between the Hispanic-majority 4th District to the north and the black-majority 1st and 7th Districts to the east, is the home of numerous sizable and historic ethnic groups including Irish, Polish, Arab, German, Italian and Czech immigrants and their descendants. At 14.2%, the Irish make up the largest ethnic group in the district, most prominently in the Bridgeport area (the ancestral neighborhood of the Daley family and other Chicago Irish politicians) and the Mount Greenwood-Beverly area; it is the largest Irish population in any district west of Philadelphia's suburbs. The Polish form the next largest white ethnic group at 13.5%, tying the northwest side's 5th District for the second highest percentage of any district, behind only New York's 27th congressional district. The next largest ethnic groups are Germans (11.0%) and Italians (6.9%). Of the suburbs primarily south of 87th Street (in Palos and Worth Townships), 9 of 10 have larger Irish than Polish populations, usually by large margins; but north of 87th Street, in those areas in Lyons Township south of Interstate 55 or in the townships to the east of Harlem Avenue, 9 of 10 suburbs have greater Polish populations than Irish, again by large margins. In Oak Lawn, the district's largest suburb, Irish outnumber Polish 30%-19%; in neighboring Burbank, the district's third largest suburb, Polish outnumber Irish by an identical margin.

More recently a large Mexican community has moved to the district, notably in Berwyn, Cicero, Hodgkins and Summit where they represent over 30% of the population, and along Archer Avenue, a major Chicago artery that runs through the district's northern section. There is also a sizable Greek community in Oak Lawn and Palos Hills. In the last two decades, there has been notable Arab settlement in the vicinity of Bridgeview, and by the 2000 Census, Arabs represented one of the five largest non-Hispanic ethnic groups in Bridgeview and three adjacent suburbs. Approximately 41% of the district's residents live in Chicago. Roughly 21% of the district's population is Hispanic, 68% are Caucasian, 6% are African American and 3% are Asian; redistricting following the 2000 Census and the continued influx of Hispanics tripled the minority population from a decade earlier, as the district in its previous configuration had a population that was 7% Hispanic, 2% African American and 1% Asian. The more affluent areas of the district are generally located in its northwestern portion.

Economy

The district is a historic U.S. transportation and shipping hub; not only does it include Chicago Midway International Airport, but it is also traversed by the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, the Calumet Sag Channel, and the Des Plaines River, earning national designations for the Chicago Portage National Historic Site in Forest View and the Illinois and Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor. The path of historic Route 66 runs southwest through the district from its eastern end in Chicago. Interstate 55 intersects with both the Tri-State Tollway (Interstate 294) and the Dan Ryan Expressway (Interstate 90/94) in the district, and in 2001 – since which time the district has shifted slightly to the northwest – it was noted as likely having more freight yards and railroad crossings than any other district.

The district includes Toyota Park, home of the Chicago Fire team in Major League Soccer, and the Chicago Red Stars team in Women's Professional Soccer, as well as Hawthorne Race Course; the area also benefits from Chicago White Sox home games at U.S. Cellular Field, which is less than 1,000 feet (300 m) beyond the district's border. Portions of the Cook County Forest Preserves cover several square miles in the district's southwest corner. Cultural attractions include Brookfield Zoo and the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture in West Lawn; educational institutions include St. Xavier University in Mount Greenwood, Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills, Morton College in Cicero, and Richard J. Daley College, a Chicago city college, in West Lawn; and medical facilities include Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Adventist La Grange Memorial Hospital in La Grange and MacNeal Hospital in Berwyn. A Ronald McDonald House adjacent to Advocate Christ opened in December 2008. Industrial and business presences in the district include: Tootsie Roll Industries; Electro-Motive Diesel; a Nabisco bakery which is the largest biscuit bakery in the world; the Chicago Area Consolidation Hub of United Parcel Service and adjacent BNSF Railway yard; an ACH Food manufacturing plant (formerly part of Corn Products Company) in Summit; an Owens Corning roofing and asphalt plant in Summit; and a Nalco Chemical plant in Bedford Park. The former site of the International Amphitheatre, now an Aramark plant, is within the district. Organizations based in the district include the American Nuclear Society in La Grange Park. Among the federal facilities in the district is the Great Lakes Regional Headquarters of the National Archives and Records Administration in West Lawn.

Other district sites on the National Register of Historic Places include:

Politics

The District has been described as "ancestrally Democratic, culturally conservative, multiethnic and viscerally patriotic." It earned a reputation as being home to Reagan Democrats when in the 1980 presidential election it was one of only two Chicago districts (out of nine) to be won by Republican Ronald Reagan, along with the 6th District (an almost entirely suburban district which also included Chicago's O'Hare Airport); the district simultaneously reelected Democratic congressman Marty Russo with nearly 69% of the vote. The Reagan Democrat description became even more appropriate when Reagan received 65% of the vote here in 1984, as Russo again won with 64%. Redistricting for the 1990s shifted the district into more reliably Democratic territory, but Bill Clinton won the district in 1992 by just a 41%-39% margin despite receiving at least 65% of the vote in four other south side districts; he won the district with 53% in 1996 although his totals in the other south side districts were all between 80-85%. George W. Bush received 41% of the vote here in both 2000 and 2004 despite not exceeding 21% in any of the other four south side districts; it was his best performance in any district located primarily within Cook County. Much of the district's current suburban territory was in the 4th District from the 1950s to the 1970s, when that was a solidly Republican suburban district represented by Ed Derwinski; more recently, Lyons, Palos and Riverside Townships, which together approximately correspond with the district's western half, all voted for Bush in 2000. Over the last eight presidential elections, the Democratic nominee for Congress has run an average of 20 points ahead of the party's nominee for president in the district.

Redistricting which took effect for the 1992 elections kept only 40% of the district's previous area, and pitted nine-term incumbent Russo – who changed his residence rather than run in the 2nd District, which now included his previous home – against five-term incumbent Bill Lipinski, who had previously represented the neighboring 5th District, in the Democratic primary. Lipinski ran close to Russo in the suburbs but easily won the Chicago areas, and won the primary 58%-37%. Lipinski was decidedly the most conservative Democrat in the Illinois delegation, opposing abortion and gays in the military, supporting school prayer, tuition vouchers, the Defense of Marriage Act and the death penalty, and helping to write a proposed constitutional amendment in 1997 prohibiting flag desecration. A member of the Blue Dog Democrats, he was one of just 30 Democrats to vote for the Republican welfare reform plan. He clashed often with the Clinton administration, opposing the president's position over half the time in the 1997-98 Congress. He was one of 31 Democrats to vote in favor of a Judiciary Committee inquiry during the leadup to Clinton's impeachment; he eventually voted against impeachment, but simultaneously called on Clinton to resign. In 1999, Lipinski stated that Clinton "doesn't have credibility on military issues," adding that "the American people feel Clinton is unsure." He was a consistent opponent of U.S. free trade agreements, arguing that they were disastrous for American manufacturing. Lipinski received higher approval ratings from the American Conservative Union than from the ACLU in 12 of his last 13 years in office, though his highest ratings generally came from labor and consumer groups and the Christian Coalition. He received a 0 rating from the ACLU for the 1997-98 term, and also compiled an overall 0 rating from the National Abortion Rights Action League. His policies enabled him to work easily with Republicans; he was a candidate to become Transportation Secretary in the Bush administration, and collaborated with House Speaker Dennis Hastert of the 14th District to design the state's redistricting plan following the 2000 Census. Lipinski's positions were generally in line with those of district residents, and after surviving with a 54%-46% win amid the Republican gains of 1994 he was reelected by increasing margins in each succeeding election; in 2002 he became the first unopposed candidate in the history of the District.

2004 election

The district's seat changed hands under somewhat controversial circumstances in 2004. Lipinski was renominated in the primary election, but in August announced his intention to withdraw from the race, just two weeks before the deadline for replacing a candidate on the ballot. Four days later, the district's ward and township committeemen – including Lipinski himself as well as Mayor Daley's brother John and Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan – met to choose a replacement; Lipinski nominated his son Dan, an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee, and he was approved without opposition despite not having lived in Illinois since 1989. In his initial campaign, the younger Lipinski stated that his policies made him "not really that different from" his father, and indicated that he would oppose same-sex marriage as well as abortion except when the mother's life was at stake. True to the district's heritage, he identified Reagan as his political hero.

Presidential elections

This table indicates how the District has voted in U.S. presidential elections; election results reflect voting in the district as it was configured at the time of the election, not as it is configured today. The candidate who received the most votes in the district is listed first; the candidate who won the election nationally is in CAPS, and the candidate who won the state of Illinois is indicated with a †.

Living former Members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 3rd congressional district

As of May 2016, there are two former members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 3rd congressional district who are currently living at this time. The most recent representative to die was Morgan F. Murphy (1971-1973) on March 4, 2016. The most recent serving representative to die was Robert P. Hanrahan (1973-1975) on January 7, 2011.