About

Jan Schakowsky has been a lifelong champion for working- and middle-class families. Jan began her advocacy as a young housewife, leading a successful campaign to require expiration dates on food products, including baby food and formula. As your Congresswoman, Jan continues to organize around commonsense issues at the grassroots level to make positive change in our country.

In 1998, after serving eight years in the Illinois General Assembly, Jan was elected to represent Illinois’ 9th Congressional District. She is in her tenth term, serving in the House Democratic Leadership as a Senior Deputy Whip.  She is a member of the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, Committee on Budget, as well as the Committee on House Energy and Commerce, where she serves as Chair of the Consumer Protection and Commerce Subcommittee, and as a member of the Environment and Climate Change Oversight & Investigations Subcommittees.

Jan has made winning affordable, quality health care for all Americans her top priority. Jan played a key leadership role in writing and passing the Affordable Care Act (aka “Obamacare”) that finally established health care as a right—and not a privilege—in the United States.

Jan has been working at the forefront of the Resistance movement and fighting for values like women’s rights, comprehensive immigration reform, and getting dangerous weapons of war off our streets. Jan also co-chairs the Democratic Seniors Task Force, which focuses on addressing the needs of older Americans.

As a Jewish Congresswoman, Jan has a deep personal connection to the State of Israel. She has consistently voted for measures to assure Israel’s security and to promote efforts toward a two-state solution, with Israel and Palestine living side-by-side in peace.

Jan grew up in the 9th District and returns home every weekend to meet with individual constituents, business and labor leaders, community organizations, and her two dogs, Franklin and Eleanor.

Jan lives in Evanston, Illinois, with her husband Robert Creamer. She has three wonderful children, Ian, Mary and step-daughter Lauren, and six extraordinary grandchildren – Izzy, Eve, Lucy, William, Aidan and Alice. She graduated from the University of Illinois in 1965 with a B.S. in Elementary Education.