[Retiring at end of current term.] Rail thin with glasses, the soft-spoken Bobby Rush can deftly pivot to a more hard-charging approach when the occasion arises. A pastor, Army veteran, and former Black Panther leader, Rush during a roughly three decade career in Congress has hewed closely to the needs of a district that includes much of Chicago’s South Side. Reducing gun violence has been a longstanding priority for Rush, whose 29-year-old son was shot and killed on his way home from a grocery store on a Chicago street in 1999.

Learn what Bobby Rush says about finding common ground