Bobby L. Rush (D)
About The Candidate
- Office Sought: Representative, Illinois (1)
- Birth Date: Nov. 23, 1946
- Occupation: Activist
- Religion: Baptist
- Web site: http://www.house.gov/rush
Education
- McCormick Theological Seminary, MA
- Roosevelt University, BA
- University of Illinois, MA
Bobby L. Rush was born in Albany, Ga., and grew up and attended school in Chicago, where he still lives.
He volunteered for the U.S. Army from 1963 to 1968. He joined the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee in 1966, while stationed in Chicago. He went AWOL in 1968, co-founded the state's Black Panther Party and later was honorably discharged.
He received a bachelor's degree from Roosevelt University in 1973. In 1983, he was elected Chicago city alderman. He was first elected to the U.S. House in 1992.
Rush received a master's degree in political science from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1994. He became an ordained Baptist minister soon after finishing the McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago in 1998 and serves as a pastor of the Beloved Community Christian Church.
Rush lost a 1999 bid for Chicago mayor, when he won only 28 percent of the vote.
Rush and his wife, Carolyn, have five children. A sixth child, son Huey Rich, from a former relationship, was shot to death in 1999. Two men were convicted in his robbery and killing.
