Despite downplaying his family’s influential commercial property business while campaigning, real estate scion Jason Friedman is emerging as a favorite among industry players to fill Rep. Danny Davis’ soon-to-be-vacated House seat in the March 17 primary election.
Friedman has raised more than $1 million in donations and is so far the only candidate in a crowded field to report fundraising totals in the race for Illinois’ seventh district.
More than 200 of his 600-plus donations have been tied to real estate professionals, according to federal election data. Prominent donors include Waterton CEO David Schwartz, Blue Star Properties’ Craig Golden, AMLI Residential CEO Gregory T. Mutz, CRG’s CEO Shawn Clark and MZ Capital Partners’ Michael Zaransky.
At least eight other challengers have recently joined the race, including state Rep. La Shawn Ford, who Davis endorsed last week. Next quarter’s fundraising results will likely reveal more nuances about the candidates’ coalitions.
Other Chicago business heavyweights who have cut checks for Friedman include private investment billionaire Craig Duchossois and multiple Linden Capital Partners executives.
Friedman’s father, the founder of Friedman Properties, referred to as the “Mayor of River North,” is also among his donors, as is one of the firm’s retail tenants, the well-known restaurateur behind the Lettuce Entertain You empire, Richard Melman.
Whoever takes over the seat will step in at a crucial time for the district, which has been hammered by distress in the commercial real estate market following the pandemic. The district stretches from Lawndale to River North and from the Loop to Oak Pak.
Over Friedman Properties’ 55 years in the business, it has amassed a 5 million-square-foot commercial real estate portfolio, developed towers and preserved architectural landmarks. Its properties span the retail, office, multifamily and hotel sectors. Jason Friedman served as president of his father’s company from 2005 until 2023.
He describes his approach to policymaking as one of “abundance,” referring to a book of the same title by political commentators Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. The emerging political rallying call is seen among the center-left as a way to tackle issues like housing affordability via both government investment and certain kinds of deregulation.
The Real Deal spoke with Friedman about how his real estate experience will influence his campaign. Because the district is considered safely Democratic, the winner of the primary will be strongly favored in the following November general election.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
TRD: You previously worked in government but what made you want to step back into politics now as a candidate?
JF: I felt that our existing public officials just weren’t fighting for us anymore. This needs to be a place that people want to invest in again and that people want to raise their families in again. This particular congressional district is the most diverse district in the state of Illinois, maybe one of the most diverse in the United States. It’s also the economic engine of our city and state. It’s where the majority of these big real estate developments take place and where a lot of people are employed and where all of the corporations are.
TRD: Your father, Albert Friedman, has been nicknamed the mayor of River North and you spent 18 years as president of his company, Friedman Properties. What role will your real estate background play in your approach to politics?
JF: Real estate is an industry of collaboration. In order to build a building, you have to have a good relationship with your public officials [and] with the community, and you have to deal with union labor, good paying jobs, minority contracting and really helping businesses and entrepreneurs. It’s not dissimilar from being in public service.
TRD: Chicago ranked 45th in construction starts per capita, according to a recent study of the 50 largest metro areas in the U.S. by Apartment List. Impact for Equity also found that the Chicago Housing Authority has 19,000 fewer homes than it did 10 years ago. At the current pace of building, the CHA won’t be able to redevelop all the vacant land created by public housing demolitions for another 30 to 40 years. How do you plan to address the city’s shortage of both subsidized and market rate housing?
JF: It’s a huge problem. The secret sauce for achieving more affordable housing is through more supply. It’s through growth. It’s through this abundance strategy and the idea that Chicago and some of these other great cities have created such restrictions on the ability for developers and for owners to build that we need to figure out a way to streamline that process.
TRD: We hear a lot of that conversation on the local level, particularly at City Hall, but how does a congressperson, specifically, play a role in this issue?
JF: Every aspect and chain of government is related. I would work with every alderman here. I would certainly work with the mayor’s office to create pathways to business success and good public stewardship for housing abundance. The other thing we can do on a federal level is create better pathways for home ownership for first-time home buyers.
TRD: Tell me about your other campaign priorities and how you plan to balance representing this district. It’s very economically and ethnically diverse so there may be a lot of competing priorities.
JF: You know, it’s funny, I don’t think there are. The community is very diverse, from Chinatown to Oak Park and from North Lawndale to Fulton Market or River North, [but] for a lot of people, the top issues are the same, which are pathways to business success, public safety and access to education. You should have the same education regardless of your zip code. You should grow up with affordability, and that’s affordability in housing and affordability in health care. Sometimes we just look at it through different lenses but there’s a pathway through and a lane that’s the same for all of us.
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