Richard Chew is joined by Patrick Hanley, Democratic candidate for the 9th Illinois State Senate seat, co-founder of Operation Swing State, and president of New Trier Democrats.

Hanley talked about his background in community organizing and environmental activism and highlighted the importance of sustainability. 

"My wife and I now run this business," he told WCPT, "and it's given me such an insider view to how the private sector works, which I think is so fundamental. If we're going to be progressives and we're going to think about building a sustainable, fairer economy, we've really got to understand how the different economic actors work, and why they do. And the one big lesson that I drew from that is: More than taxes, even more than regulation, what businesses hate is uncertainty. They hate chaos. We hate chaos. Right now our business is dealing with the 'will they/won't they?' tariff policy. At one moment, there's this huge tariff on European goods and . . . the next moment, it's off. Now maybe it's back on again. . . . So the economic downturn we've seen over the last four or five months, it's largely been uncertainty. It's businesses not knowing how to plan and people not knowing how to spend."  

Hanley also addressed the need for authentic political leadership, urging candidates to engage with voters honestly and lead "with their values and with their story. And if they do that, and if they come to politics with humility . . . that's going to resonate with people a lot more than the way folks have been trained to act in the political space, very stilted and very on-message and very rigid. And what voters expect now are real people that they can relate to, they can resonate with, people that are going to be communicative, people that are going to drop a Reel on Instagram and answer their DMs and show up in a living room. I mean, you've got to be able to do it all. And that is just the future of political leadership in this country."

Hanley will face Rachel Ruttenberg of Evanston in the March 2026 Democratic primary.  They are vying to replace incumbent Sen. Laura Fine (D) in the state Senate. 

Listen to a previous Patrick Hanley conversation with WCPT's Joan Esposito. 

Catch "Chew's Views with Richard Chew” weekdays from 6:00 to 8:00 a.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/chews-views).

And find the "Chew's Views" Full Episodes podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, YouTube, Amazon and TuneIn.