Due to redistricting as a result of the 2020 United States Census, Newman in 2022 faced a choice between running in the heavily Hispanic 4th district which she had been drawn into, or against Sean Casten in a district with the majority of her former area.[1] Newman opted to run against Casten in the Democratic primary but was defeated.
In April 2023, Newman was appointed chief executive officer of Little City Foundation, a social services organization serving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Newman worked for multiple firms as an agency executive. She began her own consulting firm in 2005.[7] She also established her own nonprofit to combat bullying after one of her children was bullied.[7]GovernorPat Quinn appointed her to a regional anti-bullying task force and Sears Holdings Corporation asked her to establish a national anti-bullying coalition of 70 nonprofit organizations.
Newman has worked on several Democratic campaigns for public office. Between 2015 and 2017 she lobbied for gun control measures such as background checks.[8]
In April 2023, Newman was appointed chief executive officer of Little City Foundation, a social services organization serving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Little City serves over 900 people through its residential facilities, day programs, and at-home assistance in northern Illinois.[9] Newman had a personal connection to Little City, having volunteered when she was young. Two of her cousins received Little City services.[10]
Newman supported Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary in Illinois and Hillary Clinton in the November general election. The day after Clinton lost, she applied to the Illinois Women's Institute for Leadership.[11] By January 1, 2017, Newman had closed her business to turn her attention to politics full-time.[11]
On March 17, 2020, Newman narrowly defeated Lipinski in the Democratic primary with 47.26% of the vote to his 44.72%.[29][30] Her victory ended the Lipinski family's 38-year hold on the district. Bill Lipinski won the seat in 1983, when it was numbered as the 5th district (it has been the 3rd since 1993), and handed it to Dan in 2005.
On November 3, Newman won the general election, defeating Republican Will CountySupervisor Mike Fricilone. With 88% of the vote counted, she led by about 30,000 votes, and had received about 55% of the vote.[31][32][33][34]
In October 2021, Democrats in the Illinois legislature passed a new congressional map that radically changed Newman's district. The map placed Newman's home into a district with Representative Jesús "Chuy" García, who represents a majority-Hispanic district. Newman announced that she would run in the redrawn 6th District, which overlaps her original district. She thus challenged incumbent Representative Sean Casten in the 2022 Democratic primary.[1] In the redrawn 6th district, 41% of voters are from Newman's former district and 23% are from Casten's former district, according to calculations by Daily Kos.[35] On June 28, 2022, Newman lost the primary to Casten.[36]
In 2021, the House Ethics Committee launched a review into Newman after she was accused of having signed a contract promising Iymen Chehade, a pro-Palestinian activist and potential primary opponent, a job in her congressional office in exchange for Chehade's not entering the primary; other documents alleged to be included in the review also stipulated that Newman adopt several policy positions with respect to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.[39][40][41][42][43]
Federal Elections Commission filings show that Newman hired Chehade as a foreign policy advisor through her campaign, paying him $54,000 since the second half of 2021, more than twice what other employees working similar jobs were paid; Chehade was Newman's highest-paid employee.[44][41][45] In her contract with him, Newman also agreed to adopt specific stances with respect to BDS-related legislation and aid to Israel, and to refuse to work with a number of pro-Israel organizations, such as the Jewish National Fund.[42][43]
On October 15, 2021, the Office of Congressional Ethics voted unanimously that there was reason to believe that Newman's agreement with Chehade constituted a de facto bribe and to refer the matter to the House Ethics Committee.[46][47][48] Newman's representatives responded that Newman "cooperate[d] completely with the review" but that the OCE had "prejudged the matter from the beginning", also making it clear this was "political theatre".[39]
On February 3, 2022, FACT filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission on the grounds that Newman's continued payments to Chehade, a witness in the Congressional investigations, interfered with the investigation.[49] Newman denied wrongdoing, calling the complaint politically motivated; CREW said that the continued payments raised "serious ethics questions".[49]
In the course of the investigation, it was revealed that Newman had made a similar contract guaranteeing a job to another person, Shadin Maali, who had previously conducted political outreach for Chehade.[50][51][52]
The matter was closed in the late summer of 2022 after the primary election. No investigative subcommittee investigation was empaneled because it was not deemed needed and the matter was terminated with no violation cited.
Newman represents what has long been the most conservative district of the eight that divide Chicago. Described as "ancestrally Democratic, culturally conservative, multiethnic and viscerally patriotic",[56] the 3rd is the only Chicago-based district with a Cook Partisan Voting Index lower than D+15. Newman identifies as a progressive Democrat. She supports abortion rights, gun control, a $15 minimum wage,[7] and a Green New Deal.[57][58] Her campaigns were supported by Justice Democrats, an organization that funds progressive candidates, in both 2018[59] and 2020.[14] The Sunrise Movement supported her campaign in 2020.[60]
Newman also supports the Equality Act, saying, "Without the Equality Act, this nation will never live up to its principles of freedom and equality." She says that she entered politics to make the world a better place for her transgender daughter. After Republican freshman Marjorie Taylor Greene attacked the bill as "disgusting, immoral, and evil" on the House floor, Newman hung a Transgender Pride flag outside her Washington office, which is directly across from Greene's.[61]