EVANSTON, IL — Trailing badly in the polls and on the verge of losing another Congressional race, Laura Fine’s political patron AIPAC and its MAGA-aligned dark money super PAC launched a desperate attack ad smearing Daniel Biss. This ad is about one thing and one thing only: AIPAC knows that Daniel Biss will stand up to Donald Trump – and they know Laura Fine won’t.

The Biss for Congress campaign released the following statement:

"Daniel Biss is running for Congress because he understands that this moment needs real leaders with a proven track record of fighting Donald Trump. Laura Fine is running for Congress to be a rubber stamp for AIPAC and her MAGA donors – just like she was a rubber stamp for Mike Madigan and the health insurance lobby in Springfield. Ninth District voters won’t be fooled by these slimy dark money ads, and they won’t allow right-wing special interests to pick our next member of Congress."

Here are the facts:

• In Springfield, Laura Fine voted with Mike Madigan 97% of the time. She voted for Mike Madigan for Speaker in 2013, 2015, and 2017. Laura Fine has taken a total of $131,356.82 from committees controlled by Mike Madigan: Fine took $89,044.35 from the Democratic Party of Illinois while Madigan was Chair and $42,312.47 from Democratic Majority, a House Democrats’ committee controlled by Madigan.

• Daniel Biss was one of the first leaders in Illinois to call for Mike Madigan’s resignation – Laura Fine stayed quiet. In 2018, Biss became the first legislative Democrat in Illinois to call for Madigan’s resignation as Illinois Democratic Party chair as sexual harassment allegations. In 2020, Biss was one of 53 Illinois Democratic leaders to call for Madigan’s resignation in an open letter. Laura Fine was notably absent. 

• The “Madigan-funded super PAC” referenced in AIPAC’s ad was an anti-Trump PAC funded by JB Pritzker, Illinois labor unions, and prominent Laura Fine donors. The PAC the ad attacks spent all of its funds on ads against Donald Trump in 2016. Its largest donors included JB Pritzker and prominent unions while its single largest donor was Michael Sacks (a donor to Laura Fine). 

• In 2012, Daniel Biss and the state legislature voted to save Medicaid from “the brink of collapse.” State legislators overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan legislative package to protect Medicaid for more than 99% of enrollees by bringing the program in line with other states and passing a $1 per pack tax increase on cigarettes. The National Association of Medicaid Directors said Illinois’ actions were considered “very consistent with what you’ve seen in other states.”

• Laura Fine voted to cut Medicaid for 30,000 Illinoisans just last year. In 2025, Illinois passed a budget that eliminated the Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults program, which provided Medicaid-like coverage to immigrants in Illinois. While Laura Fine skipped the final vote, she voted for an earlier version of the budget just two days earlier. This program, which Fine voted to cut, had covered 30,000 Illinois residents.

• In Springfield, Laura Fine voted with Republicans to kill health insurance reforms and then took tens of thousands of dollars from insurance and pharma companies. Fine was just one of just a handful of Democrats who split from the party, voting with every Republican and the insurance industry, to block HB 23, a bill to create an independent Office of the Consumer Health Insurance Counsel that would have represented the interests of consumers against health insurance companies. Perhaps that’s why insurance and pharma companies have given Fine tens of thousands of dollars worth of campaign donations.

• Laura Fine’s campaign is powered by Trump donors. Laura Fine has taken $60,000 from donors to Donald Trump. Last quarter, she raised more money from Trump donors than she did from residents of the 9th District. And last week, she admitted at a forum that she is the only candidate for IL-09 who is taking contributions from donors to Donald Trump. Laura Fine won’t stand up to MAGA – because MAGA is funding her campaign.

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