Hi there, my name is Kevin Ryan. I am a former Chicago Public Schools teacher, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, and candidate for the United States Senate.

I grew up in Orland Park, IL and attended Marist High School in Chicago. My early years were marked by difficult times with my brother, Pat, who battled intense addiction and mental illness. He made life at home incredibly difficult. Thankfully, I had some really great teachers who helped me through those difficult years. They inspired me to lead a life of service, and I became a teacher myself.

Pat went in and out of rehab and then found himself in the Cook County Jail for several months. Shortly after his release, he overdosed and died at the age of 22.

I carried guilt for years, believing I had failed him as a brother. Becoming a teacher gave me some sense of redemption. Teaching showed me I could be there for others in ways I couldn’t be there for Pat.

While studying to become a teacher at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, people my age were being sent to Afghanistan. And I felt compelled to do my part. So, I joined the Marine Corps Reserve as an infantry officer and balanced deployments while teaching on the South and West Sides of Chicago.

After my return from Afghanistan in 2020, I decided to leave my teaching job to study at the University of Oxford. I earned a graduate degree in diplomacy that took me to assignments across Europe, Hawai’i, the Pentagon, and the U.S. Treasury  Department. While working in Washington, I obtained a graduate degree in national security from Georgetown University.

After watching Trump’s vindictive return and the Democratic Party’s critical failures, I realized that it is time for my generation of liberals to step up. We can no longer afford more machine politics, bowing to billionaires, or those who wait for “their turn.” We need bold action from the bottom-up.

So I resigned my position, returned home, and now, I am stepping up—for families like mine, for students like mine, for veterans like me—I am stepping up for Americans everywhere outraged by the status quo, where the ultra-wealthy control our democracy through campaign contributions, dark money, and Super PACs. It is a legal form of corruption. And I am running to end it.

“The tired dogmas of quiet past are inadequate for the stormy present… We must think anew and act anew”

-Abraham Lincoln