Illinois Dem congressional candidate Daniel Biss admits to fling with former student as primary polls open
An Illinois mayor and congressional frontrunner admitted to an “ill-advised” relationship with his former student only hours before polls opened for the Democratic primary, according to reports.A spokesperson for Daniel Biss, the mayor of Evanston and the Democratic congressional frontrunner for the state’s 9th district, confirmed his relationship with his former student while working as a professor at the University of Chicago in 2004 to The Daily Northwestern — just hours before primary voters were slated to head to the polls on Tuesday.
The former student, Megan Wachspress, alleged that she and Biss had a relationship that crossed student-teacher boundaries when she was a mathematics and political science major at UChicago in a Bluesky and Substack post on Monday.“It took becoming a professor myself to realize the implications – what it means to be attracted to someone who categorically has less power than you,” the current Stanford Law School Lecturer wrote in a second Bluesky post.
“I don’t know if it’s disqualifying, but there are too many women not getting a platform as a result of behavior like this for me not to say something.”A spokesperson for the aspiring congressman said in a statement late Monday that Biss was 26 and Wachspress was 20 when the “ill-advised relationship” took place.He was not married at the time.
“In 2004, when Daniel was 26 and before he met his wife, Dr.Wachspress was a 20-year-old student in a course Daniel taught during his time as a postdoctoral instructor at the University of Chicago,” a Biss campaign spokesperson said to the outlet.
“After the course ended, Daniel and Dr.Wachspress went on a handful of dates over the course of a few weeks.
Daniel realized then, as he does now, that it was ill-advised, and he ended it.”Biss, 48, taught as an assistant professor of mathematics at the university from September 2002 to August 2008, according to his LinkedIn profile. Wachspress elaborated on Sub...