CHICAGO — An independent candidate seeking to challenge retiring U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García’s handpicked successor in November picked up key backing Wednesday, with the political arm of the abortion-rights group Planned Parenthood announcing its support for Mayra Macías in what is expected to be a crowded general election race.

Macías, who served on the board of Planned Parenthood Action Fund until the beginning of this year, is one of at least three independent candidates with ties to the Democratic Party who have announced plans to run against Democratic nominee Patty García, the four-term congressman’s former chief of staff.

In a statement announcing the endorsement, Alexis McGill Johnson, the group’s president and CEO, called Macías “a proven leader who understands that accessible and equitable health care is a fundamental right.”

“Mayra has fought to protect access to abortion and reproductive health care in the wake of the Dobbs decision,” McGill Johnson said, referring to the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that struck down the federal right to abortion. “As we face a federal administration intent on making health care unaffordable and inaccessible, we need champions in Congress who refuse to back down. We know that Mayra will be unrelenting in the fight to protect access to sexual and reproductive health care.”

Macías said in an interview that the Planned Parenthood endorsement is “a reflection of my values that are Democratic, progressive values, even though … I’m running as an independent.”

The heavily Democratic Illinois 4th Congressional District was drawn after the 1990 census to try to ensure Latino representation in Washington, a makeup it has maintained even as its boundary lines shift subsequent to once-a-decade redistricting.

Macías said her first encounter with the organization came as a teenager growing up in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood, when she “sought information and guidance all the way on the other side of the city.”

Macías and her supporters are currently collecting the nearly 11,000 petition signatures she’ll need to qualify for a spot on the November ballot. To voters across the district, which stretches from Pilsen to Oak Brook and from Franklin Park to Burbank, “health care is an issue that comes up time and time again, whether it is in Back of the Yards, Little Village or in La Grange,” she said.

If elected, Macías said her priorities with regard to reproductive health care would include trying to prevent the federal government from enacting future restrictions on providers such as Planned Parenthood receiving reimbursements from Medicaid. The Republican-controlled Congress enacted such a restriction for one year in the tax and spending plan that President Donald Trump signed on July 4.

The move has strained Illinois and other states, which have had to make up the difference out of their own budgets for Medicaid patients, she said.

Macías and the other independents seeking to run for the seat have until May 26 to collect the required number of signatures from voters in the district. Other Democrats who have announced independent candidacies include progressive Chicago Ald. Byron Sigcho-López, 25th, and Lyons Mayor Chris Getty.

Patty García, who is not related to the congressman and currently holds the seat, was unopposed in the March 17 Democratic primary after Rep. García used an insider move at the last minute that effectively handed his former chief of staff an uncontested spot.

When the petition filing period for last month’s primary opened in late October last year, the congressman filed to run for a fifth term. Then, moments before the 5 p.m. Nov. 3 filing deadline, Patty García filed her nominating petitions to run. The signatures had been collected in just the past few days, and the congressman soon announced he was withdrawing his reelection bid, endorsing Patty García and saying he couldn’t run for a fifth term, citing the advice of his cardiologist and his wife’s urging.

That prompted Macías — formerly executive director of the Latino Victory Project and Building Back Together, a dark-money group created to promote President Joe Biden’s domestic policy agenda — and others to say they want to enter the November race.

Voters also are paying attention, she said.

“A lot of folks are following what happened with the congressman, and they’re not happy about being robbed of an opportunity to select their future member of Congress,” Macías said.

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