EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — The Latest on Democrats' efforts to retake a southern Illinois district (all times local): 3 p.m. Former Vice President Joe Biden will campaign for Democrat Brendan Kelly as he tries to retake a southern Illinois district won by Republican Rep. Mike Bost in 2014. Officials with the Kelly campaign say Biden is scheduled to campaign Wednesday in East St. Louis with the prosecutor and Navy veteran. The working-class corner of the state supported Donald Trump by 15 percentage points after twice backing Barack Obama for president. It had been held by Democrats for more than 30 years. How Kelly and Democrats running in other largely rural, blue-collar districts fare in November could determine whether the party wins the 23 seats it needs to take control of the House next month. It also may signal whether there's hope of winning back those voters in 2020. Trump will campaign with Bost on Saturday. ___ 11:30 a.m. Democrat Brendan Kelly is trying to retake a … [Read more...] about The Latest: Biden to campaign with Illinois Democrat Kelly
Illinois
Democrats try to retake Illinois district won over by Trump
CARBONDALE, Ill. — Democrat Brendan Kelly is trying to retake a southern Illinois House seat that Democrats held for more than 30 years before Republican state Rep. Mike Bost won it in 2014. Two years later the working-class corner of the state supported Donald Trump by 15 percentage points after twice backing Barack Obama for president. How Kelly and Democrats running in other largely rural, blue collar districts fare in November could determine whether the party wins the 23 seats it needs to take control of the House next month. It also may signal whether there's hope of winning back those voters in 2020. Trump will campaign with Bost on Saturday. Kelly says it's clear the last few years haven't brought the kind of economic turnaround Illinois' 12th Congressional District hoped for. … [Read more...] about Democrats try to retake Illinois district won over by Trump
Health Care Vote a Pre-Existing Condition for Illinois GOP Congressman
Susan Kaye Quinn joined the Republican Party in her early 20s for its conservative economic policies and said she was a dedicated member over the next three decades. She voted straight-ticket Republican, campaigning for candidates in her home state of Illinois and attending party events around her congressional district in the suburbs north and west of Chicago. "I was a part of the party until they nominated Donald Trump," said Quinn, a 53-year-old novelist and former environmental engineer, in a phone interview. "But I didn't leave the Republican Party, the party left me." Senate Slipping Away as Dems Fight to Preserve Blue Wave Appalled by Trump's rhetoric and many of his policies, Quinn crossed party lines in 2016 to vote for the Democratic candidates for president and Congress, she said. Hillary Clinton carried Illinois' 6th Congressional District by seven points even as the Republican House incumbent, U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam, was easily reelected to a sixth term. … [Read more...] about Health Care Vote a Pre-Existing Condition for Illinois GOP Congressman
GOP Veteran in Illinois Struggles to Adjust as Seat Suddenly Isn’t Safe
On primary Election Day in 2006, Margaret Prowell went to the polling place down the road from her new suburban Chicago home and asked for a Democratic ballot. The election judges were taken aback. This was Illinois' 6th Congressional District, a place represented for three decades by Rep. Henry Hyde, one of Congress' Republican lions, and home to Wheaton College, the Rev. Billy Graham's alma mater. No one had bothered to take the Democratic ballots out of the box. "They went in the closet and found them," Prowell recalled. Republican Rep. Peter Roskam was elected to succeed Hyde that year, and easily won his next five bids. But in a midterm election where disapproval of President Donald Trump has Democrats competing even in some nontraditional battlegrounds, Roskam is suddenly among the most endangered House Republicans this fall — and his long right-leaning record in a safe GOP district may be his toughest opponent. Roskam, who faces Democratic business owner and scientist Sean … [Read more...] about GOP Veteran in Illinois Struggles to Adjust as Seat Suddenly Isn’t Safe
Pritzker pumps $146M of his cash into Illinois governor bid
CHICAGO — Billionaire Democrat J.B. Pritzker is showing no reluctance to pour his own money to unseat multimillionaire Republican Bruce Rauner from the Illinois governor's office. New state campaign reports show Pritzker has pumped $146.5 million into his campaign. Pritzker's self-funding and $50 million that Rauner gave his campaign in 2016 have fueled a combined $234 million fundraising total through September. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Hyatt Hotel fortune heir Pritzker has broken the national self-financing mark Republican Meg Whitman set by giving $144 million of her fortune toward an unsuccessful 2010 campaign for California governor. Rauner is a former private equity investor who's given $95 million to his campaigns since 2013. The Chicago Tribune reports that since early 2017, Pritzker's campaign has spent $135.9 million compared to $71.5 million by Rauner. … [Read more...] about Pritzker pumps $146M of his cash into Illinois governor bid