Democratic Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton is vying to succeed Illinois U.S. Senator Dick Durbin as he steps down at the end of his term.
Stratton won the Democratic primary in March, with an endorsement from Gov. JB Pritzker. Before becoming lieutenant governor in 2018, Stratton served one term as a state representative in the Illinois General Assembly. She previously had a career as a lawyer, mediator and administrative law judge.
The lieutenant governor appeared on The 21st Show ahead of the primary and returned to the program to speak with IPM’s Brian Mackey this week. She discussed the war in Iran and reforms to immigration enforcement, adding she would be a ‘no’ vote on any of President Trump’s U.S. Supreme Court nominees.
Her opponent is Republican Don Tracy. He spoke about his campaign on The 21st Show earlier this summer.
Interview Highlights
On the war in Iran
“We have a president who dragged us into this war, told us no plan for what he wanted to accomplish, did not seek authorization. It’s an illegal war. It’s a war of choice. And we are not more clear than we were eight months ago about what the plan is and when it’s going to end. And the thing that I think I’m hearing from voters every single day is how they are being impacted by it, whether it’s gas prices, just everything that is so expensive. So it’s not going well.”
On holding ICE accountable if she is elected
“As a senator, I will have oversight authority, I will have the ability to investigate, and to the degree that I can bring some sort of light and accountability to this, at every single level, I will go as deep as I can to uproot because the success of this country depends on it. We have to uproot the bad actors who think they can act with impunity, kill people on our streets and do whatever else they want and no one’s going to hold them accountable, not on my watch.”
On reforming the Supreme Court
“We have a Supreme Court that also is working to rubber stamp this president’s authoritarian agenda. And I think that everything needs to be on the table to try to figure out what we do differently. I always start by saying we need to enforce strong ethics rules and requirements and that anybody who does not follow those rules, the ethics rules, should be removed from the court … because we have to do something about the fact that there are these lifetime appointments that have really just abandoned what the responsibility is. The other thing that I always say is that I will not … vote to confirm any nominees to the Supreme Court made by this president. Period.”
On campaign finance reform
“We have to do something about the corporate influence. I say, this is the most corrupt president that we’ve ever seen. And the issue of big money and politics with the most corrupt president, that combination especially has shown the real damage that can be done where government is no longer working in the best interest of the American people, it’s working in the interest of the highest bidder. And that is not how we’re going to save our democracy and it’s not how government should work and it’s not what’s in the best interest of the people that I hope to serve in Illinois.”