With incumbent U.S. Senator Dick Durbin retiring at the end of his term, six Republican candidates and 10 Democrats in Illinois have launched bids to run for the open Senate seat.
Illinois Public Media’s The 21st Show is interviewing the candidates and asking them about their views. This week, Brian Mackey sat down with Republican Pamela Denise Long to discuss her campaign.
Long is an occupational therapist and political commentator from the Metro East.
She grew up in Mississippi before coming to the area to attend Lewis and Clark Community College. Long holds a doctoral degree in organizational development and was an adjunct professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
The candidate said she became a Republican in 2008, and her views began to evolve in 2004 when Barack Obama was running for a Senate seat in Illinois, years before he was elected president.
“Over time … [I was] thinking about, who do I want to be? How do I want to show up, and low taxation and pro-life, and all of those things really resonated with me. And so for the first time in life, I joined a party and paid dues to be a member of something,” Long said.
Interview Highlights
On why she is running for U.S. Senate:
“Experienced politicians look at this and think, ‘there is no way a Republican is going to win in the blue state of Illinois.’ I’m not your average person. I am not a hard liner on politics. I think about the nuance of things. I speak truth to power, no matter who that power is. I believe in this country … and so I’m here for the fight. And best case scenario, I’m a model of what our party should be. We should be able to speak to everyone, even if everyone doesn’t get everything they need, but we should also be focused on problem solving, rather than pointing fingers.”
On U.S. control over Greenland:
“Whoever really controls, if you will, Greenland — Denmark, currently being part of Denmark — really … will control, I think, a lot of movement and trade. And so of course, given that Greenland is right north of us, we would want to have that.”
On supporting President Trump’s immigration policies, but not aggressive enforcement tactics:
“I think the people who are being violent with ICE agents need to be held accountable. And ICE agents who are being unnecessarily aggressive and or violent with the people need to be held accountable as well. There’s enough accountability for everyone.”
On opposing abortion but wanting clearer communication from the states:
“Regardless of how a state regulates access to abortion, we cannot have the current situation we do, which is some states are so confused about if they can save the life of a mother who has an unviable or even actually dead child within her. We can’t have that kind of lack of clarity, because we are, women are dying, like literally. That’s not drama.”