CHAMPAIGN – Over 100 people showed up at Love Corner Church in Champaign Sunday to hear three Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate share their top priorities and answer questions from the audience.
The forum, hosted by the Illinois chapter of the NAACP and moderated by IPM News and Public Affairs Director Reginald Hardwick, featured the three frontrunners for the Democratic ticket: U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi and Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton.
Each candidate was asked to share one approach they would take to defend democracy and protect the Constitution.
Kelly said she’d focus on supporting Democratic state attorneys general, as they challenge policies set by the current administration.
“A shout-out to the democratic AGs,” Kelly said. “I don’t think people realize they have won 80% of the suing they’ve done. We need to do everything we can do to pump them up in the system in any way that we can.”
Krishnamoorthi said he would focus on protecting elections, expand congressional oversight on elections and prevent ICE agents from going anywhere near polling stations.
“At the state level or federal level, we have to seriously consider criminalizing the intimidation of election workers,” Krishnamoorthi said.
Stratton took the opportunity to share what she’s done to protect voting rights as Lieutenant Governor under Gov. JB Pritzker: “We made sure that election day is a state holiday, general election day. We made vote by mail permanent in the state of Illinois. We extended voting hours.”
Before the questions started to stack up, however, the forum began with each candidate giving a two-minute opening statement.
Krishnamoorthi shared with the audience how he got to where he is today. He said that he was born in India and lived there for just three months before his family immigrated to New York.
For a time, his family relied on food stamp programs and public housing, before his father secured a steady job and the family moved to Peoria, Illinois.
Now, Krishnamoorthi said his work as a public official is fueled in part by the desire to help those who are just like him.
“So that is why I’m running for U.S. Senate, to make sure that same dream that was available to my family is there for everyone,” Krishnamoorthi said.
Likewise, Kelly shared how her upbringing and life today inspire her to focus on things that benefit the public, such as equal taxation of the upper class and universal health care.
“I’m the daughter of a postal worker and a grocer, I’m a mom and a dedicated public servant, I’ve been in Congress for 13 years and I’m running for Senate to make your life better and more affordable,” Kelly said.
Stratton shared that she never expected to be running for this kind of position.
Inspiration struck while she was taking care of her late mother, who had Alzheimer’s. She said she saw a story on TV about a state representative from her district who was working to take away health care from senior citizens.
“I yelled at the television when I saw that story and said, ‘Someone should run against him,’” Stratton said. “And I didn’t know it was me, but guess what, it ended up being me because I don’t shy away from a good fight and when I see a need, I step up to meet that need.”
During the forum, all three candidates spoke critically about President Trump and his administration.
Stratton noted that with what is happening at the federal level, the Senate races and primary elections are even more important. The Senate seat that these candidates are looking to fill has belonged to U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) since 1997.
“This seat is open for the first time in three decades. And it’s not just a seat, it matters who’s in the seat, to stand up to the chaos that we see coming out of Washington, D.C.,” Stratton said.
Kelly criticized Trump for “pitting neighbor against neighbor instead of holding corporations, millionaires and billionaires responsible and accountable.”
And Krishnamoorthi said he’s running for the U.S. Senate to “preserve, protect and defend the American Dream, which is under mortal assault from Donald J. Trump.
Kelly, Krishnamoorthi and Stratton are among the ten Democrats — and six Republicans — are running in the primary election for the open U.S. Senate seat.
During the audience Q-and-A portion, the candidates were asked which issues would be their “non-negotiables.”
For Kelly, she said hers would be economics, health care and crime.
Krishanmoorthi said that his would be Social Security, federal funding freezes directed at Illinois and reproductive freedom.
Stratton said that hers would be education, helping people have a livable wage and access to equal opportunity for everyone.
Currently, early voting is underway in Illinois. The primary election is on March 17.