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U.S. Rep. Kelly ready to ‘fight the good fight’ in open race for Senate
U.S. Rep. Kelly ready to ‘fight the good fight’ in open race for Senate
Source: Evanston RoundTable
As longtime U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin — who has represented Illinois in the Senate since 1997 — prepares to step away from Congress at the end of the current term, U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly (D-2nd District) is pitching herself as ready to make the jump from the House and “hit the ground running” in the seat vacated by Durbin.
“I am really good at building relationships, and I have been able to work across the aisle … and I already have relationships in the Senate,” Kelly said in a recent phone interview with the RoundTable. “But also, you know, I can shut it down, too.”
Kelly is one of three high-ranking Illinois Democrats running to succeed Durbin, who announced in April that he would retire after his fifth term. She’s facing fellow U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (8th District) and Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton for the Democratic Party’s nomination, a race that will top voters’ ballots in the March 17, 2026 primary.
Kelly has held her current seat in the U.S. House since 2013, representing a mixed congressional district that extends from the South Side of Chicago and south suburban Cook County out to downstate communities like Pontiac and Danville. She said “very few districts” have this mix of urban, suburban and rural communities, giving her “a different lens on the federal level” to work through.
“My mayors would tell you, from the top to the middle or the bottom, north to south, that I’ve delivered for all of those districts,” Kelly said. “It keeps me in touch, keeps me on the ground with the needs [of my constituents].”
Before her federal tenure, Kelly served in the Illinois House of Representatives from 2003 to 2007 before becoming chief of staff for then-Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias. She ran for the treasurer’s office herself in 2010, winning the Democratic primary but losing the general election to Republican Dan Rutherford.
Open race keeps focus on Trump
Like her opponents, Kelly has kept her early campaigning focused on fighting President Donald Trump’s second-term agenda, especially the massive budget and tax cuts package passed by congressional Republicans earlier this month known officially as the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” but often derided by Democrats as the “Big Ugly Bill.”
Kelly hosted a talk in Peoria shortly after the bill’s adoption, and said she’s visiting some places around the state represented by Republicans who aren’t hosting their own town halls. She said the bill’s cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, a grocery subsidy for low-income families) will harm everyone eventually, whether directly or through knock-on effects.
“You can look at it like that’s happening to ‘them,’ but eventually we will be the ‘them,'” Kelly said. “The prediction in the rural areas is nine hospitals [will eventually close in Illinois because of the bill’s funding cuts], two in my district currently. … No matter who you are, whether you have Medicaid or not, there won’t be a hospital to go to.”
But there’s still more than seven months of campaigning against fellow Democrats left, and the race is wide open locally, with the Cook County Democratic Party declining to endorse a candidate.
Federal candidates recently reported their fundraising for the year’s second quarter, and Kelly’s $2 million in cash on hand entering July was ahead of Stratton’s $666,000 but still far behind a $21 million war chest held by Krishnamoorthi.
As expected, Gov. JB Pritzker is backing Stratton, his lieutenant governor, and he’ll be able to use some of his personal fortune to boost her funding. If elected, either Kelly or Stratton would make it a record three Black women serving in the Senate at the same time, joining Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland and Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware. Krishnamoorthi would also be one of just 10 people of Asian American/Pacific Islander descent elected to the chamber.
For her part, Kelly said she was glad the Cook County Democratic Party decided against an endorsement, calling that the “best way for voters to make their choice” and also boosting her own strength as a candidate. She briefly served as chair of the Illinois Democratic Party in 2021 and 2022.
“I have a strong record of fighting, serving and getting the job done, and I’m excited about our campaign,” she said. “Either way, I was going to fight the good fight.”
By Alex Harrison