It’s challenging: on the one hand, we live in Illinois, a state with strong Democratic leadership on both the state and federal level. On the other hand, Northwestern and Central Illinois are very purple.
In fact, when we look at IL-17, Eric likes to joke that it’s really Eastern, Eastern Iowa as much as it’s Western Illinois. We have a strong, proud way of life that looks different than other parts of the state, bipartisan at best, but really it’s nonpartisan.
The reality is that Eric has the most competitive congressional race in the state. His is the only seat on both the national Democratic and Republican targeted lists. His is the only seat in Illinois that Cook Political does not call “safe”: