The three Illinois incumbents who represent the Metro East in the U.S. House all are up for reelection on Nov. 5, and they cover both sides of the political fight:
One is a Democrat with ties to both Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and President Joe Biden; the other two are Republicans who staunchly support former President Donald Trump.
Nikki Budzinski, the Democrat, won her first term in 2022 as the representative for the 13th District, which takes in parts of Madison and St. Clair counties in the center cut of the Metro East.
The district was redrawn for the 2022 races, giving Democrats a safe space in the conservative stretch of central and southern Illinois. The resulting boundary-drawing created a district that ranges from East St. ÑÇÖÞÎÞÂë to Champaign-Urbana.
Budzinski has raised about $3.9 million during her first term, including about $623,000 in the past three months. Her cash balance now sits at about $2.3 million.
People are also reading…
Recently, Budzinski released her first television ad on local stations that highlights her work to get about $18 million in military contracts for the Belleville Shoe Manufacturing Co. to make Army and Navy boots.
She also has spent considerable time in the Metro East area in the past several weeks, conducting media interviews and making stops at schools and worksites in the district.
On Wednesday, the first day of early voting, Budzinski scheduled a rally in East St. ÑÇÖÞÎÞÂë that had U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, and several state legislators as featured guests. Crockett, a rising star among Democrats, is a St. ÑÇÖÞÎÞÂë native and Mary Institute and Saint ÑÇÖÞÎÞÂë Country Day School graduate who also attended Rosati-Kain.
Before running for Congress in 2022, Budzinski had served as chief of staff for President Joe Biden’s Office of Management and Budget. Prior to that, she was a senior adviser to Pritzker and also has worked as a labor union organizer.
Her Republican opponent, United States Military Academy graduate and Army veteran Joshua Loyd, has raised about $79,000 and still has about $6,000 of it on hand.
A resident of Virden, about 15 miles south of Springfield, Loyd works with Employer Support of the Guard & Reserve, an organization that helps businesses cooperate with employees who have National Guard commitments.
While embracing the general GOP platform planks, Loyd also mirrors Budzinski’s goals to and to encourage trades and vocational training in high schools.
The district is more bipartisan than the other two covering the Metro East area. In the March primary, Budzinski received about 32,000 unopposed votes, while Virden’s race against Thomas Clatterbuck took in almost 28,000 votes.
As for the two Republican incumbents up for reelection, they hail from districts that cover the northern and southern ends of the Metro East.
Down south, U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, of Murphysboro, is seeking his seventh term as the Washington representative of the 12th District, which covers parts on St. Clair and Monroe counties.
After a close and bitter primary fight with fellow Republican Darren Bailey, a former state representative and senator, Bost now faces Democrat Brian Roberts in the Nov. 5 balloting.
While Bost follows the GOP line, he also joined Democrat Budzinski on the legislation to help the Belleville military shoe manufacturers, as well as co-sponsoring a bill with her to improve medical care for veterans.
Bost chairs the House Veterans affairs Committee, of which Budzinski is a member.
Bost’s district is overwhelmingly Republican, as indicated by the voting in the primary earlier this year:
Almost 95,000 votes were cast in the Bost-Bailey GOP race, while less than 18,000 were tallied in the Democratic contest between Roberts and Preston Nelson.
Bost has raised slightly less than $3 million during his current term, with about $253,000 picked up in the last three months. He stands now with about $433,000 cash on hand.
Roberts, a lawyer in Carbondale, has not filed any periodic campaign reports since organizing his committee in late 2023.
On the north side of the Metro East — in a district that virtually surrounds Budzinski’s Democratic domain — Mary Miller of Hindsboro is running unopposed for her third term to represent the 15th District.
Also the handiwork of redistricting, Miller’s district includes parts of Madison and Jersey counties but also extends west to the Indiana border and north to near the Iowa line.
Miller has been most vocal the past two years on the issue of transgender girls accessing girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms in schools.
Neither of Illinois’ U.S. senators, Democrats Richard Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, are up for reelection in November.