In case you missed it, National Journal’s Kirk Bado profiled Betsy Dirksen Londrigan’s campaign against Congressman Rodney Davis after she “cruised to an easy primary victory” earlier this month. Dirksen Londrigan’s victory sets up a rematch with Davis after “she came within less than a point of beating [him] in 2018, and entered 2020 with a larger war chest than the incumbent.”
“Londrigan’s rematch with Davis has already drawn the eyes of Democratic-aligned groups that see Davis’s seat as a prime pickup opportunity after President Trump carried the district by 5.5 percent in 2016. She was an inaugural member of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s “Red to Blue” program, which highlights top challengers from across the country, and she had the backing of Planned Parenthood even before clearing the primary. Early this month, National Journal ranked the district in the top 20 seats most likely to flip this cycle.
The question at the heart of her campaign is whether the midterm blue wave was a high-water mark for Democrats in Central Illinois. Londrigan is banking on the renewed focus on health care and the youth turnout in a presidential election to push her over the line, especially when she contrasts her health care platform against Davis’s votes to roll back the Affordable Care Act. While she’s focused on being a Good Samaritan to the community, she said there is also an opportunity in this crisis to stress the importance of her message.
‘For people who didn’t think that [health care] was going to be the overarching issue this cycle, I think [the crisis] absolutely will amplify the importance,’ she said.”