Seven Republicans are trying to harness a national sense of anger and frustration in a bid for their party’s U.S. Senate nomination, with the goal of knocking first-term incumbent Tammy Duckworth out of office two years after she was short-listed for vice president.
Duckworth, a Democrat, is described as a “formidable candidate” even by well-known Republican fundraiser Ron Gidwitz. But Democrats barely managed to gain control of the Senate in the 2020 elections, so every seat will count as Republicans try to take it back.
The candidates for the Republican nomination are Casey Chlebek, Peggy Hubbard, Robert “Bobby” Piton, Jimmy Lee Tillman II, Anthony W. Williams, Kathy Salvi and Matthew “Matt” Dubiel.
Salvi’s campaign appears to have the fund-raising edge with more than $300,000 raised, but $250,000 came from Salvi herself, campaign finance records show. Piton is her closest fund-raising competitor, with $168,510 raised. He kicked in $25,000 of that, though.
Salvi, of Mundelein, lost a six-way 2006 GOP primary bid for Congress. Hubbard and Chlebek also sought to challenge U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin two years ago.
Chlebek, Hubbard and Dubiel spoke to the Chicago Sun-Times about the campaign. The other candidates either did not respond to messages seeking comment or could not be reached.
Illinois’ June 28 primary will take place a few days after the one-month anniversary of the killing of 19 children in an elementary-school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Nearly a decade after a gunman killed 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, the Texas shooting reignited the national debate over gun laws.
On Sunday, 20 senators — 10 from each party — expressed support for a framework responding to the mass shootings, offering some measured firearm restrictions and efforts to beef up school safety and mental health programs.
When asked what he could do in the Senate to try to prevent another deadly school shooting, Dubiel, of Naperville, stressed the need to “get to the facts and get to what happened.” He insisted that “it’s hard to do that in the wake of an event.”
But he rejects the notion that “to fix the problems of the few we have to limit the freedoms of the many.”
Rather, Dubiel said “I want a toxicology report of every single mass shooter” as part of an effort to find out “what is going on with the people that are perpetrating these atrocities.”
Hubbard, of Belleville, told the Sun-Times that “our gun laws are fine” but “we’re not enforcing them and…
Read More: Salvi, Piton ahead in fundraising among Republicans hoping to take on Duckworth