13th District Republican Congressman Rodney Davis has received a new challenger for his seat in Congress, even though Davis says he doesn’t know what that seat may be by the end of the month.
The 5th term Congressman didn’t address the Tuesday announcement of 44 year old Nikki Budzinski’s attempt to challenge Davis for the 13th next fall. Budzinski, a Peoria native, moved back to Springfield from Washington D.C. after resigning a post in the Biden Administration’s Office of Management and Budgeting back in July. Budzinski is a former national political director for the United Food & Commercial Workers Union and a former staffer and senior advisor to Governor J.B. Pritzker.
35 year old David Palmer of Champaign launched his campaign against Davis two weeks ago. Palmer, a political novice originally from Jackson, Mississippi, said in his campaign launch that he became interested in running for public office after working as a financial advisor and working for the Don Moyer Boys & Girls Club in Champaign.
The 51 year old Davis from Taylorville, has defeated 3 different Democrats who have challenged him since he was appointed to replace Tim Johnson in the 2012 Republican primary.
Davis says it’s no surprise that challengers are coming out to test him for a congressional district that will ultimately be drawn by Democrats in the coming weeks: “I certainly don’t know what the Democrats in Springfield are going to do with congressional districts. I’m not surprised people have announced that they want to run in a district that may or may not include me based upon what the Democrats do. I’ve taken on a lot of challengers over my 8 1/2 years in Congress, and I’ll take them all on. The bottom line is that the General Assembly run by Democrats who have super-majority will send a map to Governor Pritzker, who when campaigning and asking for votes just a few years ago said he would never sign a legislatively drawn redistricting map. He broke that promise once with the state map, and we anticipate that Governor Pritzker not living up to his promises once again, and the Democrats will try and sign a gerrymandered map that will try to get rid of Republicans in Congress, even while they are standing up complaining about Republicans doing the same things in other states.”
The current 13th district extends to Bloomington on the north, Champaign on the east, parts of Springfield, and into Greene County to the southwest. Davis’ seat is seen as one that’s being targeted nationwide to be eliminated due to population loss in Illinois. Democrats are hoping to maintain their slim majority in the U.S. House for the midterm elections in 2022.