We are on the road to November and the General Election.
It was a large field for the democratic 18th congressional district primary. Junius Rodriguez defeated Brian Deters and Darrell Miller and earned the Democrat nomination.
Rodriguez says it’s a wonderful feeling to win the nomination.
“I got to admit, Tuesday night was stressful. If you were watching the results as they were coming in, the numbers were going up and down between myself and Brian Deters. I think the turning point in the evening was when all the votes from the Quincy area, all the Adams County votes came in. As other votes came in through out the evening, our lead was going to return. Our strategy was to split the Springfield area, so it would turn into a 50-50 split and it pretty ended up that way. And what I call the firewall counties, Hancock and Tazwell, we ended up winning Tazwell and if the numbers hold up I won Hancock by one vote. So overall the strategy was good but seeing the votes come in drip by drip,it was pretty stressful” said Rodriguez.
As Super Tuesday was starting to wrap up, Rodriguez didn’t think it was going to be as close race as it was.
The professor from Eureka College looks at the way he would like to campaign in the coming months.
“I think one of the things that is very important to this election, is that we keep the focus on the issues that relate to West Central Illinois. I think there are some congressional campaign be fought over national issues and nationalize the campaign so that it becomes about the President, the Trump agenda and what Congress has done. I think we need to do is to is focus on the issues that affect our community and what Congressmen LaHood done. What is his voting record? What ideas does he bring forward? How effective is he representing all the people? Not just for those who voted for him but might very well disagree with him.” said Rodriguez.
There are a number of issues Rodriguez would like to focus on if elected. He says creating jobs and being a voice for the people are important.
“Out of the 400 congressional districts in the country, Illinois 18 is the district losing population at the rapid clip. People are moving away, young people in particular who don’t see opportunity in their community in small towns. Part of that is because of the economic recovery from the 2008/2009 melt down. We have experienced what I call, a lost decade. If you go back to 2008 when Aaron Schock was elect and if you tag on the Darin LaHood years. We have had a congressmen who are outwardly focused and not so much focusing on the nuts and bolts issues of how we solve these problems of these people who are living in real distress. I think the time has come that we need a real representative, who will do just that. Represent the people, represent of the communities and speak on behalf of those people for so long that they feel like they have been forgotten.” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez will now take on current representative in Republican Darin LaHood. The General Election is November 6th.