March 30--Democratic Rep. Tammy Duckworth made it official Monday that she will challenge Republican Sen. Mark Kirk for re-election in 2016.
Duckworth, an Iraq War amputee and two-term congresswoman from Hoffman Estates, made the news public in a video released to supporters.
In the video, Duckworth calls herself the daughter of a Marine, a wife, a new mom and a combat veteran and highlights the financial struggles her family faced when she was growing up and getting through college.
"If you elect me Illinois senator, I will fight my heart out to represent you with honor and integrity," she said.
She announced in January that she was exploring a run against Kirk, who was elected to the Senate in 2010 after nearly 10 years in the House of Representatives.
Her prospects could be buoyed by 2016 being a presidential election year in a state that long has favored Democratic candidates for the White House.
Duckworth, 47, is the first Democrat to formally announce a run, though other House Democrats have said they are mulling one, including Reps. Bill Foster of Naperville and Robin Kelly of Matteson.
Foster on Monday had no comment on Duckworth's bid. On March 17 he issued a statement saying he was "seriously considering" a run, citing Kirk signing a recent letter from Republican lawmakers to Iranian leaders, a move that critics felt circumvented the president on foreign policy.
Rep. Cheri Bustos of East Moline had been mentioned as a potential candidate, but in a statement Monday she ruled out a run. Calling Duckworth a friend, Bustos said she can't see "jumping into a race at this time when we already have such a strong fighter for working men and women and veterans."
Bustos' statement stopped short of a formal endorsement but highlighted Duckworth's service. "She has given so much to our state and country," Bustos said. "If you look at Tammy's record of fighting for American manufacturing, for working men and women, and for our veterans, she clearly has the priorities we need in our next U.S. senator."
Duckworth lost both of her legs in 2004 during the Iraq War when the Black Hawk helicopter she was piloting was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. A former veterans official on the federal and state level, Duckworth gave birth to her first child Nov. 18.
She joined the Army Reserve in 1992 and the Illinois Army National Guard in 1996. The Illinois Army National Guard announced in October that Duckworth, a lieutenant colonel working as a personnel officer, was retiring from the military.
Kirk, 55, who is from Highland Park, is a retired Navy Reserve commander. He was elected to the Senate in 2010. He suffered a major stroke in 2012 and returned to the Senate floor in 2013.
The battle lines were being drawn soon after the release of Duckworth's two-minute video.
Kirk's campaign, through a spokesman, touted the Republican's record and took at shot at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, where Duckworth was an assistant secretary from 2009 to 2011.
In a release, Kirk campaign spokesman Kevin Artl said: "Sen. Mark Kirk has served as a voice for all the people of Illinois throughout his time in the Congress. He works across the aisle to take on the Veterans Administration for corruption and mistreatment of our returning heroes in Illinois, cut spending and block Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
"Sen. Kirk looks forward to a conversation on the issues that matter most to voters across the state, including his proven record of thoughtful, independent leadership, and his work each and every day to serve Illinois families."
Duckworth failed in her first run for the House in 2006, defeated by Republican Peter Roskam of Wheaton, who remains in Congress. She bounced back with a win in her second try for Congress in 2012.
After her loss to Roskam in 2006, Duckworth led the Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs until 2009, when she became an assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington. She had that post until 2011.
In her video, Duckworth described her late father's losing his job at age 55 and said he struggled with unemployment. "The bottom fell out for us," she said, adding that for a time food stamps "kept my brother and me from going hungry."
She said graduating from college was a challenge but that she did so with loans, Pell grants and "lots of waitressing."
She recounted meeting her husband when they both were cadets in an ROTC program, deploying to Iraq as a Black Hawk pilot and the ill-fated mission in which she lost her legs and an arm was badly injured.
She saluted the fellow soldiers who rescued her and said she views her time now as a "bonus," saying that has allowed her to speak up without fear.
Duckworth called for more prekindergarten classes and making college loans affordable. She added: "The engines of Illinois' economy are small businesses and the middle class. I believe we need tax cuts for them for a change."
She also touted giving back $10,000 of her congressional salary, now $174,000 a year, and cutting more than $100,000 from her office budget, which was $1,225,000 in 2014.
Duckworth, born in Bangkok to a Thai mother and American father, is the first Thai-American elected to federal office.
Duckworth is to appear early Monday evening at a private residence at the John Hancock Center in Chicago, an adviser said. The event is not open to the news media.
Republicans were quick to link Duckworth to disgraced Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who appointed her Illinois' veterans affairs chief. He is now in prison for public corruption.
"Congresswoman Duckworth is a partisan politician who got her start in politics as a result of Rod Blagojevich's political maneuvers," said Andrea Bozek, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which works to elect Republicans to the Senate.
"Unlike Congresswoman Duckworth, who has put her extreme policies in Washington before Illinois families by voting with Nancy Pelosi 92 percent of the time, Mark Kirk has been an independent voice," Bozek added. "Sen. Kirk's record of accomplishment and thoughtful independence will outshine any candidate that emerges from the Democrat primary in Illinois."
One political analyst put Duckworth's chances of prevailing against Kirk at 50-50.
"Right now Tammy Duckworth is the front-runner for the Democratic Senate nomination and has an even chance of defeating incumbent Sen. Mark Kirk," said Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia. "The national Democratic leadership appears to favor her over all other possible contenders, although that cannot guarantee an unopposed primary.
"Kirk is coming up for re-election in a presidential year, and Illinois is heavily Democratic in those kinds of election years. Kirk and Gov. (Bruce) Rauner won in low-turnout midterm years.
"It is too early to have a definitive view, and Kirk's incumbent advantages plus public sympathy for his determined comeback from his stroke should not be ignored.
"But overall, Duckworth and Illinois give Democrats one of their two or three best chances in the nation to take over a GOP Senate seat in 2016."
kskiba@tribpub.com
