There are now less than five months to go before the first votes are cast in the Democratic presidential nominating contest. So the spotlight is going to be even hotter on the 10 candidates who made the cut for Thursday's debate in Houston.
State Representative Carol Ammons (D-Urbana) says she’ll announce by late June if she’s running for Illinois’ 13th Congressional District in 2018. For now, she's formed an exploratory committee to help her decide whether to challenge Republican Congressman Rodney Davis of Taylorville. She announced her possible run for Congress after Tuesday's women's march in downtown Springfield.
After today's 21st: We continued our conversation with Sen. Dick Durbin and talked about the future of the Democratic Party and his belief that Bernie Sanders might have been able to beat President-elect Donald Trump.
Thousands of former coal workers and dependents who worked for now-bankrupt coal companies could lose their health insurance at the end of the year if Congress does not pass legislation to fund it. Retirees in southern Illinois say losing their health insurance would amount to a broken promise from the coal companies that would have devastating effects to their well-being.
Incumbent Republican Congressman Rodney Davis of Taylorville and Democratic challenger Mark Wicklund of Decatur shared similar concerns in areas like criminal justice reform and student loan interest rates, but they also found plenty to disgree on in their first debate of the season, including the future of the Affordable Care Act, and the approval ratings of Congress during the Obama administration.
