Democrat Nikki Budzinski has been declared the winner in the 13th U.S. House District.
The Associated Press called the race for Budzinski, reporting her winning 54.7% of the vote to Republican Regan Deering’s 45.3% with 94% of precincts reporting.
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Budzinski, of Springfield, ran in one of the tighter downstate congressional races against Deering of Decatur in the 13th District, which encompasses Champaign on the north before snaking southwest through Decatur and Springfield into East St. Louis.
A former senior adviser to Gov. J.B. Pritzker on labor issues and onetime chief of staff for President Joe Biden’s office of management and budget, Budzinski has also worked as a labor union advocate for firefighters, food service employees and other workers.
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During the campaign, Budzinski described the new 13th District as a “swingy competitive district” politically, but said issues that affect unions are nonpartisan.
She stressed the importance of union apprentice programs as a “pathway to the middle class,” which can lead to good wages and benefits.
“There are Republicans and Democrats in the labor movement, but what they care the most about is their pocketbooks and having a good job and affordable health care,” Budzinski said. “And I don’t think that has to be a Democratic or Republican issue. It’s just a working person’s issue.”
In early October, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee telegraphed that it believed Budzinski would win by canceling a series of television ads set to air in the Champaign and St. Louis markets.
Deering, 46, is the granddaughter of a pioneering business executive with the Archer Daniels Midland food processing company, and chaired the Decatur Public Schools Foundation.
Deering said during the campaign that some of her top priorities included getting inflation under control, securing the country’s borders to preventing drug trafficking, curbing “out-of-control” federal government spending and trying to bring down the cost of living, particularly for farmers who she says have seen skyrocketing prices for fertilizer.
