Challenging a U.S. senator who has become a national icon to many Democrats, Republican Kathy Salvi balances her uphill bid against U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth with optimism.
“When I go county to county, township to township, people are hungry for exactly the kind of leadership that I can bring,” said Salvi, who won a seven-way Republican primary in June with 30% of the vote.
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Salvi, an attorney from Mundelein, touts a conservative agenda that includes increasing domestic energy production, shrinking government spending, cutting taxes and increasing border security in taking on Duckworth, the first-term Democratic senator who is a combat veteran who lost both legs in the Iraq War.
In 2012, Duckworth of Hoffman Estates became the first disabled woman elected to Congress when she defeated then-Republican U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh in a redrawn district aimed at favoring Democrats. Four years later, she cruised to victory over Republican U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk.
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Ever since, she’s become the first sitting senator to give birth, a household name in Illinois politics and a popular enough politician nationally to be shortlisted by President Joe Biden for vice president.
On the campaign trail, Salvi has leaned on well-defined talking points from the 2022 Republican playbook, assailing Biden for having a “socialist, leftist agenda” and Duckworth for being nothing more than a “rubber stamp,” in interviews and during the general election’s first debate, hosted recently by the Illinois Associated Press Media Editors.
Sometimes, Salvi follows the playbook too closely. At the first debate, after Duckworth addressed a question on illegal immigration, Salvi responded by saying, “I listened to everything Sen. Duckworth had to say and nothing in what she said admits to a crisis at our border.”
But that was after Duckworth said, “I don’t want to deny that our immigration system is completely broken and that there is a crisis at the border.” Duckworth went on to call for “immigration reform that is practical,” including an eventual path to citizenship for immigrants now in the country illegally.
Even though it is a state and not federal issue, Salvi has also echoed local Republicans by attacking Democrats for pushing through in Springfield a comprehensive criminal justice act that includes cashless bail. Salvi contended during the first debate that it will “transplant all the troubles that we’ve faced in the dangerous streets of Chicago to the entire state.”
“The only thing holding us back in this state is poor single party government,” Salvi said of Democrats. “And it’s hurting. It’s crushing us here.”
Duckworth has responded to questions about crime by pointing to provisions in federal pandemic and economic relief legislation providing more money for policing. She also has called for a federal ban on assault-style weapons and large capacity ammunition magazines. Salvi opposes an assault weapons ban and said current federal, state and local laws should be enforced and that more money should be devoted to mental health.
Salvi also said she agrees with local conservatives who have called for books in schools and libraries to be removed because they address issues of sexual identity and race. Salvi said parents need to be “back in the driver’s seat” of education.
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“They shouldn’t be concerned about what is taught to their kids to undermine their development and their innocence,” she said.
Although Salvi and Duckworth don’t agree on much, perhaps their biggest difference is over abortion.
Duckworth has made abortion rights central to her reelection campaign in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision that reversed Roe v. Wade on a federal level and returned the legalization of abortion to the states.
“Right now, there is a national abortion ban that’s on the ballot this November. She’s made it clear that she’s set on taking women’s freedom and their own health care away from them,” Duckworth said of Salvi.
“Kathy Salvi has been very clear for years. She has touted her dangerous views on abortion: no exception for rape or incest or to protect the life of the mother. In fact, she even described an abortion after rape as ’adding insult to injury.’ ”
Duckworth promises to do “absolutely everything” in her power to enshrine a right to abortion into federal law if reelected and has warned that Salvi’s views jeopardize in vitro fertilization, which is how Duckworth became a mother of two, as well as birth control and same sex marriage.
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Salvi has said she opposes abortion rights. When asked about federal abortion bans that would outlaw the procedure in all states, Salvi said she thinks laws regulating abortion are “best made by individual states.” Republican U.S. Sen Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has introduced legislation that would ban abortions nationally after 15 weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for rape, incest and threats to the health of the mother.
“Anybody who’s got two cents of thought believes abortion is a tragedy,” Salvi said.
While abortion is likely to be a major issue for the two, Salvi also has tried to direct attention to Duckworth’s record. Salvi said Duckworth has been inactive in the Senate and quiet on important issues, arguing Duckworth had few legislative accomplishments in her two House terms as a minority party newcomer. In the Senate, though, she has made some headway.
She passed an infrastructure bill that prevents governors from delaying projects in neighboring states, another that allows veteran small business owners to acquire surplus federal equipment and property and a law requiring airports to provide rooms for nursing mothers and restroom changing tables.
One provision she introduced that passed in 2021 provides funding to build clean water infrastructure and remove lead pipes across the country. The Environmental Protection Agency planned to allot $288 million to Illinois in 2022 as a result of the law, according to Duckworth.
Duckworth is on the U.S. Senate’s Armed Services Committee, as well as the Committee on Environment and Public Works.
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Much of her Senate work has focused on advocating for veterans and their families. Duckworth ran Illinois’ Veterans Affairs department in 2006 under disgraced former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and became an assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs after Barack Obama was elected president.
[ Duckworth’s record: Few legislative successes, some veterans programs sputtered ]
Duckworth is a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee and has aligned herself closely with the Democratic Party’s national agenda. She touts votes for the sweeping Inflation Reduction Act and the American Rescue Plan when asked about her most important Senate accomplishments.
Like many pieces of legislation supported by congressional Democrats, those laws would not have passed without Duckworth’s vote in the 50-50 split Senate.
With control of the Senate again at stake in November, Democrats are counting on keeping Duckworth’s seat.
How Salvi would work on Capitol Hill is perhaps a mystery: the 63-year-old personal injury lawyer has never held a publicly elected office. But she’s no stranger to politics, finishing second in a six-way primary for a GOP congressional nomination in 2006. That’s the same year Duckworth lost in her first bid for Congress.
Kathy Salvi’s husband, Al Salvi, served in the Illinois House for four years. He won a Republican primary for an open U.S. Senate seat in a 1996 upset, but lost in the general election to Dick Durbin, who has held onto the seat ever since.
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Kathy Salvi’s career began as an appellate court judge’s clerk and she worked in the Lake County public defender’s office. Her law background would help her operate on Capitol Hill, she said.
Duckworth holds a distinct money edge in the race. She’s raised over $15.6 million and had $7.9 million in the bank through the end of June, according to Federal Elections Commission data. Her Duckworth Victory Fund political action committee had another $28,000 on hand.
She began her TV ad campaign for reelection only in recent days.
Meanwhile, Salvi’s campaign has been mostly self-funded. She has raised $434,703, including a $250,000 loan from her, but had only about $65,000 in the bank through the end of June. Her campaign has yet to run any broadcast TV advertising.
Salvi said she wasn’t concerned about the fundraising disadvantage, pointing to the Republican primary for governor in which billionaire-backed Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin lost to further right downstate farmer Rep. Darren Bailey. Anything can happen, she said.
“People are open to the change that I have to bring,” Salvi said.
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