Freshmen U.S. Reps. Lauren Underwood and Sean Casten look to hold on to districts they flipped for Democrats

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Contests in two suburban congressional districts represented by first-term Democrats who defeated incumbent Republicans two years ago highlight Tuesday’s races for the U.S. House across Illinois. Voters are deciding representation in each of the state’s 18 congressional districts.

In one of the most-watched campaigns, first-term Democrat Rep. Lauren Underwood, of Naperville, is facing Republican state Sen. Jim Oberweis, the dairy magnate from Sugar Grove, in the far northern, western and southwestern suburban 14th Congressional District.

Underwood has been focusing on the coronavirus pandemic and health care issues during her reelection campaign. Oberweis, who previously ran unsuccessfully for governor, U.S. senator and U.S. representative, has been highlighting his conservative, small government credentials.

In 2018, Underwood flipped the district, which had been Republican for a decade, in the process becoming the youngest Black woman elected to Congress and helping Democrats take control of the U.S. House. Underwood said this year’s contest “is a clear contrast and choice. We are completely different.”

Oberweis counters that Underwood “is way too far to the left.”

In the west and northwestern suburban 6th District, Rep. Sean Casten, another freshman Democrat, is facing Republican Jeanne Ives of Wheaton, who nearly knocked off then-Gov. Bruce Rauner in the Illinois Republican primary two years ago.

Casten, of Downers Grove, has not been shy about his distaste for President Donald Trump and how the federal government has handled the coronavirus pandemic. He also has been focusing on climate change and civil rights issues.

Ives has been visiting many local restaurants and businesses during the final days of the campaign, highlighting the economic ramifications of shutdowns and forced closures as the state and country grapple with COVID-19. She also has emphasized her fiscally conservative views and law-and-order messages.

In the 3rd Congressional District, which stretches from Chicago’s Southwest Side deep into the southwest suburbs, Marie Newman is trying to keep the seat in Democratic hands but take it in a decidedly more progressive direction in her race against Republican Will County Board member Mike Fricilone.

In her second straight run for the post, Newman beat eight-term Democratic incumbent Dan Lipinski in the March primary election. Newman, of LaGrange, again ripped Lipinski as too conservative for the district, hammering his anti-abortion stance, his vote against the Affordable Care Act and his position on immigration.

If elected, Newman said she would work to address the economic inequality in the district that’s worsening because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fricilone says it’s Newman who’s out of step with area voters. He called her a socialist during an October debate and said her “plans are not focused on the 3rd District. They’re taken from the most extreme leftists in Washington.”

The Homer Glen Republican has pointed to Lipinski’s “commonsense, bipartisan” approach to the job as a template he will follow if he wins Tuesday.

The most competitive Downstate race is the rematch between four-term Republican U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis and Democratic challenger Betsy Dirksen Londrigan, a reprise of the 2018 battle when Davis eked out a win by just over 2,000 votes.

Much as it did in 2018, dialogue in the race centers on health care policy. Londrigan is highly critical of Davis' vote in 2017 to repeal key pieces of the Affordable Care Act and replace them with significantly different policies, contending it was a vote to strip coverage from people with preexisting conditions.

Davis, of Taylorville, has said he favors a replacement for the Affordable Care Act that includes coverage for preexisting conditions, while Londrigan, of Springfield, has indicated she would support a “public option,” a plan that would allow people to buy into a government-run insurance program as an alternative to private insurance plans.

The race for the 13th Congressional District, which sprawls from Champaign to the Missouri border and includes parts of Springfield and Bloomington, has drawn national attention, and Democrats identified it as a top 2020 target not long after the close finish in 2018. The district went for President Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton by 5.5 percentage points in 2016.

U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos, the Democrat from Moline who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, faces a challenge from Republican Esther Joy King, a lawyer and Army Reserve officer from East Moline.

Bustos is seeking her fifth term representing the district where she was reelected in 2018 with a 24-percentage-point advantage over the Republican in the race, the largest margin of victory for a district Trump carried in 2016.

Other Republican incumbents facing challengers are U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, of Channahon, who is seeking his sixth term and is being challenged by Dani Brzozowski of La Salle, chairwoman of the La Salle County Democrats.

Kinzinger, who had been critical of Trump in the past, was the only Republican Congressman from Illinois to be left off the list of co-chairs for Trump’s reelection effort in Illinois. The district wraps around the collar counties and shares a border with Wisconsin, near Rockford, and Indiana, south of Kankakee.

U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood, of Peoria, is being challenged by Springfield attorney George Petrilli in his effort to retain his seat representing the GOP-dominant west-central congressional district that also includes Quincy.

Petrilli was a latecomer to the race, announcing in July he would challenge LaHood, who is seeking his third full term.

U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, of Murphysboro, is being challenged by educator Ray Lenzi in his bid for a fourth term representing the southern Illinois district that includes Carbondale and part of the Metro East region, the suburbs that sit across the Mississippi River from St. Louis.

There’s an open race for the heavily GOP southern Illinois district with the retirement of U.S. Rep. John Shimkus, with Republican Mary Miller of Oakland facing off against Democrat Erika Weaver of Mattoon.

The next time congressional races occur throughout the state, the districts may look quite different. Illinois is expected to lose one of its 18 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives through the congressional reapportionment, which will be based on the results of the recently completed 2020 census. The redistricting process will take place next year.

poconnell@chicagotribune.com

jmunks@chicagotribune.com

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