Duckworth declares victory over Salvi in U.S. Senate race
Incumbent Democrat U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth declared victory Tuesday in her bid for a second term.
Unofficial results show voters chose Duckworth, a Hoffman Estates resident, over Republican challenger Kathy Salvi. Late Tuesday, The Associated Press reported Duckworth had 57% of the vote. About 69% of the vote had been counted.
"I will never forget the people I've met over the past six years as your senator," Duckworth said Tuesday evening. "Your stories, your struggles, your hopes are what have fueled my determination to make your tomorrow better than your today. Sure, I know that won't be easy. I know there are still some folks seeking to sow seeds of division among us. I know that we're a Union that, yes, at times has been anything but united. But the miracle of America is that when it looks like those worst instincts are set to prevail, we come together and resist. We refuse to give in to that darkness."
Salvi, a Mundelein attorney, tried to paint Duckworth as a rubber stamp for President Joe Biden and his administration's economic policies, a strategy deployed by most Republican candidates squaring off against congressional Democratic incumbents.
However, Salvi did not receive much financial support from GOP stalwarts, generating just $650,000 during her campaign from donors.
For her part, Duckworth ended her campaign with nearly $6 million remaining in her coffers.
During the campaign, Duckworth touted her legislative efforts over the past six years and priorities for her second term, including a push to bring more microchip manufacturing jobs back to the U.S.
She boasted of Democrat-led efforts in Congress to pass significant spending bills such as the American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act that sent federal dollars to the states to help offset costs to families and businesses as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Senate Democrats - without a single Republican vote - passed historic changes that will put working Americans first by helping them save money on prescription drugs, fighting inflation, tackling the climate crisis to protect our planet for future generations, cutting the deficit by hundreds of billions and ensuring megacorporations pay their fair share," she said earlier in the campaign.
She has said she also plans to support any effort to "enshrine full reproductive rights into law on the federal level" after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade earlier this year.
Duckworth's seat was never really considered to be in jeopardy with Illinois voters, who overwhelmingly elected her to her first Senate term in 2016 over Republican incumbent Mark Kirk.
Duckworth's personal story as a wounded U.S. Army veteran who lost both legs after the helicopter she was piloting was shot down during the Iraq War has always captivated voters. Ultimately, she continued serving in the Army National Guard until her retirement in 2014 as a lieutenant colonel.
She lost her first run for Congress against Republican Peter Roskam in 2006 by just a few thousand votes. Shortly after that loss, she was appointed the state's director of veteran affairs by former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
She served in the state veterans role until 2009 when then-President Barack Obama offered her a post as an assistant secretary of public and intergovernmental affairs at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. She remained there until 2011 and then ran for Congress again, this time defeating one-term U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh. She was reelected in 2015 and then sought her current Senate seat.