Updated at 12:51 a.m. Nov. 4, with comments from Rodney Davis
Republican U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis won re-election Tuesday against Betsy Dirksen Londrigan.
Davis beat his Democratic challenger in a tough rematch of the 2018 race for Illinois’ 13th Congressional District, which includes portions of the Metro East.
“I’m so proud of the race that we won. I’m humbled by the support of the people in this district,” Davis said. “I’m going to continue to have that bipartisan record of success as we move into this next congress.”
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The win means Davis will return to Washington for a fifth term to represent central and southern Illinois.
The 2018 contest was close — Davis won by 2,058 votes. Until then, Davis had easily defeated his opponents. This time, Davis improved upon his 2018 results in nearly every county in the district winning easily.
“My team did a phenomenal job knocking on every door, making sure everybody got multiple phone calls and probably bugging people a little too much,” he said. “But you know what? The results show.”
The main issue in the race was health care, just as it was in 2018.
Londrigan challenged Davis on his record around health care and the Affordable Care Act.
“We still have Americans who can go online and look all they want at the Affordable Care Act options but can’t afford them,” Davis said before the election.
He said many of the plans available on the ACA Marketplace are too expensive and either leave Americans without health care coverage or with plans they cannot use. Returning to Congress, Davis wants to see a bipartisan fix to the law.
“We’re going to fight to make sure that the Democrats or the Republicans, if we’re in the majority, are going to codify pre-existing condition coverage protections for every single American,” he said during his victory speech. “This isn’t a Republican or a Democratic issue.”
The congressman said he will also work to review how the country prepared for the coronavirus pandemic and address failings he sees around the national stockpile of emergency supplies.
Davis was first elected to Congress in 2012, after working for U.S. Rep. John Shimkus for more than a decade.
Illinois Congressional results
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Eric Schmid covers the Metro East for St. Louis Public Radio as part of the journalism grant program Report for America, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project. Follow Eric on Twitter: @EricDSchmid
