Stratton Attempts to Change Narrative at First U.S. Senate Debate
Congresswoman Robin Kelly (D-Lynwood), Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Schaumburg), and Lt. Governor Juliana Stratton participate in the first debate in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate Monday at the University of Chicago. (Photo: Chicago Sun-Times)
With just days to go before early voting begins in parts of the state for the March 17 primary and polls showing Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Schaumburg) with a wide lead over Lt. Governor Juliana Stratton and Congresswoman Robin Kelly (D-Lynwood) in the U.S. Senate primary to replace Sen. Dick Durbin, Stratton faces a moment in which she needs to change the narrative in the race.
Seen by many insiders as a bit of a ho-hum primary with few fireworks, Stratton and Kelly have been buried on television by an onslaught of TV ads by Krishnamoorthi, who has raised tens of millions of dollars in recent years preparing himself for the eventual run for Senate.
Stratton, aiming to amp up her progressive chops and tap into liberal anger over the Trump administration and ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions in Minnesota (after a highly publicized set of actions in Illinois last fall), the Lt. Governor attempted to take some shots at Krishnamoorthi Monday night in a debate hosted by the University of Chicago, the Chicago Sun-Times, and Chicago Public Radio.
Stratton honed in on campaign donations Krishnamoorthi received from an executive of a company with a large contract with ICE.
“That is not the example of somebody who’s going to stand up to Donald Trump and fight for all of our communities. I want to abolish ICE,” Stratton said.
“I want to abolish ICE because this agency cannot be reformed,” said Stratton, the one term state representative and two-term running mate to Gov. JB Pritzker. “We are looking at what’s happening and it doesn’t matter whose ICE it is. ICE needs to be abolished and we need to move this country forward and make sure our communities are safe.”
Krishnamoorti defended his work in Congress and, while not calling for dismantling the agency altogether, called for abolishing “Trump’s ICE.”
“I’m the only candidate on this stage that actually inspected an ICE facility itself,” he said. “What I learned there was shocking. I believe we have to abolish Trump’s ICE.”
Kelly has introduced a resolution to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, which has little chance of making it to the Senate, which has a Republcian majority and is seen as virtually guaranteed to dismiss an impeachment resolution.
“The Department of Homeland Security is too big, too unwieldy and not accountable and we need to do all this in the guise of immigration reform,” Kelly said. “They’re not going after the murderers and rapists that they said that they were. It’s a total embarrassment.”
The Chicago Tribune reported that, in a media scrum after the event, Stratton said many ICE functions could be handled by Customs and Border Patrol. CBP agents, though, were the agents who shot and killed protestor Alex Pretti in Minneapolis Saturday.
Stratton repeatedly attempted to land punches at Krishnamoorthi, on a vote over an antisemitism resolution that included praise for federal immigration agents and for taking “corporate” PAC dollars.
Krishnamoorthi, attempting to deflect, at one point responded “I should have brought some body armor here.”
One top Democratic operative said Monday night the debate was likely to change the trajectory of the race.
“For those that are actually paying attention to this race, they’ve already made up their mind,” said the strategist, who asked not to be identified but isn’t affiliated with any of the campaigns. “For those that are paying a little attention, they’ve seen Raja’s TV ads a million times. But 80% of the Democratic electorate hasn’t tuned into this race yet and a public radio debate on a Monday night probably didn’t do the trick.”
Another debate is scheduled for Thursday evening on WLS-TV in Chicago. The video of Monday’s debate is posted here.
