Dem Chair Kelly Says Party Should Run on American Rescue Plan
Congresswoman Robin Kelly (D-Matteson), the new Chair of the Democratic Party of Illinois say Democrats should embrace their legislative victories to win in 2022. .
The last time someone other than Michael Madigan led the Illinois Democratic Party, Michael Jordan was still a star for the Chicago Bulls. Congresswoman Robin Kelly (D-Matteson) changed that last month, and she says her transition team would be meeting Thursday evening to finalize her takeover of the state party after a contentious proxy dispute between the top politicians in Illinois.
Hours before that group met, Kelly pulled back the curtain on what her strategy will be as party leader during a virtual Q and A with the City Club of Chicago.
“We’re planning how we can build a stronger party,” Kelly said. “I know people say we’re a blue state but there’s a lot of places where there’s still a lot of red. Democrats feel like, and I feel like, we need to do more to pull those Democrats out, those independents, and depending on who’s running, the moderate Republicans so we’re planning on how we can grow the party.”
Illinois has been part of the trend nationwide with urban areas becoming more densely Democratic and rural areas more reliably Republican.
“We can have overarching messages and communication but also all politics is local,” she said. “We have to rely on those people in those specific areas, what works in those areas. We know we have some very red areas, so we still need to go to those areas.”
Kelly said one area with plenty of room for improvement was municipal elections. Many suburban Chicago communities held local elections on Tuesday, but turnout was microscopic.
“The turnout was so low, and every election is important and every level of government, that’s how we build the bench,” she said. “People have to take more interest in their local elections. We have to be more engaged. We have to be more active, and we have to have good people to step up. You don’t have to serve forever but to get good people to step up to serve.”
The last line of her comment could easily be considered a shot at her predecessor, former House Speaker Michael Madigan.
The party in power often loses seats in Washington during a president’s first midterm election. As Democrats hold a narrow majority in the House and the smallest possible majority in the Senate, Kelly outlined the case for Democrats running in 2022.
“We need to get our message out,” Kelly said. “We need to get out that we passed the American Rescue Plan, that we didn’t have one Republican vote, that we did that. We got money to businesses. We got money to individuals. We put more money into COVID testing, vaccinations, contact tracing. We did all of that. We sent money to schools so they could open up with the ventilation that they need, whatever it is that they need, that we did that without any help.”
Kelly said that wasn’t to suggest bipartisanship is dead. She pointed to legislation she’s currently working on to reduce maternal mortality rates with Ohio Republican Bob Latta. But if bipartisanship hasn’t died, it might be on life support.
“We can all talk about Republicans that we’re working with,” she said. “We want to unify as much as possible and support the president but I’m not going to lie. January 6th did something to many of us. We know that several of our colleagues were involved with that. They were giving speeches to the people that later came into the Capitol carrying the Confederate flag. We saw who did not vote for President Biden’s election to be certified. It’s very difficult to work with people like that who are being negative to be negative.”
Usually, a bill needs to have votes from people in both parties to be considered bipartisan, but Kelly echoed a line being used by many top Democrats in Washington. She said a bill can be bipartisan if Republicans at home support it, even if the Republicans in Congress did not.
“People need our help now and the American Rescue Plan, even though it didn’t have one vote from the other side, it’s bipartisan in this country,” she said. “Check any of the polls.”
While the torch has been passed from Madigan to Kelly, she’ll soon have to prove whether her vision will keep Illinois blue with Gov. JB Pritzker, Sen. Tammy Duckworth and every seat in Congress and the state legislature on the ballot in 2022.
