The Chicago Tribune reports that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) made a trip to Chicago, Illinois, this past week to support Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL).
Casten is facing off against Republican Keith Pekau, the current mayor of Orland Park, in the race for Illinois’ 6th District U.S. House of Representatives race.
This is expected to be one of the key House races in the upcoming midterm elections, which will determine whether the Democrats will continue to lead the House or whether the Republicans will regain control.
Republicans need to net a handful of seats, and they are projected to do so.
Pelosi tries to give Casten a bump
Pelosi, during her stop in Illinois this week, essentially campaigned for Casten and other Illinois Democrats.
Pelosi, in a speech, seemed to center her endorsement of Casten around the issue of abortion rights, specifically around his support of the Democrats’ abortion rights push following the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Pelosi said:
Now, understand what we have – the bills that we have just put Roe v. Wade codification – enshrinement into the law, not one vote from the other side, not one, not one vote from the other side. Then we put on the Floor – and Congressman Casten, very much a part of this – a bill to ensure that women have access to contraception, nine Republican votes. That means 200 voted no. So understand that. And then he’s been a champion, again, on the federal right to birth control, as we said, but also the right of women to travel. Imagine that they would vote against women having the right to travel for their reproductive health. So I thank him for that. And for bringing us together, here.
Pelosi’s plea to voters, here, is, essentially, to vote for Casten because he supports federally legalizing abortion.
Will it work?
It’s not clear whether this will be enough to get Casten over the line.
The fact is that the economy continues to be the number one issue for Americans heading into the midterms, and, accordingly, the likelihood is that the economy will be the major factor for voters.
Still, there is really no indication as to who might come out on top in the race between Casten and Pekau.
ABC7 reports, “this district was redrawn to help Democrats and is rated as likely to re-elect Casten, but Pekau is counting on disaffected Democrats to send him to victory.”