Second Democrat announces run for 12th Congressional District
A Makanda man has announced he will be seeking the Democratic nomination for candidacy to the U.S. Congress from the 12th District of Illinois in the 2020 election.
Raymond C. Lenzi, 72, wants to run against U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, he said in a news release Thursday. The 12th Congressional District encompasses most of southwestern Illinois.
Lenzi has volunteered for Democratic candidates for the 12th District since 2012, the release stated.
Now, he wants to run because he thinks public opinion is moving in the direction of Democrats and wants to stand for “with the ‘Majority for We the People’ to enact popular positions that 75% of the public supports,” the release stated.
“I think in this election, we can hopefully get some consensus and start to move forward to work quickly and boldly with major projects,” he said in a phone interview Thursday.
Lenzi has worked in community and economic development throughout his career, and retired as the Southern Illinois University associate chancellor for economic development and CEO of the Southern Illinois University Research Park. On Thursday, he resigned as chair of the Research Park board.
Lenzi’s platform will focus on bringing progressive solutions to health care, jobs and income inequality, gun violence, the climate crisis and “honest and competent government,” he said.
Last year, Lenzi wrote an op-ed in The Southern Illinoisan newspaper denouncing Bost’s vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act. He said Bost has been complicit with everything the current presidential administration has done or not done, and has not spoken up for his constituents.
“He’s voted against the interests of his own district,” Lenzi said.
The release stated that Lenzi’s campaign will soon have a website and social media accounts “to support and enhance our candidacy and campaign to move the country forward through these divisive times.” An official campaign launch will come in early September, the release stated.
Earlier this month, a Mascoutah man announced he plans to challenge Bost as a Democratic candidate as well. Joel D. Funk, a Northwestern Mutual financial representative in Fairview Heights, said his formal campaign launch will come “in the near future.”
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has not identified the 12th District as a possible district to flip since Brendan Kelly, the former St. Clair County State’s Attorney and current Illinois State Police acting director, lost to Bost in 2018. Bost has been in office since 2015 after winning the 2014 election.
The primary election is March 17, 2020. The general election will be Nov. 3, 2020.
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