Can this US Senate candidate represent metro-east interests from Chicago?
A candidate running to replace U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin in the 2026 election visited the metro-east this week to share criticism for President Donald Trump’s health care policies and explain how he plans to represent metro-east interests from Chicagoland, if elected.
Raja Krishnamoorthi, of Schaumburg, announced his candidacy for Senate in May. He is a Democrat currently representing Illinois’ 8th U.S. House District in northern Illinois. He has also previously worked in statewide positions for the Illinois Attorney General’s and Treasurer’s offices and as a Chicago lawyer, according to his biography.
While he lives in a Chicago suburb today, Krishnamoorthi says he considers himself a “son of downstate” because he was raised in Peoria, about 165 miles north of Belleville.
As for filling Durbin’s shoes, Krishnamoorthi said he doesn’t think anyone can “replace” the five-term Senator.
“He’s a legend,” Krishnamoorthi said. “All I can do is try to build on his foundation of success. As a son of downstate, I think that I’m naturally positioned to try to represent all of Illinois in the U.S. Senate, in Dick Durbin’s tradition.”
Krishnamoorthi also highlighted his previous visits to the metro-east — largely as an out-of-town congressman — as evidence of his interest in the southwestern Illinois region.
“I think that what’s really important for people in metro-east to understand is I would not be here today for my — I lost count of how many times I’ve now been to metro-east — if I didn’t care about what was going on here,” he said. “And I am deeply concerned that every part of the state rise in prosperity, rise in health outcomes, rise in its standing in the country in terms of a place where people can live, work and raise a family.”
Krishnamoorthi has made a total of five trips to the area: Belleville in October 2024, East St. Louis in March, East Alton in July, Granite City in October and Cahokia Heights on Thursday.
During his visit Thursday, he toured Touchette Regional Hospital and talked to hospital leaders and reporters about the policy issues at the heart of the federal government shutdown.
Democrats like Krishnamoorthi are pushing Congressional Republicans and Trump to extend tax credits that lower monthly health insurance costs for people on an Affordable Care Act plan. Illinois leaders said Wednesday that enrollees across the state will see a 78% increase in monthly premiums on average without the federal subsidies.
Democrats also want to roll back Medicaid cuts included in the “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act, which passed in July with only GOP support. Gov. J.B. Pritzker had warned that an estimated 330,000 people in Illinois could be kicked off of their insurance as a result of the legislation, based on modeling by Manatt Health.
Touchette Regional Hospital President Brad Goacher told Krishnamoorthi on Thursday that he thinks emergency rooms across the region could become overwhelmed by uninsured patients.
“When people don’t have insurance, they use the emergency departments or urgent cares as primary care and wait until they are sicker, and it becomes a problem,” Goacher said. “... Our regional partners are expanding their ED because they’re already at capacity now, so just imagine if another 10% of the population were seeking ED care regularly.”
The tax credits are ending and Medicaid cuts are coming in 2026.
The race to fill U.S. Sen. Durbin’s seat
Democrats with ties to the metro-east have held one of Illinois’ two U.S. Senate seats for more than four decades, but that streak could be ending with Durbin’s retirement.
Durbin, who was born in East St. Louis, has been in office since 1997. His predecessor from 1985-1997, Paul Simon, owned the Troy Tribune and a chain of 13 other weekly newspapers in southern and central Illinois before taking public office.
Alan Dixon, who was born in Belleville, served as a U.S. Senator for Illinois alongside Simon for a time from 1981-1993.
Today, Democrat Tammy Duckworth holds Dixon’s former seat. Like Krishnamoorthi, she also lives in a Chicago suburb: Hoffman Estates. But one of her six district offices is in Belleville.
The filing deadline for candidates hoping to replace Durbin was Monday. A total of 22 people, 14 Democrats and eight Republicans, filed to run for the seat in the March 17 primary. The general election is Nov. 3.
So far, Krishnamoorthi has raised the largest amount of campaign dollars of any of the candidates: about $18 million by the end of September, according to Capitol News Illinois. The nonprofit news service reported his campaign has spent $4.5 million on television ads in markets across the state since July.
Among Krishnamoorthi’s primary opponents is Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, who has been endorsed by the state’s top two Democrats: Pritzker and Duckworth.
Krishnamoorthi, meanwhile, has been endorsed by Madison County Democratic Party Chairman Andy Asadorian and a slew of other community leaders, including current and former mayors and other elected officials from central and northern Illinois, according to a list provided by his campaign.
Some unions and trade groups have also given Krishnamoorthi their endorsement, such as Local 881 UFCW, which represents workers employed in retail food and drug stores and has an office in Edwardsville, and the president of the Illinois State Association of Letter Carriers.
Durbin hasn’t made an endorsement for his replacement. But in April when the Senate minority whip announced his retirement, he said he wasn’t ruling out the possibility of endorsing someone “in an extreme case.”
This story was originally published November 7, 2025 at 10:24 AM.
