U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis speaks during a President Donald Trump rally in Murphysboro in 2018.
dholtmann@bnd.com
U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis announced his plans to run for Congress again Tuesday.
The fourth-term Republican from Taylorville was first elected to represent the 13th Congressional District in 2012. He consistently won over Democratic challengers thanks to his bipartisan appeal and political savvy with downstate Illinois issues.
During redistricting this year following the 2020 Census, Illinois Democrats drew Davis’ home address out of the 13th district and into the 15th, a gerrymandered district that includes GOP voters in swaths of rural central Illinois. In the metro-east, the 15th includes parts of Collinsville and Alton, and all of Troy, Highland and Hamel.
“Republicans are primed to retake the House next year,” Davis said in a statement, “and I’m ready to work with a new Republican majority to finally fire Nancy Pelosi and hold the Biden Administration accountable for their massive failures. I look forward to campaigning hard and earning every vote in this district over the next year.”
Davis is so far the only Republican candidate running in the 15th district, although GOP U.S. Rep. Mary Miller of Oakland could decide to challenge him. Her home falls in the new 12th district, only about a mile from one of the 15th’s borders. Candidates are allowed to run in any district in the state, even if they don’t live there, as long as they’re from Illinois.
Miller could face a tough campaign if she runs in the 12th against incumbent U.S. Rep. Mike Bost of Murphysboro.
Davis received endorsements from Bost, GOP U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood and former U.S. Rep. John Shimkus. He also gathered support from 31 of 35 Republican county chairmen and 14 Republican state lawmakers in the 15th District.
Primary elections in Illinois will be held June 28. Lawmakers pushed back the date from March to account for delays in redistricting caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This story was originally published November 30, 2021 10:21 AM.
Kelsey Landis is an Illinois state affairs and politics reporter for the Belleville News-Democrat. She joined the newsroom in January 2020 after her first stint at the paper from 2016 to 2018. She graduated from Southern Illinois University in 2010 and earned a master’s from DePaul University in 2014. Landis previously worked at The Alton Telegraph. At the BND, she focuses on informing you about what your lawmakers are doing in Springfield and Washington, D.C., and she works to hold them accountable. Landis has won Illinois Press Association awards for her work, including the Freedom of Information Award.
