Kathy Salvi wins GOP nomination for US Senate in Illinois
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Kathy Salvi, a suburban Chicago personal injury lawyer, won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Illinois on Tuesday, topping a field of seven candidates.
Salvi, 63, of Mundelein, will take on first-term incumbent Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth in November. Duckworth, a veteran of the Iraq War, is highly popular and was unopposed in the Tuesday’s primary. She will be the clear favorite as she seeks a second term in November in a place where Democrats control all statewide offices and voters twice rejected President Donald Trump by double digits.
Salvi, who works in a Chicago-area law firm, is a former Lake County assistant public defender who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2006. She campaigned this year on a pledge to work to unify her party and maintains Duckworth is beatable because the fall election will be about the success or failure of the Biden administration.
While Illinois has elected GOP senators in the recent past, Duckworth defeated the most recent Republican to hold a seat — moderate Sen. Mark Kirk — by more than 10 points in 2016.