Leading up to the 2022 midterms, Democrats have struggled to find anyone willing to challenge Republicans on election night as the left tries to keep their wafer-thin majority in the House.
Tom McNamara, the Rockford city mayor, ran against Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-IL) in the 2020 election. Since Bustos announced her retirement in April. McNamara was “encouraged” to run. McNamara, with the wide-open seat, announced he would not run for Congress in the midterms.
McNamara said in a statement:
It was incredibly humbling and encouraging that so many individuals expressed confidence in me and the work we have done here in Rockford. I firmly believe that my goal should always be to serve whatever office allows me to do the most good.
“Right now, that place is as the mayor of Rockford. After much discussion and reflection, I have decided that my heart is here. I want to remain your mayor and will not run for a Congressional seat in 2022,” he added.
Esther Joy King, who ran against Bustos in 2020 and only lost by roughly 12,000 votes, is running again as a Republican and is the only person that has announced candidacy in the race so far, according to WREX. Illinois’ congressional delegation currently has five Republicans and 13 Democrats.
Last month, Breitbart reported that Democrats were also struggling to find anyone to run in Iowa to challenge one-term incumbent Republicans after suffering major losses in the last election cycle.
The Associated Press reported, the “hesitancy to jump into a district now as competitive as they come is one measure of Democrats’ fatigue in a state viewed for decades as a true battleground.” Iowa’s congressional delegation currently has three Republicans and one Democrat.
“Democrats are struggling to recruit candidates because nobody wants to defend their record of rising prices, rising crime, and a growing border crisis,” National Republican Congressional Committee Spokesman Mike Berg said in a statement. “House Democrats’ hopes of holding the majority are growing dimmer by the day.”