With three other Democrats already in the race, House Agriculture Committee member Cheri Bustos said she will seek her fourth term in Congress rather than run for governor in Illinois. Her decision leaves Democrats “without a major Downstate candidate” in the gubernatorial primary to face incumbent Republican Gov Bruce Rauner in 2018, said the Chicago Tribune.
Rauner’s tenure has been dominated by a state budget battle with Democrats that leaves him “without many bumper-sticker-style accomplishments to tout,” said the Tribune. But Rauner is wealthy and put $50 million into his campaign fund last year, as a downpayment toward re-election.
Bustos spent several months deciding whether to run for the party’s nomination for governor. She was re-elected by a landslide margin in her northwestern Illinois district that President Trump won by a small margin. In the new session of Congress, she is one of three co-chairs of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee. “Bustos said the post makes her the ‘voice of the heartland’ on a leadership team otherwise drawn ‘entirely from the coasts,'” said the Tribune.