The past week brought more bad news for Illinois senate candidate Tammy Duckworth, who is seeing slipping poll numbers and an increasingly viable primary challenge from former Chicago Urban League president Andrea Zopp. The Hill reported:
Illinois Rep. Tammy Duckworth’s efforts to help Democrats retake the Senate have been complicated by an unexpected primary opponent with a well-funded campaign.
The Duckworth vs. Zopp race has caused prominent Illinois Democrats to splinter into two camps, with establishment figures like Sen. Dick Durbin, Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) backing Duckworth, and former Obama Chief of Staff Bill Daley, Rev. Jesse Jackson and numerous Chicago-based Obama donors in Zopp’s corner.
America Rising PAC created a graphic to keep track of who’s who in the Prairie State showdown:
Chicago Magazine detailed the backlash the DSCC’s endorsement of Duckworth has created, predicting a “tighter race” as a result:
It surprised many people in July when the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee endorsed two-term congresswoman Tammy Duckworth in the U.S. Senate race. For one thing, the DSCC doesn’t typically back a Senate candidate in an Illinois primary. But it’s not just the endorsement that has key members of Chicago’s black leadership up in arms. The DSCC never even interviewed Andrea Zopp, the former chief of the Chicago Urban League and an African American, who announced her candidacy in May. And that snub could lead to a much tighter race than first anticipated.