Former Vice President Joe Biden made a pair of stops on a visit to Illinois Wednesday to campaign for several Democratic candidates across the state.
Biden's first stop of the day came in suburban St. Charles, as he attended a rally with Lauren Underwood, the Democratic challenger looking to unseat incumbent GOP Rep. Randy Hultgren in Illinois' 14th Congressional District.
Biden and Underwood appeared at a "Get Out the Vote" rally at the Kane County Fairgrounds.
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"We need to recognize that words matter," Biden said. "She came in and helped Barack and me make the Affordable Care Act a reality."
Underwood's race, in a traditionally Republican area, has been labeled a "toss-up" by political experts, and could be a race to keep an eye on as Tuesday's election draws near.
The candidate worked with the Obama administration's Department of Health and Human Services, and she told the assembled crowd at the event that she was motivated to run by the debate over health care in the United States.
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"I'm not a politician. I'm a nurse," she said.
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The Republican National Committee released a statement Wednesday after the vice president's remarks, saying taht "Illinois voters are continually benefitting from Republican policies that have put the Prairie State's unemployment rate in its best shape since 1999."
The statement also said that "Illinois voters cannot afford to go back to Biden's broken playbook."
Hultgren will have a visitor of his own Friday, as Speaker of the House Paul Ryan will stump for him at a rally.
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Underwood will get one more boost to her campaign in the closing days of the race, as former President Barack Obama will speak at a Get Out the Vote rally in Chicago.
Later in the day, Biden headed to East. St. Louis to stump for statewide and downstate candidates.
The former vice president attended another GOTV rally with Democratic candidate for Illinois' 12th District, Brendan Kelly, who's taking on Rep. Mike Bost in a former Democratic stronghold that went for President Donald Trump by 15 points in 2016.
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Gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker, along with running mate state Rep. Juliana Stratton, as well as Illinois Attorney General candidate Kwame Raoul, incumbent state Treasurer Mike Frerichs and Rep. Cheri Bustos, of the 17th District, all attended the rally, held just days after President Trump spoke to supporters of Rep. Bost.
On Tuesday, Biden was in Wisconsin to encourage voters to turn out for Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Tony Evers, who's looking to unseat Gov. Scott Walker.
