TAYLORVILLE — After a brutal, nearly seven-month-long primary election campaign, the political fates of U.S. Reps. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, and Mary Miller, R-Oakland, lay firmly with Republican voters in Illinois' 15th Congressional District, who cast their ballots across the 35-county district on Tuesday.
The incumbent lawmakers, thrown together by Springfield Democrats who controlled last year's Congressional redistricting process, have engaged in what's been an extremely negative campaign in which each has accused the other of not being conservative enough.Â
Davis is a mainstream conservative with a bipartisan streak, a reflection of the swingy 13th Congressional District that he has represented since 2013.
Miller, on the other hand, is a far-right freshman firebrand who eschews bipartisanship in the name of the "America First" agenda of former President Donald Trump, who has endorsed her.
The 15th, which stretches west to east across Central Illinois from the Iowa and Missouri state lines to the Indiana state line, was drawn to pack as many Republicans in as possible.
As a result, the newly-minted district would have voted for Trump by 68% in the 2020 election, making it one of the most conservative in the country.
Despite not having Trump's endorsement, Davis, speaking with reporters just hours before polls closed, said he felt confident in his ability to pull it out Tuesday.
"I have built, with the help of my great team, an organization that has knocked on almost 125,000 doors," Davis said. "We see that data that's coming in from those doors every single day. We are very confident just like I was confident in 2020 that tonight's going to be a great election night for us."
Davis will watch election returns at his Taylorville home with his family will not having an election night event with supporters.Â
Miller, on the other hand, is hosting an event at a hotel in Quincy, not far from where she was embraced by Trump on Saturday.
"Mary is a warrior for our movement and our values," Trump told the crowd gathered at the Adams County Fairgrounds on Saturday, calling her a "fearless, America-first patriot."
So excited to finish out the day in Quincy speaking to the press about the incredible momentum for President Trump’s endorsed candidates, Mary Miller for Congress and Darren Bailey for Governor! Get out and vote! pic.twitter.com/MnZHKDDrWo