Former TV meteorologist Eric Sorensen won the highly competitive race for the Illinois 17th Congressional District.
He will head to Washington D.C. as a freshman congressman in January.
He defeated Esther Joy King in a close contest not called until the early hours Wednesday morning.
Iowa Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks heads to Congress again for a second term.
She defeated Democrat Christina Bohannan in Iowa’s 1st Congressional District race.
Your Local Election Headquarters spoke with both of them about it.
Members of Congress run for election every two years. It means you get the job and you’re practically auditioning to keep it the minute your term starts.
Sorensen told me he got about two hours of sleep after his campaign party that lasted well past midnight waiting for final results.
Now he’ll be building his staff and preparing himself for a major challenge.
“It’s taking the torch from Congresswoman Bustos, who really exemplified how to run constituent services,” Sorensen said. “She was a masterful at that — and it wasn’t just her — it was the team. To be able to say we’re going to have the team in place so that when people need answers to a question or solutions to a problem, they’re gonna get it.”
Mariannette Miller-Meeks celebrated her win at a party at the Rhythm City Casino on Tuesday night.
Miller-Meeks is proud of going from winning by just six votes to winning by about 20,000.
She has some healthcare-related goals and some energy goals on her mind now.
“You know, energy independence… taking the constraints off domestic energy production but continuing to do the work I’ve done on both energy and climate going forward,” Miller-Meeks said. “So I think those things are really important.”
Miller-Meeks is returning to Washington for the end of this current Congress.
Sorensen is now setting up his team and planning his move to Washington in January.