Good-bye LaHood, hello Davis?

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Latest map released this weekend moves Peoria-area congressman north, pits him against Kinzinger. Rodney Davis would represent much of West-Central Illinois.

Illinois Democrats are pitting Republicans against each other in a pair of potential races in the latest revised congressional map released late Saturday.

The plan is likely to be voted on this week when lawmakers return to Springfield.

Unlike in the earlier version of the congressional map, Republican U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, of Channahon, has been drawn into a neighboring district. Kinzinger’s home is in the same district as incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood, of Dunlap, which is north of Peoria.

Kinzinger hasn’t made clear whether he intends to seek another term in Congress, run for statewide office or test the political waters nationally in a bid to derail Donald Trump from winning another term in the White House in 2024. Kinzinger suggested that he may not run for re-election in a statement after the previous maps were drawn, saying that he is “reviewing all of the options, including those outside the House.”

LaHood is a Trump supporter.

Democratic mapmakers also reconfigured freshman Democratic U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood’s 14th Congressional District, lopping off GOP-leaning sections of McHenry County along the Wisconsin border and replacing those with Democratic-friendly areas of Naperville and Bolingbrook.

Democratic mapmakers also pitted GOP U.S. Reps Mary Miller, of Oakland, and Mike Bost, of Murphysboro, against one another in a district covering roughly the southern third of Illinois. Both are avid Trump, with Miller appearing alongside Trump acolyte, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, during a downstate fundraiser earlier this year.

There is no requirement that members of Congress live in the congressional districts they represent, but it is a difficult political climb to avoid the carpetbagger label that undoubtedly would come into play for anyone who might try that option.

U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, of Taylorville, was left in his own irregularly-shaped and mostly rural district that roughly covers the full width of the central third of the state.

The move could represent a Democratic effort to keep Davis from mounting a bid for statewide office next year. His name has been mentioned in some political circles as a potential GOP rival to Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker.

WBEZ contributed information for this report.

https://wgntv.com/news/chicago-news/illinois-democrats-unveil-updated-congressional-maps/

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