Good evening and thanks for joining us for this WTTW News special.

I'm Brandis Friedman.

We are just [music] two weeks away from the November 3rd general election where voters will choose who they want to represent them in a host of offices including the United States Senate.

Candidates for that job are with us tonight.

They are vying to replace longtime Senator Dick Durbin, who's retiring after 30 years in office.

The next senator will inherit a large agenda with issues ranging from foreign policy and immigration to the economy, education, the environment, and more.

A few notes before we begin.

This is not a formal debate.

There will be no opening or closing statements.

Answers will not be timed.

Rather, I will use fairness as my guide in leading the discussion.

We ask that the candidates answer the questions to the best of their ability and try to keep their answers brief so that we can cover a lot of ground.

If they begin to filibuster or make speeches, I reserve the right to politely cut them off.

Also, we welcome the audience here in our Chicago studio, as well as audiences watching and listening in Chicago and around Illinois on their local public radio and television stations.

And later tonight, we'll be joined by Brian Sapp of WSIU in Carbondale and Mark Welp of WTVP in Peoria, who've recorded questions especially important to our audiences in central and southern Illinois.

Finally, we have asked our studio audience to remain silent and refrain from reacting during tonight's forum out of fairness to the candidates and to allow us to get to as many questions and issues as possible.

So joining us now are candidates for US Senate from Illinois, Illinois Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton and former Illinois Republican Party Chair Don Tracy.

Also on the ballot is American Center Party candidate Whitfield Harrington Jr.

I thank the two of you for joining us tonight.

Best of luck.

>> Thank you.

Thank you.

So, let's start with affordability because it is at the top of mind for a lot of Americans, particularly rising prices of everyday necessities like groceries and gas, which is sitting at a national average price of $4.33 per gallon.

That's according to the US Energy Information Administration.

In an effort to lower fuel costs, President Trump announced plans to purchase Russian diesel.

Now, that plan, of course, has drawn criticism from lawmakers from both parties.

Miss Stratton, starting with you first.

What do you make of that deal and what do you think is the best way forward in lowering energy prices?

>> Well, first of all, thank you, Brandice, for moderating tonight's conversation.

Thank you to the studio audience for being here tonight and thank you to all of the viewers tuning in.

Um, well, let's begin with this.

Uh, Donald Trump said that he was going to lower cost on day one, right?

But that's not what he's done.

He's made everything more expensive.

Everything as you just said is too expensive right now.

Groceries, gas, housing, healthcare.

And when we look at the factors of why it's that why that is the case, it is Donald Trump dragging us into a war that no one asked for and the rising costs of gas that have come out of that that everyday Illinoisans are feeling when you go to the gas pump.

And it's also his illegal tariffs.

So an illegal war, illegal tariffs.

And that's what's caused so much disruption to our economy, why everything is so expensive right now.

We need leaders in Washington who are going to stand up to this president.

And here's what we know.

This issue with diesel fuel, which is impacting our agricultural communities, particularly our farmers.

$655.

If you said it was about $450 for regular gas, 650 for diesel.

We need to end the war in Iran.

I will not vote to for any supplemental funding for this war.

We need to get out of it.

He needs to find a way for us to get out of it.

But as a senator, that's what I would do.

>> Mr.

Tracy.

>> Well, first of all, thank you Brandice for moderating and thank you for WTTW for uh hosting this event and thank you audience for appearing and uh thank you Juliana for finally agreeing to um join me in a in a candidate forum.

I appreciate that very much.

Um affordability is certainly an issue in in in this race uh and the uh because people are hurting.

I mean the cost of living is is higher than than it should be.

Uh and you hear about that on the on the trail.

But um that it's Democrats think that they know how to fix affordability, but everything Democrats and my opponent do increases the cost of living.

For example, the Pritskar Stratton administration increased taxes and fees almost 70 times.

Taxes are part of the cost of living.

Secondly, they've shut down prematurely some of the cleanest fossil fuel power plants in the world.

That is one of the main reasons why utility prices are higher.

And my opponent voted for a bill that hiked utility rates in order to increase wind and sour uh solar uh power.

Uh health care, the Democrat only solution to health care, which is too high.

It's too it's too unaffordable in spite of the affordable uh uh care act.

Their only solution is more government spending, which we tried that in the Biden administration.

And we got the highest inflation in over 40 years.

20% 5% annualized.

It's down to 3 and a.5% now.

That's too high.

We need to work on that.

And gas prices are too high.

And they hurt people every day when they fill up.

Uh but that's a temporary spike, but still gas prices are lower adjusted for inflation now than they were under the Biden administration.

So there's a lot of work to be done on this.

But the Democrat answer is more government spending.

Our answer is looking to the root causes of all of these these things and focusing on reducing root cause inflation.

>> All right.

>>.. say that again we need to end the war in Iran.

We have seen the cost go up and diesel fuel is one of those examples.

Mr.

Tracy supports the war in Iran and said these words that these costs, these rising costs are a quote unquote required sacrifice.

Well, that's not how I view it.

For those of you going to your gas pump and not filling up your tank because you don't have enough to fill up the tank, so you just go for a half a tank.

Now, >> I don't want people to have to do that.

We need we need to end the war.

>> Yeah, I want to jump in because we are going to get to the war in Iran and tariffs and healthcare.

We've got a lot of stuff to to get to before some point.

>> A few seconds, please go briefly and then I want to keep going.

Well, if this is a just war and I you don't have access to classified information and I don't we're told that Iran was on the verge of a nuclear weapon which means that there was the risk of a nuclear World War III started by Iran and if by this military conflict which is more of an economic conflict right now than a military conflict we are able to eliminate Iran Iran starting a world war III remember World War II caused 60 to 90 million people, then I say it's it is a just war.

If it is, but and if so, there's usually come back to it usually hurts.

War is horrible.

It's terrible and it hurts the home front.

And that's how we're being hurt right now.

>> Okay.

I want to continue talking about affordability, though, because the Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released September's update to the consumer price index um showing it rose 3.7% over the past year.

It also revealed that workers paychecks are not keeping up with inflation.

Even though wages increased slightly, prices rose faster.

So, Mr.

Tracy, to you first.

What could you do in Washington to provide some relief to Illinoisans?

>> Well, first of all, the the reports I've seen in the Wall Street Journal anyway indicate that real income is increasing now and the economy is doing pretty well.

But, um, you know, it it doesn't help if prices are rising faster than real income.

And I think that is happening for some people.

So, we've got we've got to look at the root causes of of price inflation.

And in the gas area, we need to unleash the American energy of production.

We need to we need to have more refining capacity.

We need to have more pipeline transportation.

Uh and we don't have to do that without wrecking the en environment.

You know, everybody thinks that uh Republicans are anti-environment, but we've been going green for like 50 years.

When I learned to ski on the Illinois River, it was like an extension of the Chicago Sewer Service, a sewer system.

Uh when I went to school uh and college, there were smog alerts every night.

We've cleaned up water.

We've cleaned up the air.

We've been going green for many years, but at a sustainable pace.

The extreme environmentalists, like my opponent, they want to go overnight.

They want to go, they've been subsidizing wind and solar, and they've been making uh the rest of our energy more expensive.

Mr.

>> Well, there's several things that I want to do to make your lives more uh affordable.

Starting with raising wages.

Do you know the federal minimum wage is $7.25?

That's not enough for any individual to take care of themselves, let alone their family.

It's why we have so many people working two and three drop jobs trying to make ends meet.

I'm proposing that we raise the minimum wage to $25 an hour and have a livable wage, not just the bare minimum, where people can have a little more money in their pockets.

That's number one.

Number two, I think that we, and I will fight for this when I get to the Senate, we should give middle class families a tax break and we can pay for it with a tax increase on those making a million dollars or more.

We need the wealthy to pay their fair share uh and not continue to allow middle class and working people to uh pay a disproportionate amount of taxes.

And then finally, I want to pass Medicare for all because it's important that everyone who needs to see a doctor can see a doctor.

One of the big biggest examples of how things are unaffordable is health care.

And we have people in Illinois right now choosing between going to the doctor and paying their rent.

That is a false choice.

We need to make health care more affordable and accessible.

And that's what I will fight for when I get to the Senate.

>> So before we get to Mr.

Tracy, I want to ask you, you mentioned uh increasing the minimum wage.

You have advocated for increasing the federal minimum wage up to $25 an hour.

How would you pay for that?

Well, first and foremost, as we have more wages, people are going to be able to take care of their family.

They're going to be able to put money into the local economy.

It's going to help our businesses.

We >> But because that is the new minimum wage doesn't mean a business can suddenly afford that.

A small business, for example.

>> We will we wi.. business community at the table just like we did in Illinois.

Remember when Governor Pritsker and I took office, the federal the state minimum wage was $8.25.

We raised it to $15 an hour, lifting hundreds of thousands of Illinoans out of poverty.

But here's what we did.

We heard from the business community that doing so immediately with one, you know, going from 825 to 15 was not going to be uh as productive for them.

So we worked with the business community and we raised it incrementally over four years.

So I will include the business community at the table and all stakeholders at the table to make sure that when we look at the solution and how it can work that their voices are a part of that process just like we did here in Illinois.

>> All right.

Over you over over .. Mr.

Tracy.

>> I stand a little bit corr.. that everything every solution uh my opponent has to the cost of living is more government spending.

But she just mentioned another solution uh and that is uh raising the minimum wage which of course will uh be a death sentence for small businesses um everywhere and it also um what will that do to the cost of living?

What will that do to the cost of a cheeseburger, a Big Mac or anything like that?

That will again everything every every solution they have is spending more money and raising the cost of living.

Medicare for all.

Medicare for all sounds nice.

It has a really pretty name because everybody loves Medicare.

It's really a pretty a pretty good uh setup.

Medicare for all is a proposal to take one of the best health care systems in the world, maybe even the best, ditch it in favor of government health care at a cost of estimated of 30 to50 trillion dollar.

That will increase in that will add we our for our national debt is 40 trillion.

That's already too much.

This will basically double our national debt and it'll put government bureaucrats in charge of health care.

That is the that is one of the planks of the Democrat Socialist Party of America.

That's why I believe my opponent is a Democrat socialist even though she won't admit it.

And a $25 per hour minimum wage is also a plank on the DSA uh agenda.

And and I think this points out another issue is that my I don't think my opponent says she will represent the entire state.

I mean, I I live down state, but I have a second home in Chicago.

Proposing a $25 minimum wage for a small business in downtown Chicago or downtown Manhattan is a lot different than proposing one for the smallest business in Southern Illinois.

The cost of living is different in Manhattan.

It's different in downtown Chicago than it is in the small towns in in uh southern Illinois.

>> Okay.

Um so I want to move on to to housing uh because we've got a lot to get to tonight.

Americans who want to purchase a home, they're facing a tough market right now.

Uh mortgage rates are up and even in the state of Illinois, there is a housing shortage.

Um Mr.

Tracy, to you first.

How can we increase the avail the availability and the affordability of homes?

Uh that's a I mean that's a tough market for um someone in their 20s buying a house.

Now I remember when I bought my my first house.

I was in my 20s.

Uh and it was a half a house.

It was all I could afford at the time.

I bought it with a law school um buddy.

Uh and then I moved up four years later and I bought a whole house and my mortgage rate I think was 8% then and climbed I think to 14%.

I had an adjustable rate mortgage and now things are lower than that.

Seven 7% is still too high.

We need to get it back down.

the um Congress in a bipartisan bill that I support uh passed the 21st Road to Housing Act.

Uh and that is now the law and it incentivizes the reduction of uh zoning restrictions and building restrictions that make housing more expensive to build.

It also provides for the required uh loosening of certain federal regulations uh that make housing more uh more more expensive.

And that that bill will help uh and but we also need to get rates down back down into the four or 5% and that relates back to government uh spending.

That's a big part of the reason why rates are so high.

>> Mr.

Well, a big reason why the rates why uh housing is so expensive right now and it's another one of those issues as it relates to affordability is because of corporate greed.

We have these big corporations, big banks buying up the housing stock.

And so when someone wants to go and buy a home, maybe their first home, or they want to get a bigger home, they can't afford it because they're competing against Wall Street.

And it is not a way to allow people to be on a path to building generational wealth.

a few things that we need to do.

And I certainly want to acknowledge the work, good work of Senator Elizabeth Warren, who got that housing bill passed at in at the federal level, which by the way, Donald Trump did not sign that bill and maybe didn't recognize that just by not signing it, it still would pass.

And the reason why he was trying to block it is because he wanted to use that bill to push forward the Save Act to suppress voting rights.

So this president does not want to solve the problems that the American people are facing right now.

I will be a check on this president.

And what I will always say is tariffs have made the raw materials too expensive.

There's lots of reasons why it's too expensive.

But I also want to point out the legacy of redlinining that has impacted so many communities right here in the state of Illinois and certainly within the city of Chicago.

a legacy of deciding where people can buy homes and where they cannot based on the color of their skin.

We need to address that as well.

The Trump administration is turning the clock backwards on fair housing laws.

I'm going to get there to Washington DC to make sure that we push to reinstate those uh guidelines and make sure everyone has a real pathway to the American dream.

>> Okay.

So, let's get further into tariffs.

[laughter] >> Let's get further into tariffs.

Can I can I just respond to that briefly?

Very briefly.

The one thing I wouldn't do to help housing is bring in through open borders, which my opponent supports, uh, hundreds of thousands unh unhoused, by definition, unhoused people, whether you call them non-citizens, undocumented, or illegal immigrants into a sanctuary city uh by attracting them with millions of dollars of free uh government benefits, including uh health insurance and housing allowances.

there there will be an opportunity to talk about immigration >> into a housing shortage area like Chicago.

What's that going to do?

It increases the cost of housing.

>> Okay, so let's talk about tariffs a little bit more.

Um, so a range of tariffs that were enacted by the Trump administration are currently in effect, namely on products like steel and aluminum uh select imports from Brazil, Canada, and China.

Congress has constitutional authority over tariffs and foreign commerce.

Uh, Mr.

Tracy, to you first.

How do you think the Senate should respond to President Trump's tariffs?

Well, I think the jury is still out on tariffs and there's a lot of different types of tariffs.

Tariffs.

There are blanket tariffs, there are reciprocal uh tariffs, and u it it takes a while for um the results of that to happen.

Uh for example, in the first um President Trump term, uh there was a big tariff on washing machines and initially the price of washing machines went up.

But uh then they as a result of those tariffs, two big new manufacturing companies came in from overseas into North Carolina and to Tennessee and provided 2,000 good jobs and resulted in and then the the price on washing machines went down.

So So I, you know, I've manu I talked to manufacturers about this.

About half the manufacturers I talk about say the tariffs are helping them reshore jobs and work back to the United States.

The other half say it's costing them more money.

So that's why I say the jury is still out on tariffs.

I just like the fact that that the president recognizes that we've been subsidizing the world and we've been taken advantage of by the world and with unfair trade practices out there.

And so he's trying to use I think tariffs as a tool, not an objective, uh but as a tool to reset uh world trade policy to make it a more level playing field.

>> Okay, Miss Stratton reiterating the question.

How do you think the Senate should respond to the president's tariffs?

Well, first let me just clarify.

The jury is not still out.

The Supreme Court has ruled that these tariffs are illegal.

That is not the jury still being out.

And with these illegal tariffs, refunds are owed.

But guess who's getting them?

Is it you?

The people of Illinois?

No.

These refunds are going to big corporations like Amazon.

That's who's getting the refund.

And Illinois families are out close to $3,000 of what we should be owed for a refund.

So what we should do, what I will do when I get to the Senate is first of all, I will fight to make sure that it's the people that can get these refunds and not these big corporations.

And Donald Trump's tariffs, it's there's nothing that the jury is out.

It has caused chaos.

It has caused a trade war with our allies and that is not the kind of leadership we need and it's why I'm going to hold this president accountable.

>> Okay, so now I want to get .. from Brian Sap, a reporter and producer at WSIU public television in Carbondale.

Brian, >> thank you.

Brandice, Lieutenant Governor Stratton, Mr.

Tracy, Southern Illinois farmers rely heavily on international export markets for crops like corn and soybeans.

that leaves them vulnerable to retaliatory tariffs and international trade disputes.

What trade and tariff policies will you pursue to protect Illinois farms and ensure stable open markets for agriculture?

>> Okay, Miss Stratton reiterating uh the question, what trade and tariff policies will you pursue to protect Illinois farms and ensure stable open markets for agriculture?

>> Sure.

Well, what Donald Trump's trade wars have led to is closing of markets.

And that's not what we should be doing to support our state's largest industry, agriculture.

We should be opening up markets.

Uh, and it's one of the reasons why when Donald Trump started to put forth these uh tariffs, Governor Pritsker and I took a delegation to Mexico to make sure that we let them know that we are still going to be trade partners with them.

Soybean and corn and beef were all represented on that trip because they understood that while the president was causing so much chaos in our economy and alienating our allies that we needed someone to bring some leadership and say we're not going to let our farmers just fall to the wayside.

We're going to stand with them and make sure that we had subnational uh trade agreements.

And that's what we did.

We strengthened our memorandum of understanding with Mexico.

And the same work happened with Canada.

So we would I would continue to work to make sure that we can bring some of that stability.

Farmers need stability in an industry that's already so unpredictable for lots of different reasons.

But that's not what we're seeing from this president.

The ability to plan, the ability to think about what kinds of decisions can help their businesses.

That's why we need some stability.

And I'm going to bring that kind of steady leadership.

And I'm going to continue the work that I've been doing in agriculture.

My a connects us all initiative has all been about how do we support our state's largest industry, agriculture, and that's exactly what I will do.

>> Mr.

Tracy, >> farmers have suffered last four years for u because of low crop prices and then high inputs um resulting from the historic inflation under the Biden administration 20% overall annualized at at 5%.

uh and they have always been pawns in international trade wars like what's happening uh right right now.

Uh they need bridge support in that regard and that's been provided them from time to time.

But what they really need long term is a five-year farm bill which my my opponent's um caucus, the Democrat caucus has has has fought and and will not support right now.

We haven't had a five-year farm bill since 2012.

And that one did not have an inflation adjustment which which they should have.

Farmers also want E15 year round because E15 uses corn products and that would increase the price of of corn and that would also lower the price of energy.

So it it's a twofer and but there what I call extreme environmentalists have been u opposing that effort.

So those are the things that I will I will push for especially the farm bill that is so important to farmers.

>> So we actually do have well I want to get to one more question um because we do have another question about the farm bill specifically.

This one uh is from Mark Welp, producer and host at public station WTVP in Poria.

Mark, >> thanks Brandice.

Last week we asked this same question to our gubanatorial candidates.

The latest extension of the 2018 farm bill has expired.

That bill covers everything from rural development and conservation to trade and commodities.

So, what changes or updates would you like to see in the next farm bill that would benefit Illinois farmers?

>> All right, Mr.

Tracy.

>> Well, I think I I already answered that.

It should have an inflation adjustment.

That's that's number one.

And then and provide for year round E15.

>> All right, Mr.

Stratton.

Well, the farm bill has been a bipartisan piece of legislation for decades, and it should remain that way.

And one of the reasons why they're having a hard time getting it passed right now is because Republicans are holding SNAP benefits hostage.

As you just heard, as part of the farm bill, it includes commodities, it includes nutrition, it includes conservation, and so many other areas.

And it's not that, as Mr.

Tracy said, that Democrats don't support it.

Democrats are fighting to make sure that SNAP benefits and that nutrition aspect can be included in the bill and it should be.

It's the way it always has been done.

But because we now have a president and an administration, Republicans which have gotten rid of, you know, ripped away food from, you know, so many Americans, including right here in Illinois, by stripping away the uh SNAP benefits.

They don't want to allow that to be in this bill and it should be there.

That's where it always has been.

So, I will fight to make sure that we can get back to that bipartisan piece of legislation that will include all of the things that are already in it related to conservation and commodities, but also SNAP benefits.

I had a wonderful conversation with the Illinois Farm Bureau and shared that perspective, and I was glad that they agreed.

That's how it's always been done and that's how it should be done.

All right, turning to immigration issues.

>> I don't I get to respond to that.

I mean, that was a pretty good filibuster.

The although she's a she wants to kill the filibuster, she I think enjoys doing filibusters.

But anyway, what she's talking about here are food stamps, you know, SNAP benefits that under the U working family tax cut bill requires that if you're an able-bodied adult without uh young dependence, you have to you have to work 20 hours a week if you want to be on food stamps.

That, you know, and that's because we have 7 million unfilled jobs.

there there is dignity in work and we need to get more able-bodied people into the workforce.

It is better for them and it is better for society.

Whereas the other side seems to like welfare dependency whether you need it or not.

If we're going to preserve these programs, we have 80 welfare programs.

If we're going to preserve these programs, we we need to retain them.

We need they need to focus on the truly needy, not the truly greedy.

>> Okay.

So, let's get to let'.. immigration now.

Um, I know there's a lot to talk about.

Uh, Miss Stratton, I'm going to come to you first on this one.

Then, you support abolishing ICE and you say that border patrol should be kept at the border.

How would you enforce immigration policy for people who are in the country illegally?

Well, let's remember what we saw happen here in not just the city of Chicago, the state of Illinois, our surrounding communities to Chicago where Operation Midway Blitz and we saw our immigrant neighbors being snatched off the streets by masked agents, stuffed into unmarked vehicles.

We've seen people get killed by what I call Donald Trump's private police force.

And by the way, my opponent supports Operation Midway Blitz.

Operation Midway Blitz has they say it's ended, but the terror in our communities is not over.

We are still seeing these actions by this private police force.

So, yes, I want to abolish ICE because I don't think that this agency can be reformed.

What do I want to see?

I want to see us have a real path to legal citizenship, including for dreamers.

I want to do that by investing in more immigration judges, more case workers, people who can help uh people navigate that process and get to the end where they finally can say they have reached that legal status.

But what I don't want to see is the criminalization of our immigrant neighbors.

I don't want to see racial profiling of black and brown people.

I don't want to see people killed by an agency that is paid for with our tax dollars.

It is not okay.

And here in Illinois, we established the Illinois Accountability Commission because we gathered data and evidence and videos and testimony because this president will not always be in office.

And you better believe when I get to the Senate, he will be held accountable.

>> Mr.

Tracy >> Midway Blitz was ugly and chaotic uh for sure.

Uh but uh immigration interior enforcement has actually gone pretty well in other places like Memphis where I lived for eight years because the local authorities cooperated just like they used to in Chicago.

When President Obama uh was in his first term, he was called the deorter chief.

He deported three million uh illegal immigrants, more than in Trump's first term.

But he had cooperation at that time.

The worst of the worst didn't have to be picked up in neighborhoods with armies of immigration advocates encouraged on by my opponent to obstruct uh immigration enforcement.

They could go to the jails and when those people were released from the jails, they were handed off to the immigration law enforcement.

So, I do fault the administration because even though their enforcement has worked well, except in the sanctuary cities where you have massive resistance by the local authorities like like my opponent, u they they they should have figured out a better way to enforce immigration law in Chicago and I and in Minneapolis and other sanctuary cities.

And I think they have they have done that.

My opponent says she wants a secure border, but apparently her view is that once uh someone pays the Mexican cartels enough money to burrow under or break through the gate or whatever to get in, they're golden because they can't be deported.

That's what abolish ALS really mean.

Abolish ICE really means.

It means abolishing im interior immigration law enforcement.

>> Donald Trump said he was going after the worst of the worst.

Donald Trump went after tamale vendors and daycare workers, our neighbors.

And so I'm always going to stand up and speak out when we are seeing people getting killed in the streets by a federal agency.

>> I got to speak to that killed thing.

There have been four ice uh ICE um killings in the last uh last year.

In the meantime, there have been 26 police shot in the line of duty trying to protect us.

And usually when there's an ICE killing or any police shooting, there's an element of resistance of arrest.

So presumably you had four illegal immigrants, probably the worst of the worst, resisting arrest.

Uh and they're killed and all of a sudden that's headlines everywhere and 26 officers protecting our and saving saving us from harm.

They are shot and killed and nobody seems to care.

Certainly the immigration advocates don't care about the thin blue line.

>> Okay.

Not an issue that I would love to spend more time on, but not one that we can because I want to get back to um another question.

This one is a key environmental concern.

This is logging and timber interest in our national forest.

So, let's go back to Carbonddale and another question from WSIU's Brian Sap.

Right here in southern Illinois is home to the Shauni National Forest where federal timber management and commercial logging projects spark intense debate between conservation, forest management and timber industries.

As a US senator, how would you balance federal forest management, these timber interests and ecological conservation to protect the Shauni while continuing to support the local economy?

>> Okay, I'm going to bring that one to you first, Miss Stratton.

Well, we know that we have a president that does not support support conservation efforts.

And so I will be a vocal advocate and I will be someone to make sure that we protect our national forests like Shaune and make sure that we protect our natural resources.

And this goes back to the fact that it's a president who doesn't even believe in climate change, doesn't believe in science.

So, I'm going to be not only the kind of leader that will bring ask those questions and make sure that we hold them accountable in terms of following science, but I'm not going to vote to uh uh uh confirm any of Donald Trump's nominees.

Period.

And certainly none of these nominees that will not support science and protecting our environment.

And that's exactly what's at the core of this kind of question, Mr.

Tracy.

Well c certainly the shauny national forest is a national treasure needs to be protected but that doesn't mean it can't be used on a reasonable basis.

I mean this is an example of extreme environmentalism which says you can't do anything with with a forest with a na with national forest property.

Uh whereas we are we I think we are rational environmentalists and we need to preserve the forest but we can preserve we can do two things at the same time.

preserve the natural beauty uh and resources of the forest while still putting it to a reasonable use.

And uh I I'm starting to wonder if my opponent is running against me or against uh the the president, but I have to say it's nice that you can say that you're able to say the Trump name without using the f- word.

I really do appreciate that.

>> You said that you'd welcome.. Trump's endorsement.

So when I talk about Donald Trump, that's someone whose endorsement you're looking for.

>> I have I've never said that.

I never said that.

I've not been endorsed by the president.

I've not asked for the uh the president.

You said you'd welcome it.

I would said I would if the the president of the United States would want to endorse me as a candidate.

I would accept that, but I never said I never said I welcomed it.

I never asked for it.

>> All right.

I I'm .. audience to please uh maintain a bit of silence so we can keep it moving.

Thanks everybody.

Uh the mix of energy sources is also a key debate of the future.

So, let's hear once again from Mark Welp of WTVP uh in Peoria.

>> Illinois's Climate and Equitable Jobs Act mandates reaching 100% carbon-f free power by 2050.

Do you believe more renewable energy sources like wind and solar are benefiting Illinois?

Or should we return to fossil fueled power plants like coal and natural gas that President Trump is pushing for?

>> First to you, Mr.

Tracy.

Well, first of all, u we do need to reduce carbon emissions.

We need to uh continue going green like we have been since Earth Day on April 22nd, 1969 when a Republican president uh brought into being for the first time ever the Environmental Protection uh a agency.

So I uh and and that mean that includes um supporting and promoting wind and solar to a reasonable extent but not to the extent of raising utility rates that are hurting people.

Um and and like I said my opponent voted for a bill to subsidize wind and solar by raising utility rates and that and that hurts people.

My my view on energy is unleashing energy of all kinds.

We need wind and solar, but we also need nuclear.

Nuclear power is safer than it has ever been, certainly since uh the three mile island event.

We're already the largest nuclear energy estate in the country.

We need to do more of that.

Natural gas though is a fossil fuel, but it is one of the cleanest uh forms of of natural energy that there is.

We shouldn't be having a war against natural gas.

We need an all of the- above policy.

Energy is so important in terms of cost of living, but also just human human thriving, human prosperity, >> Miss Stratton.

>> Well, certainly as a mom of four, I absolutely want to make sure we can do whatever we can to protect our planet.

And that includes the work that we're doing right here in Illinois to put us on a path to a clean energy future.

And I think we need to expand those efforts not just from a state-by-state basis, but it needs to be from a federal standpoint as well.

We certainly need to continue to invest in wind and solar and other clean energy sources.

And uh what I love about the climate and equitable jobs act is that it not only puts us on a path to a clean energy future and invest in those resources, but it also makes sure that communities that are disproportionately impacted by climate change can get trained for jobs in those industries.

That's important because I know I live on the south side of Chicago and I think about how there are some communities that are disproportionately impacted by um you know not having clean water or flooding or there are communities that where children have greater instances of asthma or they need more lead pipes to be replaced.

So this is another part of how we are leading here in Illinois and I'm proud of the work that we've done in our administration to put us on a path to a clean energy future.

But there's more to be done and we certainly have to have champions in Washington DC.

I will be a champion to address climate change and to protect our environment.

Our future generations deserve it.

>> It means another big spending blowout like the inflation reduction act and all the green new energy stuff they put in there.

>> Okay.

Okay, so we've go.. of foreign policy because many in Congress, including many Republicans, have expressed concern about the president's actions regarding Russia, including waving new congressional sanctions on Moscow, as well as what has been characterized as President Trump's seeming support of Russia um in its war against Ukraine.

Mr.

Tracy, to you first, what do you make of the president's words and actions towards Russia, and what, if anything, should Congress do about it?

>> War is horrible.

War is terrible.

uh war maims and kills men and women involved in the conflict.

War also maims and kills collateral damage in the form of civilians.

Uh and it's bad for the economy and it has raised our our gas taxes.

War should always be a last resort to international dispute resolution.

The Ukrainian war is a particularly horrible war.

Tens of thousands have died in that war.

And I I assume that uh the president is thinking that by making a deal with a thug like Putin who actually started that war that that perhaps that it will help settle this war and stop the killing.

But I have to say based on what I know now and not trusting anything Putin would do or say, I I am very I I don't I if I had to vote on that transaction, waving and waving the Lindsey Graham Russian sanctions and approving uh this diesel purchase arrangement with Russia, I would vote against that transaction.

Miss Stratton.

>> Well, what we are seeing from Donald Trump is another example of what he always does.

He alienates our allies and he cozies up to dictators because he himself is a wannabe dictator.

And so he cozies up to dictators.

And what does it do?

It puts us at risk.

What we are seeing is our allies who now get the message that we as America can't be trusted.

What we see from our adversaries is that they're looking at America and saying, "Oh, look, they can be taken advantage of."

And that's the message that we get when Donald Trump is cozing up to Putin.

We need adults in the room.

We need people who are going to bring strong, steady leadership and do what's in the best interest of America and the American people.

And as I like to say, Donald Trump is the biggest threat to national security here in the United States.

>> Okay.

So, we've we've raised health.. uh tonight.

So, let's uh let's get into that a little bit more.

Miss Stratton, you support Medicare for all.

Um, how do you propose the federal government government fund this system and what specific tax changes should middle class families expect?

Well, let me talk about why fighting for universal health care and I'm going to fight to pass Medicare for all.

Why it's important.

I ran for office 10 years ago for the first time.

ran for state representative because I was caring for my mother Velma who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and I was her primary caregiver.

And at that time here in the state of Illinois, my state representative and our governor at the time were working to strip away healthc care from seniors like my mother.

And that's what made me run.

I knew how hard it was to be a caregiver.

And many of you watching know how hard it is to be a caregiver, >> of course.

And an.. expensive it can be.

How would you pay for a government funded program?

>> Well, it's a matter of priorities.

>> We have a president right now who has already spent billions on the war in Iran.

He said he wants trillions in the military budget, but then he makes this statement, but there's no money for health care or child care.

This is an issue of priorities.

And if he can find all of this money for everything else and to drag us into an illegal war of choice, then we should be able to make sure that people are not choosing between cutting their medication in half or going to the doctor and being able to put food on the table.

That's a false choice.

>> Mr.

Tracy, I think you've already expressed your feelings on Medicare for all.

Uh but I do want to give you the opportunity to respond as well as answer the question, what would you do to increase healthcare access for Illinois residents?

>> Right.

Um wel.. far in this forum.

I think we know what my opponent will do her first two years uh in the term and that will be do everything she can to impeach President Trump.

That seems to be her platform.

It's F Trump or impeach Trump.

Um the but I we haven't heard anything about what she's going to do the next four years should she be elected.

Uh but I do I do want to um it's a six-year term, right?

Did I do my math wrong?

>> Yes, it's okay.

Four years.

Go on.

>> All right.

So, anyway, I do u admire my opponent though for her caregiving for her mother who died of uh Alzheimer's.

And I um understand that my father died of Alzheimer's as well.

Uh and I remember spending some nights in the nursing home overnight with him.

And I have a large family.

I'm the oldest of 12.

And we took terms um spending nights with my dad because we lost him before we lost him.

And then we lost my uh godfather, his brother, the same uh way.

Uh and uh my and then my lost my brother two years younger than me just two years ago to Alzheimer's the same way.

Finished out his days in a nur full service nursing home.

But and my wife and I have made some significant contribu contributions to Alzheimer's research at the SIU School of Medicine um in Springfield and the Washington University School in St.

of us because this this is a horrible disease and we need to do something uh about it.

uh health care like I said it's one of the best systems um in the world maybe may maybe the best and for 92% of Illinoisans it's it's a very good health care we have very good health care here but socialists like my opponent you know that's not good enough you know they they're always in search of this perfect utopia a socialistic utopia and so for to to go there and we need to do something about the 8% and it's not Even though we have the best health care system, it's not perfect.

We There are things we need to do to fix it.

It's too expensive.

The Affordable Care Act was supposed to make it affordable, right?

But it it turned out to be neither affordable nor does it care for you.

Healthcare inflation is two or three times overall inflation.

And the my opponent's only solution is more government spending in the form of Medicare for all.

So we cannot ditch a system that a really good system that provides very good health care for 92%.

In a quest for this perfect health care system.

Instead what we need to do is we need more we need more market competition.

We need more flexible insurance policies so that small businesses like one I talked to recently can afford to provide health insurance for his young labor force that are very healthy.

We need more we need price transparency.

We need better negotiating of drug discounts like recently the administration did with 26 uh drug uh companies and we need less defensive medicine via tort reform.

>> Okay, that's a good place for me to move on to the next respond very briefly >> of public education.

I'm sorry I have to keep it moving.

We there will be an opportunity I'm sure at some point in the next few minutes.

Um because last year, President Trump signed an executive order to direct the dissolution of the Department of Education using the rationale that education should be a local issue.

Congressional approval is still needed to fully abolish that department.

Um Miss Stratton, to you first.

Do you support the administration's move and what role should the federal government have in public education?

>> I absolutely do not support the president's move to dismantle the Department of Education.

The mother that I just spoke of, my mother was a public school teacher and I highly support public school education.

I also know that education is important for changing the trajectory of not just an individual's life but their entire family and community.

My grandmother had an eighth grade education.

My grandfather had a sixth grade education.

And because they focused on education with their children, now their granddaughter is running to represent the state of Illinois in the United States Senate.

That's the power of education.

Dismantling the Department of Education has the opposite effect.

It takes away resources, especially uh title one funds from some of our most vulnerable students, students with disabilities, students in our rural communities, students who speak English as a second language, students in some of our most disinvested schools.

So, as a senator, I will fight to rebuild the Department of Education and not just rebuild it to what it is because it wasn't working for every student as it was.

We need to build it back better and we need to make sure that we are increasing resources.

And I'm going to fight for every single dollar that I can to come back to the state of Illinois to help our school systems so that we can support our students, support our educators, and make sure that we continue the investments so that all of our young people have a path to a better and brighter future.

>> Mr.

Tracy, >> well, we survived without a Department of Education for I think the first 200 years of of this uh country until um President Carter made a gift to the teachers unions uh of the Department of Education.

Um and you would think that with all the million or billions we've spent on that, I think it's 90 to 100 billion a year, education, public education would have gotten better, but it's gotten it's gotten worse.

Um but um I I I'm going to keep an open mind about that.

I before I would vote to support dismantling of it, I would like to know exactly if you know what what the department does that really is making a difference and instead of just providing jobs for well- paid administrators.

Uh and I would want to know which of those functions could uh be transferred to um other other federal uh agencies.

And so I'll keep an open mind about that.

But overall I believe that education is a local state uh and state and schoolboard responsibility and you know people to we need to focus I mean the na the federal government needs to focus on national defense and other things like that.

So I'll keep an open mind about it but I have to say I'm I'm open to some significant change because I don't think that department is doing us any good.

>> Okay.

So, there often seems to be some tension between the interests of the Chicago area and those of downstate Illinois.

Uh, Brian Sap of WSIU and Carbondale poses this question.

Brian, >> there's a perception among downstate and southern Illinois residents that federal funding and attention tends to gravitate toward the Chicago land area and the state's urban centers.

As one of two federal representatives for the entire state, how will you ensure residents with different geographic and political backgrounds have a meaningful voice in Washington?

>> All right, Mr.

Tracy, reiterating the question, as one of two federal representatives for the entire state, how will you ensure residents with different geographic and political backgrounds have a meaningful voice in Washington?

>> Well, I I I will represent the entire state.

I uh I'm from I grew up in western Illinois, born in eastern Illinois.

Raised my family in Springfield, Illinois, but I have a second home in Chicago.

I've spent a lot of time in Chicago.

Uh as a lawyer in the Daily Center, active in bar associations uh up here uh also um active well chairman of the Illinois Gaming Board, chairman of the Illinois Republican uh party and and just and and many other um activities.

So, um, and I have a, as I said, a second home up here.

Chicago is a big, beautiful, interesting, uh, city.

It is the economic engine of Illinois.

It is hampered by, I think, bad management in terms of the mayor in particular, and by, um, uh, public safety uh, uh, issues, particularly relative to the, uh, CTA.

Uh, it has I it it's it's a great city.

it can be even greater.

But downstate in particular has suffered from depopulation.

It has suffered from the um leadership of the Pritskar Stratton administration, the 70 tax increases and the fact that we are in a bot we are a bottom five state in terms of economic and population growth.

We're driving jobs out of the state.

Iconic corporations like Morton Salt, Citadel, True Value, Boeing, Caterpillar, Tyson Foods are leaving and the Bears are thinking about leaving.

They're driving jobs and that's having a greater impact on southern southern and central Illinois than up here.

>> Miss Stratton.

>> Well, I will not only represent all of Illinois, I'm going to fight for all of Illinois.

I'm going to fight for you.

And that includes our rural communities.

For the last eight years, I have represented as lieutenant governor.

I've represented the entire state of Illinois and as chair of the governor's rural affairs council I have been particularly working on trying to move the language from an urban rural divide to how do we build that urban rural bridge.

How do we look at the issues that are happening in in southern Illinois and central Illinois and connect it to what's happening in communities in the city of Chicago.

Things like food insecurity, healthc care deserts, access to broadband.

Those are issues we can build some real coalitions around and get some things done.

I've been representing all of Illinois for almost eight years now.

It's been my honor and I can't wait to keep doing so as your next United States Senator.

>> All right, fo.. going to ask each of you to keep your answers real brief um because we've got just under two minutes left.

Trust in Congress and the courts has declined in recent years.

Uh surveys show only about 22% of Americans trust the federal government to do the right thing most of the time and around seven in 10 Americans hold an unfavorable view of Congress.

Confidence in the Supreme Court has also fallen sharply.

Uh Miss Stratton to you first.

Again, please keep it brief.

Uh what would you do to restore the public's trust in government?

Well, it's one of the reasons why I'm not accepting any corporate pack money in this campaign because, as I mentioned, corporate greed is a big reason why so many people have lost trust.

They don't feel like their lives are changing based on anything that's happening in Washington.

Their lives aren't getting better.

So, we have to get in there and win.

And that's exactly not just win, but then we have to deliver for people.

We have to deliver on our promises and let people know that we are fighting for them and not corporate special interest.

30 seconds.

>> Well, I I I can tell you what I for there's been dissatisfaction with Congress and the Supreme Court for many many years and it goes up and down.

But I can tell you what will not help is uh going in with an agenda that you're going all you're going to focus on is impeaching uh the pre the current uh president and going in as a democrat socialist and trying to change our our our democracy from a free enterprise uh system into a a socialist system.

I can work with Democrats and I I like the Senate because of its bipartisanship, because of the filibuster requires that and I I look forward to working across the aisle.

But it will be hard to work with socialists who want to destroy our free enterprise system which has given us the highest standard of living in the history of the world.

>> All right, that is where we'll have to leave it.

Uh my thanks to you both uh both of our candidates for the US Senate, Juliana Stratton and Don Tracy.

And thanks to our studio audience, our partners at WSIU in Carbondale, WTVP in Poria, and to all of our listeners and viewers in Chicago and around the state for joining us.

Tonight's forum will be available in Spanish on our website starting Wednesday night.

So, please help us spread the the word to those who would be interested in watching.

And if you're looking for more election day resources like where to vote and how to register, as well as information on other offices that will be on your ballot, check out our website, wttw.com/voter guide.

Now, for all of us here at Chicago Tonight, I'm Brandis Freedman.

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