We Did It!

Statement

The final results are in, and we survived.

I have nothing else to say but thank you. Because of you, we were able to hold on and win in what was obviously a very tough night for Democrats.

Watch my speech at our victory party or read the speech below:

You know one thing about our Democracy, it still works.

So, we all have a victory tonight -- and I couldn't have done it without the support of each and every one of you. I would like to begin by taking a moment tonight to thank my opponent, Rep. Darlene Senger, for her commitment to public service. While we have clear differences on many policy issues, I have great respect for all she's done to give back to our community.

We have both experienced the joy of victory and the sting of defeat, and I know it's not easy to put yourself out there -- so thank you, Darlene Senger, for your commitment to public service.

As I said, we all have a great victory tonight. We put together a coalition that is just as diverse and wonderful as all the people of the 11th Congressional District, and all of Illinois. A coalition of students and teachers and parents of all races and colors, of labor unions and business people, of immigrants from all corners of the world, advocates for women's right to fair pay and to healthcare, and for a fair deal for all hard-working, middle class Americans.

And we won.

We won in the historic city centers of Joliet and Aurora, and in their booming suburbs. We won in the Hi-Tech corridor and leafy suburbs of DuPage County, to the cornfields of Will County, and everywhere in between. We won with the one common thread that unites us as Democrats: doing the right thing for hard-working middle class families.

So what does this victory mean?

First and foremost, this is a victory for everyone who believes in strengthening the middle class, who believes that America succeeds if and only if the middle class succeeds. And it was a victory for raising the minimum wage. Because nobody who works 40 hours a week in our country should be living in poverty.

As a businessman, I know that the real job creators are customers, and customers come from the middle class. --which is as much a reason I got into politics as any other.

So this is a victory for labor and for business and for good manufacturing jobs. This is a victory for students, teachers, and parents who believe in strong public schools, and making college more affordable for all American families. This is a victory for affordable health care for all Americans, and a defeat for the idea that any American should ever find themselves uninsurable due to pre-existing conditions.

This was also a victory for those of us who believe in sensible and thoughtful banking and financial regulation. It was a defeat for abusive consumer financial practices, like credit-card agreements with gotcha clauses that nobody has the time to read. And this was a victory for middle-class home ownership, for homes that provide a stable and reliable investment, and secure equity for retirement. This is a victory for thoughtful public debate, a debate based on facts and logic and science instead of inflammatory and nonsensical talking points that do nothing but appeal to our worst instincts and fears.

Not all of our battles will end in victory, and not all victories will be permanent. The battle will go on.

54 years ago last week, John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Senator Paul Douglas of Illinois came through this area during their 1960 presidential campaign. John Kennedy gave a speech in Aurora in front of 10,000 people. And do you know what he spoke about? The struggle with job loss from automation, from foreign competition, and the need to raise the minimum wage.

54 years ago -- the need to raise the minimum wage. And Senator Paul Douglas of Illinois, who my mother worked for in the 1950's, was also a world-class economist best known for the observation that when our economy was working well about 2/3 of our nation's income went to workers' salaries.

I wonder what Paul Douglas would have thought of today's CEO's making 350 times the salary of the average worker. My father was a Civil Rights Lawyer who wrote much of the enforcement language behind the Civil Rights Act of 1964. I wonder what my father would have thought of today's Republican Congress refusing to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act, Or the horrifying spectacle of the Party of Abraham Lincoln becoming the party of voter suppression. So all these battles will continue -- because they must.

But perhaps the most bitter loss in recent years is the lack of civil discourse and fact-based debate in Washington. Here I have no magic bullet, except that, as a scientist, I will keep trying.

Because I am proud to be one of those rare Democrats who has been endorsed by the Farm Bureau, to the League of Conservation Voters, and everybody in between.

I am supported by groups like these not because they know that I am always going to agree with them, but they can always count on a rational and scientific hearing for their concerns.

So for those of you that are worried about how to save our system from partisan gridlock, a good place to start looking for an answer is with science and logic.

Scientists seem to be an increasingly rare breed in politics these days. I sometimes introduce myself as representing 50% of the strategic reserve of physicists in Congress. Now the other physicist is retiring, and I'll be all that's left. So, none of the election night pundits I've seen on TV seem to be predicting a takeover of Congress by the physics caucus. I am working on that.

So to all of my staff who have been with me for the last two years -- even a few of you longer than that -- thank you. To all the volunteers, who have been knocking on doors, making phone calls and helping us get out the vote -- thank you. And to so many of you who have been with me since the beginning of this journey -- thank you. But most of all, to my wife Aesook who has supported me through thick and thin -- thank you.

This victory belongs to all of you.

And in the end our Democracy still works.

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