Freshman House Democrat Nikki Budzinski teaming up with Republican colleagues
Jack Birle
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Rep. Nikki Budzinski (D-IL) has reportedly made making friends with her Republican colleagues one of her first priorities since being sworn into office in January.
Budzinski told Puck News that bipartisanship is an important matter for her and shared that she has become good friends with fellow freshman Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA).
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“Bipartisanship is not just a talking point,” Budzinski told the outlet. “It’s something that I really work at.”
Nunn told the outlet the “commitment” to working together with Budzinski is important even if they do not agree on every issue.
“We may not agree on 10% of things, we may not agree on 90% of things on some days, but we agree on this: Agriculture is very important to both of our states,” Nunn told the outlet. “She’s made a commitment to it. I’ve made a commitment to it.”
Budzinski represents Illinois’s 13th Congressional District, which has a partisan lean of Democratic plus 3, according to the Cook Partisan Voting Index, putting the freshman Democrat in a swing district.
The report from Puck News also details how Budzinski has worked with representatives from surrounding districts to get legislation for their region discussed.
“The Midwest perspective is a really important one,” Budzinski told the outlet. “It’s a perspective of common sense, pragmatism and I think we’re collaborative.”
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For the House elections in 2024, the National Republican Congressional Committee announced that it is targeting Rep. Eric Sorensen (D-IL) but did not list Budzinski in its initial list of the Democrats in swing districts it seeks to take in the election.
Budzinski, who won her seat by roughly 10 percentage points in 2022, may become more of a target for the GOP if conditions leading into the next election signal a “wave” election for the Republican Party.