Climate Candidate Briefing:

Eric Sorensen (IL-17)

Type: Challenger
Party: Democratic

Eric Sorensen’s race is currently rated a toss-up. He’s running in an open seat vacated by Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-IL).

Illinois’ 17th Congressional District

Image from FiveThirtyEight

Illinois’ newly redrawn 17th congressional district cuts through the northwestern and central parts of the state. The redrawn district has a D+4 partisan lean, whereas the previous district was rated R+5.

Climate impacts: read the Illinois climate summary

Climate attitudes (note: this data was collected before the district was redrawn): Yale Climate Opinion Survey

Eric’s Climate Position

From Eric’s campaign website:

Early in his career, Eric started discussing climate change with his viewers when it was not a popular thing to do. To him, it isn’t political; his job as a meteorologist is to speak the truth. In Central and Northwest Illinois, we know that climate change is real -- whether it was the 2021 summer drought or, the August 2020 derecho with 100 miles per hour winds, or the record-high Mississippi River flood of 2019. And as the water was rising, it was people coming together from all walks of life to fill sandbags that protected our small businesses. Climate change is not a partisan issue.

There is not a single climate communicator in Congress who matches the communication and climate science backgrounds of Eric.

Eric’s job was to communicate climate to help YOU in your day-to-day life. Climate change is real and serious. Now is the time to act, and we need an experienced climate communicator to lead.

Learn More

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Concurrent Elections

This year, Illinois also has competitive elections for governor and state legislature.