Raja Krishnamoorthi has worn many hats: lawyer, small business owner, and for the last 10 years, United States representative.
The 51-year-old Schaumburg Democrat, who represents Illinois’ 8th Congressional District across the northwest suburbs and was born in India, didn’t always have a middle-class life.
Shortly after immigrating to the United States in the early 1970s, his father lost his job and the Krishnamoorthi family lived in public housing and used food stamps to buy groceries. Eventually, his father found a job in Peoria, where Krishnamoorthi grew up until moving away to attend Princeton, then Harvard.
He said the lessons he learned from his father’s struggles and living life on public assistance programs have motivated his life in public service and are driving his campaign to fill the open Senate seat in Illinois being vacated in 2026 by retiring U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin.
“He basically instructed my brother and me every night at the dinner table, ‘Remember the greatness of this country and whatever you do next, make sure it’s there for the next families that need it,’” Krishnamoorthi recalled his father saying. “That became my mission statement.”
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Krishnamoorthi told Capitol News Illinois in an interview that Democrats must make addressing affordability their top priority in the 2026 election. It’s particularly true, he said, as Democrats found themselves on the losing end of a battle in Congress with Republicans over a proposal to slash spending on social service programs like food stamps.
Congressional Democrats have faced criticisms that they haven’t done enough to fight back against the Trump administration’s priorities – and Krishnamoorthi said it isn’t off base. Democrats need to win voters’ trust, he said.
“I think we have to speak to the economic concerns of average voters, average Americans, people like my parents and others who feel that it’s getting harder and harder to make ends meet,” Krishnamoorthi said.
“The most sensitive nerve in the body is the pocketbook nerve, and unless you kind of deal with that, they’re not going to listen to you,” he added.
Krishnamoorthi said he has a record of doing that in Congress and said one of his priorities if elected to the Senate would be to expand a 2018 law he sponsored that modernized and increased funding for career and technical education. He’s now calling for doubling funding for the program, arguing it is vital to growing middle class jobs and ensuring American businesses can hire workers with the right skills.
National security issues
Krishnamoorthi brings national security experience to the race as a member of the U.S. House intelligence committee, which includes access to classified material and other information provided to Congress by the nation’s national security and intelligence agencies.
Over the last month, the United States’ attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities has brought that country’s nuclear capabilities and ambitions to the forefront of national politics alongside wars in Gaza and Ukraine.
“I don’t think a military solution is sufficient to deal with the underlying issue, which is we must make sure Iran does not possess a nuclear weapon,” Krishnamoorthi said.
Success of last month’s bombing has been unclear, with President Donald Trump calling it a great success while other reports have suggested it only set Iran’s nuclear capabilities back a few months. Krishnamoorthi said he’s concerned the U.S. and international inspectors can’t account for all of Iran’s supply of uranium and other nuclear equipment.
“I’m concerned that they may potentially be in a situation where they’re going to rush a nuclear weapon and we’re not going to be aware of it because they’re going to go so underground,” he said.
Krishnamoorthi said he believes the Trump administration must get back to the negotiating table with Iran, which he thinks the administration is “eager” to do.
Krishnamoorthi said he was also concerned that the president didn’t seek congressional approval for the strike. Trump’s strike on Iran was just one of several examples of presidents in both parties taking military action without getting approval from Congress. Krishnamoorthi argued there’s broader concerns about growing powers of the executive branch.
“It’s happened over the years under Democratic and Republican administrations,” he said. “I think after this presidency, hopefully, maybe even during this presidency, we’re going to have to embark on almost a post-Watergate style of reforms which claw back power from the executive branch and put it back in the people’s hands.”
Krishnamoorthi also serves on a House committee on the Chinese Communist Party and was one of the lead sponsors of a law to force the sale of TikTok for it to continue operating in the U.S. TikTok’s parent company is based in Beijing, and like other Chinese companies, has ties to the CCP.
“I don’t want it to be controlled by the Chinese Communist Party,” Krishnamoorthi said. “The CCP does bad things with the data, with the algorithms, etc., that it gets access to.”
TikTok’s future remains up in the air as Trump continues to push off the sale’s deadline. Krishnamoorthi said he’s concerned Trump’s tariffs on China are giving the CCP leverage in negotiations over the sale.
Race for clout
Krishnamoorthi and his opponents – Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton and U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly – are working to carve a lane in the race, which includes winning over support from party officials.
Stratton has already been endorsed by Gov. JB Pritzker and U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, and on Monday, received new endorsements from House Speaker Chris Welch, D-Hillside, and State Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford, D-Westchester.
“Juliana has always led with compassion, experience, and a commitment to public service, and I know she’ll bring those same grounding principles to Washington,” Welch said in a statement. “As Lieutenant Governor, she’s been a key partner to the Illinois House, working hand-in-hand with our members to deliver real results for Illinois.”
Meanwhile, Krishnamoorthi has been touting support he has received from local officials. After announcing support from 20 mayors and other local officials in the first weeks of his campaign, he announced endorsements from another 40 officials on Monday.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
