Normal Town Council member Chemberly Cummings announced Friday she plans to challenge longtime incumbent state Rep. Dan Brady in the 105th House District.
Cummings made the announcement at the McLean County Democrats headquarters in Bloomington.
“You should have the opportunity to make a choice,” Cummings told WGLT. “There’s nothing wrong to bring a fresh thought process and face to move us all forward.”
Cummings said economic development would be one of her top priorities.
“I think that is going to be our big driver as we continue to find ways for revenue within our state,” she said. “We are having a (business) retention problem a little bit.”
Cummings added she will also seek to address affordability gaps in education, specifically for pre-kindergarten programs.
“We know that those earlier years of development play a vital role on how successful students will be when it comes to K-through-12 and even higher education,” she said. “We have to have the mindset of how do we continue to build this pipeline for your workforce if we are going to make some moves to ask businesses to come to our state and to invest here.”
Cummings was elected to the Normal Town Council in 2017. Cummings, a technology analyst at State Farm, is the only black Town Council member.
Cummings previously served as a precinct committeeman for the McLean County Democrats, though the Normal Town Council is a nonpartisan body.
The Republican Brady defeated Democratic challenger Ben Webb, a high school teacher, in 2018. Brady won with 60% of the vote. Webb has not announced plans for another run.
Brady, a 10-term incumbent, will also face a primary challenge in 2020—a rematch against Republican David Paul Blumenshine. Brady beat Blumenshine by 50 percentage points in the 2018 GOP primary.
The 105th district includes parts of Bloomington-Normal and much of eastern McLean County.
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