ACA repeal inspires Londrigan’s U.S. House run

March 01--Editor's note: This is the fourth in a series of articles about the five candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for the 13th Congressional District in the March 20 primary. The winner will face U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, in the November election. Stories about the other candidates are appearing this week in this space.

Betsy Dirksen Londrigan says her decision to run for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. House's 13th Congressional District was inspired by Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, who has held the 13th Congressional seat since 2013, voted to repeal the law because he said it's collapsing.

"When I saw them celebrating on the White House lawn that they had just voted out of the House to take healthcare away from millions of people and take away the protections we have, it erased any question mark I had about running," Londrigan said.

"It was as though they came through the television and said Betsy Dirksen Londrigan you need to get in here and run against (Davis). Someone had to stand up to them, and I felt so strongly that somebody had to be me."

Londrigan, a Springfield native, has college degrees in rhetoric and political science. She taught middle school with Teach for America in Baltimore, then came home and worked for the alumni association at the University of Illinois Springfield.

Since 1998, Londrigan said, she's been self-employed doing fundraising for people including U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and for entities including the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation. She also co-founded Women Rising, which recruits and trains progressive women running for office.

Healthcare, she said, is a personal issue for her after her 21-year-old son, Jack, got Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever from a tick bite when he was 12, landing him in intensive care for 21 days, including a bout with septic shock and a 10-day medically induced coma.

Her family was fortunate to have private insurance through the work of her husband, Tom, who is a lobbyist with McGuireWoods Consulting.

However, many families aren't as fortunate, she said.

"It's like you get out of the hospital and think you can breathe, but then the bills start coming," Londrigan said. "I know what our family would have looked like if what Rodney Davis and Donald Trump wanted to happen, happened."

If elected, Londrigan said, her focus would be to fix the Affordable Care Act and introduce a public option that would compete with private health insurance companies.

That is different from a single-payer, universal system other Democratic candidates have said they prefer.

On gun control, Londrigan said, she's in favor of expanded background checks, would support a ban on future sales of assault weapons and disagrees with pushes for concealed-carry reciprocity between states. She added Congress should lift its restrictions on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study gun violence.

"We don't need military weapons in every person's hands," she said.

On immigration, Londrigan supports continuing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program and opposes building a wall along the Mexican border.

"We have to make sure, when I say border, I mean all of our borders are getting the type of funding and manpower they need to make sure we can check who is coming in and what they're bringing in," she said.

Londrigan called the tax reform plan passed by the GOP-led Congress "a huge giveaway to corporations and the wealthy."

"I believe we grow the economy from the middle class out," she said. "Trickle down does not work."

Another issue that concerns Londrigan is the rising cost of college tuition and student loan debt. She is in favor of expanding what's known as "income-share agreement."

Traditionally, lenders provide students money and they pay back the loan plus interest in monthly payments once they graduate.

With income-share agreements, investors such as private investment firms or a college endowment pay for students' tuition. Then, when students enter the workforce, they surrender a percentage of their post-college salaries for a time, generally no more than 10 years.

"We've got so much money tied up in student debt," she said. "That's money that's not going back into our local economies."

Asked what separates her from the four other Democratic candidates seeking the nomination, Londrigan pointed to her deep roots in Springfield.

"All of my time and energy is tied up right here in 13th District," she said. "There is not anyone who can take the voice of the 13th District with more passion or authenticity than me."

Contact Jason Nevel: 788-1521, jason.nevel@sj-r.com, twitter.com/JasonNevelSJR.

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