SPRINGFIELD — As he burned up the fundraising trail and traveled the state, including during a stop in Normal last October, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi would shut down any question about interest in a Senate run.
"There are no vacancies," he would say, heaping praise on incumbent Sen. Dick Durbin.
But the Schaumburg Democrat is playing coy no more.
Two weeks following Durbin's announcement that he would not seek reelection to a sixth term, Krishnamoorthi on Wednesday made official one of the worst-kept secrets in Illinois politics: He's running for U.S. Senate.
The Peoria native cast himself in Durbin's mold as "a fellow son of downstate," adding that he's spent his life "standing up to bullies" and "fighting for everyday people" while pledging to "stand up and fight back" against the actions of President Donald Trump and his administration in the Senate.
“I’ve made it my mission to fight for families like the ones I grew up with — people who just want a chance to work hard and realize their dreams,” Krishnamoorthi, 51, said in a nearly 2 ½-minute video announcement.
“So I’ll never be quiet while billionaires like Elon Musk and a convicted felon," referring to Trump, "deny the dreams of the next generation for their own egos and personal profit,” he said.
Krishnamoorthi said he was running "to restore women's freedom to make their own health decisions, to keep guns away from people who shouldn't have them, to keep these extremists from gutting vital programs like Medicaid that help people and to stop the chaos driving up costs."
Krishnamoorthi is the third major Democrat to jump in the race.
Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton declared her candidacy less than a day after Durbin's announcement and quickly rolled out endorsements from the state's top two Democrats: Gov. JB Pritzker and Sen. Tammy Duckworth.
Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Matteson, launched her campaign on Tuesday. And Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Naperville, is also expected to get in the race soon. On the Republican side, Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Peoria, has expressed interest.
Krishnamoorthi has spent years laying the groundwork for a Senate run. He has been the most aggressive fundraiser in Illinois' congressional delegation. As of March, he had more than $19 million in his campaign account, dwarfing that of his current and would-be primary opponents.
He has also made frequent stops across the state over the past year, from fundraisers for various county Democratic parties to official congressional events well outside the boundaries of his suburban congressional district.
The son of Indian immigrants, Krishnamoorthi graduated from Richwoods High School in Peoria and later received a degree in mechanical engineering from Princeton University and a law degree from Harvard University.
"Then I worked on a friend's campaign who showed that Illinois will give you a shot even if you have a funny name," Krishnamoorthi said in his campaign launch video, a reference to his time as a campaign aide for future-President Barack Obama.
Krishnamoorthi first worked on Obama's failed 2000 campaign for the U.S. House and later served as policy director for Obama's successful 2004 campaign for U.S. Senate.
He was later appointed a special assistant attorney general by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to help start the office's public integrity unit. He later served as a deputy state treasurer from 2007 to 2009.
In 2010, Krishnamoorthi ran unsuccessfully for Illinois comptroller, losing in the Democratic primary by less than 10,000 votes. In 2012, he lost a primary for a U.S. House seat in Chicago's northwest suburbs to Duckworth by a 2-to-1 margin. But with Duckworth running for Senate in 2016, Krishnamoorthi ran again and won easily.
In the House, Krishnamoorthi serves on the Oversight and Intelligence committees. He is also the ranking member on the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.
Like Kelly and perhaps Underwood, Krishnamoorthi will have to give up his seat in the House, an office that is up for election every two years, if he moves forward with his Senate campaign.
If Krishnamoorthi wins, he would be the first Hindu and second Indian American ever to serve in the Senate.
At the conclusion of his campaign video, Krishnamoorthi acknowledged "the name is long" before echoing a line he's used in previous runs for public office: "So, like always, just call me Raja."
