Welcome To Congress Lauren Underwood!

Lauren Underwood is Representative-elect from Illinois. She defeated a Republican who played racial politics.

More women of color will join the 116th United States Congress.

We welcome Lauren Underwood, the Representative-Elect from suburban Chicago. She beat out Rep. Randy Hultgren (R-IL) in a bitter race. The Democrats target him as one of the many incumbents who could face ouster.

Underwood is an African American women who is a registered nurse. After growing up in Naperville, Illinois, she received a degree in nursing from the University of Michigan and several Masters degrees from Johns Hopkins University. Underwood began her political career as a special assistant in 2014, was appointed as a Senior Advisor two years later, and was elected as a member of the United States House of Representatives in 2018.

In August 2017, Underwood announced her candidacy in the 2018 elections for the United States House of Representatives in Illinois's 14th congressional district.

Rep. Randy Hultgren (R-IL) is exiting.

Underwood's platform includes issues she summarizes as health care, jobs, and family, with focuses on mental health, infrastructure improvements, and paid family leave. She won the Democratic primary held on March 20, 2018, with 57% of the vote against six opponents.

The general election was held on November 6, 2018 against incumbent Hultgren; she received endorsements from former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden.

Underwood won the election with early estimates of 52% of the vote in a traditionally Republican district. Trump carried the district by 20 points.

Underwood like many other candidates of color was a target of racism. She charged that Hultgren used "racially coded language" while vying to hold on to his seat in the overwhelmingly white 14th Congressional District.

"My opponent says that I'm an outsider, which is his racially coded language that I don't belong and somehow I'm not trustworthy," she said in the video. "I've grown up in this community. This is the community that taught me how to be a black woman."

She will join Representative-elect Lucy McBath of Georgia, Antonio Delgado of New York, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez of New York, Katie Hill of California and Ilhan Omar of Minneosta.