Information on each county in the district and how they’ve been impacted by recent administrations.
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My mother, Carol Wike Nudo, was a force of nature and a fierce, lifelong Democrat. I owe everything I am as a man to my mom. She taught me to always think, to live courageously, and to make everything of my time on this Earth. She also taught me how to be a great cook and make sure guests were happy – always with a full belly – and to always thank people for the privilege of their fellowship and their precious time shared. But most of all, she taught me to pursue a lifetime of learning, of serving others, and taught me to always fight for anyone who needed help without hesitation or fear.
People across Southern Illinois looked up to my mother and still today remember her courage and sacrifices, and folks remember how she worked tirelessly to make lives better for people with disability at a time very different from today. People here know what she did to challenge and break the status quo of her time. She was equally fierce in her feminism – again, at a time when few yet knew how. To protect and expand women’s rights in America, my mother even took the fight, toe to toe, to Phyllis Schlafly, The First Lady of the regressions against Choice and the Equal Rights Amendment of the 1970s. My mother walked tall everywhere she went, and welcomed every person she met. These things too, I proudly cherish as personal facets of the character she passed on to me.
A brutal bone marrow cancer called multiple myeloma took my mother’s life far too soon at the young age of 51. When my mom’s beautiful blonde hair was falling out by the handful, I shaved her head for her with my electric shaver; the both of us in tears. It was a moment of deep meaning, one that looked the disease in the eye, stating with resolute clarity that the two of us could face it together.
In me, my mother’s undeniable spirit lives on. And so I take on this journey, with any luck and the help of many, to do more to make our America live up to its promise, to live up our own potential as a nation.
I hope you’re watching, Mom. I do this for you.