SCHAUMBURG, Ill. (WLS) — Illinois U.S. Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi sat down exclusively with ABC7 Chicago as he launches his campaign for Dick Durbin’s open Senate seat.

The race has quickly expanded, with Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton and Representative Robin Kelly also vying for the role.

Krishnamoorthi spoke with ABC7’s Ravi Baichwal for his first local television interview.

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“I bring my Peoria values to my job every day right now,” Krishnamoorthi said.

The five-term congressman said he will have to work his tail off to win the Democratic nomination for the Illinois U.S. Senate seat next March. He said he’s running to keep the American dream alive for families like his.

“After what we saw in the first 100 days of Donald Trump, the chaos, especially the economic chaos that he unleashed, I thought that I was the right person for the moment to stand up to him, and basically stand up for the American dream and making sure that people who otherwise think it’s out of their grasp because of Trump’s policies… are able to access it the same way that my family did,” Krishnamoorthi said.

After arriving from India at the age of 3 months, the recession of 1973 hit. His family reeling, they relied on public housing and food stamps to get by before his academic father got a job in Peoria, lessons his parents imprinted their kids

“Make sure my brother and me that this country is there for the next families who need it so that became kind of the north star of my personal compass my mission statement,” Krishnamoorthi said.

Now, after nearly a decade in congress and flush with $19 million in campaign funds, the Schaumburg resident knows he needs Trump-leaning voters in order to run a statewide campaign.

“I think that you have to kind of meet them where they are economically,” Krishnamoorthi said. “I think that government has to be an indispensable partner in in the pursuit of the American dream.”

In 2010, when he first ran for Congress, Democratic power brokers told him to wait his turn. He lost then, but he eventually went to Washington when Trump first did.

“Many people relate to having been told to wait their turn,” Krishnamoorthi said. “I am just one of numerous people who probably face folks who might have put obstacles in their way and it’s really up to us to overcome those obstacles.”

In 2026, he thinks the ballot question will be a simple one.

“Do you want a government that is there to fight for people who are trying to make it, or do you want a government that primarily serves those who have it made?” Krishnamoorthi said. “That should be the question that is the central question of our time, especially under Donald Trump.”