Republican Aaron Schock now has a Democratic challenger. Rob Mellon of Quincy
recently announced he is seeking the Democratic nomination to run for congress in Illinois' 18th district.
Although this district has a Cook Partisan Voting Index of R+11 and Schock has a huge campaign warchest, Mellon appears to be the best chance we have of winning this district. He is a Blue Dog Democrat, which unfortunately is the only kind of Democrat that would ever have a chance of winning this red district. He also has the biography of a "stereotypical" (although stereotypes are meant to be wrong) Republican: he is an Army veteran and current captain in the Army Reserve. He also has an MBA and was a small business owner. Hopefully these credentials will be able to win over enough Republican crossover votes.
After leaving his full-time military service and then his small business, he became a teacher a Quincy Senior High School. This is how I know him personally: not only is he currently is in his 7th year at QHS where he teaches Economics and Advanced Placement U.S. History, he was my teacher of AP History and economics when I went to QHS. I can personally attest to the fact that Mr. Mellon is a great teacher and is very knowledgeable in the subjects he teaches. Hopefully he will be able to bring his knowledge of economics and history to the new congress in January of 2015.
His previous campaign experience involves running and losing in a special primary to replace Lane Evans as the Democratic nominee for the 17th district in 2006. While Mellon does not currently have a campaign website, he does have campaign Twitter and Facebook accounts. You can also contact his campaign at mellon4congress@gmail.com.