Former Republican Rep. Bobby Schilling, who served one term in the House representing Illinois, told the Iowa City Press-Citizen on Thursday that he was “getting close” to announcing a bid for Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District. Schilling, who moved to Iowa in 2017, added that he was “98 percent there” when it came to jumping into the race for this competitive open seat.
Schilling won the old version of Illinois’ 17th Congressional District, which was located directly across the Mississippi River from Iowa’s 2nd, during the 2010 GOP wave. Schilling, who owned and operated a pizza restaurant, entered the race against sophomore Rep. Phil Hare without much fanfare and initially raised very little money, but he gained traction as the cycle got worse and worse for Democrats in Illinois and across the nation. Republicans had not seriously contested this seat in years, but Schilling ended up unseating Hare by a wide 53-43 margin.
However, Schilling’s luck quickly ran out. Illinois was one of the few states where Democrats had complete control of the redistricting process, and they made the new 17th District considerably more Democratic. Schilling was a top Democratic target, and he lost to Cheri Bustos 53-47 as Barack Obama was carrying the seat 58-41. During that campaign, Schilling made news when he suggested that many Hispanics were having a hard time learning English “primarily because they don’t even know Spanish.”
Schilling has made some efforts to return to Congress (from Illinois) since his 2012 loss. He sought a rematch with Bustos the following cycle, but while 2014 was another ugly year for Democrats, Bustos beat him by a stronger 55-45 spread. The following year, Schilling considered running in the special election for the neighboring 18th District after scandal-tarred GOP Rep. Aaron Schock resigned, but he ended up backing Darrin LaHood’s successful bid instead.
Later in 2015, Schilling openly mused about challenging Sen. Mark Kirk in the GOP primary. Kirk, who was by far the most vulnerable Senate Republican up that cycle, was also the only Republican in the chamber to vote against defunding Planned Parenthood. Schilling responded by telling a local radio station there were “five or six” Republicans considering taking on Kirk, and that he might be one of them; he then followed up by penning an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune that took Kirk to task over Planned Parenthood at length.
Kirk ended up avoiding a serious primary challenge from Schilling or anyone else but badly lost the 2016 general election to Democrat Tammy Duckworth anyway. The next year, Schilling left Illinois for Iowa, telling the Iowa City Press-Citizen this month that he’d “escaped Illinois” and its taxes, adding, “Things aren't going to get better there. ... Rather than fixing the problems, they prefer to continue driving people out of the state.”