Rep. Eric Sorensen is unique in the halls of Congress — he worked as a meteorologist on television before joining the House of Representatives. He’s the first one since the 1970s, and he isn’t afraid of talking about the climate crisis or how his former career prepared him for his current one.
As a weatherman, Sorensen worked to incorporate climate change into his forecasts, trying to present information that would be useful to viewers’ daily lives without being political. It was at a time when even acknowledging climate was divisive — something he blames on former Vice President Al Gore’s film “An Inconvenient Truth.”
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What does your experience as a TV weathercaster bring to the various demands of this job?
We haven’t ever had a meteorologist come to Congress from the background of the science, but more importantly than that, the background of the science communication. You know, how does it make sense to everyday people in Midwestern America?
When I was talking about climate on television, I never told anybody that they did anything wrong, or that they had to do something different. Instead, I was just communicating the science. And I didn’t realize that the farmers, they were the ones listening, because they were already being impacted. And immediately, they could understand it.
It seems like some meteorologists are afraid to talk about climate change because it might alienate people. Is that a legitimate fear?
I think for a lot of people it is. For a meteorologist who spent a lot of time in one place, they are the authority for that science. They have to understand that there’s a risk in talking about something that may be perceived as political.
For instance, for me, in order to talk about climate in 2008, I had to go from the news director to the general manager to the CEO. And then I had to figure out when I had to talk about it. And then we went back and looked at the Nielsen ratings, we had to look at the email and snail mail and everything else. We could quantify what was the reaction. And the reaction was not negative. We never splintered the audience. In fact, the audience grew, because no one was talking about it.
After that, I went to weather conventions and I was able to get up on stage in from of 700 meteorologists to say, ‘It does work, you can talk about this.’
He also discusses how being the weatherman prepared him for Congress in the CSPAN interview.
Naturally, Sorensen is on the Science, Space and Technology Committee as well as the Agriculture Committee. He is trying to make an impact on both despite being in the minority. He can influence legislation to best serve his constituents and shape our response to the climate crisis.
However, his time in Congress could be cut short, as he resides in a swing seat that may be trending away from us. The question for Rep. Eric Sorensen is whether or not 2024 is the end of the line for him.
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Eric Sorensen for Illinois-17
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What’s the Big Idea?
THIS DISTRICT LEANS DEMOCRATIC, with a D+2 PVI.
This district is quite gerrymandered, stretching across northern and western Illinois to get all of the major population centers found there. This version of Illinois’ 17th district isn’t even the worst one, as the 2000s version was even more convoluted. The district has traditionally been drawn as a Democratic-leaning swing seat.
The district shockingly fell during the 2010 red wave election, but it was recovered in 2012 when the district was redrawn to be more Democratic-leaning. Rep. Cheri Bustos held it for a decade, usually having no issues holding this seat. That changed in 2020, when she had a close race.
This led to Bustos retiring in 2022, leaving behind an open swing seat that Biden won 52.7% to 44.9% in 2020. The 2020 GOP nominee contested the seat once more, while Democrats turned to weatherman Eric Sorensen. It was another close race, but Sorensen prevailed 52% to 48%. This district seems to be trending the wrong direction, and it is quite possible that Rep. Eric Sorensen will lose the seat at some point this decade. I don’t think that will happen in 2024, however.
Here’s where this race will be won in the 17th district.
- Quad Cities and Rockford: These areas constituted the Democratic core of the previous version of the 17th district, and they continue to do so in the new version of the district. Sorensen will have to run up the score in both cities to keep this district in our column.
- Peoria and Bloomington/Normal: These cities were added to the district to make it more Democratic in nature. “Will it play in Peoria?” is a critical question for Sorensen to answer, because if he doesn’t get good margins out of both cities he is toast. Bloomington/Normal is a college town, a potentially rich source of votes.
Here’s where we need to keep the margins down, or we lose.
- Smaller Cities: There numerous smaller cities in the district that Sorensen will have to do well enough to win. They include Canton, Macomb, Galesburg, Monmouth, Kewanee, Sterling, and Freeport. He doesn’t have to win each city, but he needs to keep them at 50-50 or above to ensure victory.
- Farm Country: The connective tissue between all of these cities is deep red territory, and it is almost enough to tip the balance of the district to the GOP. Sorensen isn’t going to win many farm country votes, but he needs to make sure the margins don’t fall too far.
Who is Rep. Eric Sorensen?
Rep. Eric Sorensen was born in Rockford, Illinois and went to Northern Illinois University to study communications and meteorology. He was first employed as a meteorologist in various stations in East Texas, where he was discriminated against for being openly gay. He returned to Rockford in 2003. Until 2014, he was chief meteorologist at WREX in Rockford, when he became senior meteorologist at WQAD in Moline. He retired in 2021, taking a brief job at UnityPoint Health before running for Congress in 2022. For more background information, look here.
Most of the following information comes from his issues page on his campaign website. He also is great on other issues, as many Democratic-leaning groups have endorsed him!
- Climate Crisis. Sorensen was talking about the climate crisis early in his career, even in places where the truth wasn’t necessarily popular. Climate change in his district is seen as 100-mph derechos, extreme Mississippi River flooding, and flash droughts that ruin crops. Sorensen has worked on legislation or brought relief from the executive branch to tackle each one of these issues, as well as doing excellent constituent services.
- Abortion Rights Ally. Sorensen has made access to abortion one of his key issues while in office. He introduced the ACCESS Act to meet the increased demand for abortion services in states where it is still available after Dobbs. He will be a vote to codify Roe into law, as well as to protect birth control, contraception, and IVF.
- Health Care Helper. Sorensen is all about stopping discrimination in health care outcomes, especially for the LGBTQ+ community. He is also concerned about rural health outcomes, promoting funding that expands telehealth options for students and residents. Finally, he is cracking down on Big Pharma, writing legislation that will thwart their price collusion.
- Education Advocate. Sorensen has been bringing home funds for early childhood education, both in Rockford and in the Quad Cities. He realizes that the next generation needs the tools to tackle some pretty daunting challenges. He would work to ensure that both students and teachers have all the funds they need to have a quality education.
- Rural Agriculture. In spite of having a district with all of those small cities in it, a primary focus of Sorensen is on providing support for agriculture in his district. He helped introduce the SUNRAY for Energy Act to help farmers with combining solar and crop usage on their lands. He also is working on expanding rural broadband internet to his constituents.
- Pandemic Preparedness. Taking a leaf out of the weather forecasting playbook, Sorensen believes the United States can prepare for pandemics with the right funding and research. He would strengthen biosecurity and invest in cutting-edge technology to counter possible viral and bacterial threats. A grant to Illinois State University shows his commitment to this issue.
Who is Joe McGraw?
Joe McGraw was a respected state judge in Illinois before retiring to run for Congress. He has been in various roles in law enforcement ever since graduating from Northern Illinois University and the law school there. He spent nearly 20 years as Presiding Judge of the Criminal Division, overseeing a specialized caseload for gun felonies and PATH Court—a full-spectrum plan to combat human trafficking and support survivors.
A combination of his issues page on his campaign website and the DCCC opposition file were used to generate this section.
- Immigration Hardliner. McGraw is all for building Donald Trump’s ineffective wall, as well as other measures that Donald Trump favors when it comes to immigration. Instead of seeing immigration as an economic and humanitarian issue, he tackles it through a law enforcement lens and pushes for tougher punishments for undocumented immigrants.
- Debt and Deficit Peacock. McGraw calls for a balanced budget amendment on his issues page. In fact, he calls for lawmakers to not be paid until a balanced budget is created. The balanced budget would only be achieved with historic tax increases or draconian cuts to every government program.
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Tax Cut Terror. Dovetailing with #2 above, McGraw calls for cutting taxes which isn’t fiscally responsible. One of his policy platforms is to eliminate the estate tax (the so-called ‘death tax’), which is an oldie. He claims it is to save family farms, when in fact the estate tax only hits the very wealthy.
- Forced Birth Maniac. Admittedly McGraw hasn’t announced a public position on abortion and IVF, but sometimes the company you keep gives away hints of what stance you have. He’s been campaigning with anti-abortion extremists, and even made an appearance at a crisis pregnancy center for his campaign.
- Judicial Lapses. I really don’t like criticizing the record of a judge, but I also want to make sure there is full disclosure of his record. McGraw isn’t as tough on crime as he claims to be on his website. He’s repeatedly reduced sentences for murderers and sexual abusers. He also looked the other way while a juvenile detention center under his purview suffered numerous issues.
How Can You Help?
This district is in the quintessential heartland of America, which can be far away from where you are reading this article. There are still ways to help out from afar without the need to volunteer for his campaign. You could choose to donate some cash to him, or you could boost his messaging on social media.
The Q1 numbers just came out and show a decided advantage for the incumbent Rep. Sorensen. He raised $728k during the first couple of months this year, and now has a whopping $2.16M cash on hand. The challenger Joe McGraw raised $304k and only has $325k in the bank. Let’s make sure this disparity remains by donating to Sorensen today!
Volunteers are at a premium in such a contorted district that spans so many small cities. We would need volunteers in each of the cities I listed above, and they are nowhere close together like in most districts. As we get closer to the general election, the need for volunteers grows every day. Canvassing, phone banking, and keeping track of who has been contacted is critical, and volunteers fill those gaps.
When it comes to social media, Rep. Eric Sorensen has both official accounts and campaign accounts. The official accounts usually highlight the legislative successes of the incumbent, while the campaign accounts show campaign activities along with messaging against the opposition. If you want to boost Rep. Eric Sorensen, choose a social media platform and follow him!
On what was once Twitter, Rep. Eric Sorensen has only 3.5k followers for his official account. That’s fairly low, even for a freshman incumbent. He could definitely use more followers on this account. He recaps the first year in office by using a tried and true technique — going to the green screen in a TV studio!
Sorensen has an additional 3.2k followers for his official Facebook account, which is in a much better position than Twitter. The two accounts share the same content, so it is a matter of personal preference as to which platform you choose to boost him on. For this post, he gives a shout out to the hardest-working farmers in America!
When it comes to his campaign accounts, Rep. Eric Sorensen is in a better place. He has 28.9k followers on Twitter, which is a good base for fundraising and getting a message out. He’s mostly ignored the opposition, and focused on building support for his campaign through endorsements and showing his daily life. This particular tweet shows that he has a great sense of humor!
Sorensen is in an even better position on Facebook, having 45k followers for his campaign account on that Meta platform. He posts even better content on Facebook, so it is worth following him there as well as on Twitter. Here, he steps back into his old job and shows that the climate crisis is still going full speed ahead.
Help spread the word today by following Rep. Eric Sorensen and boosting his accomplishments and his campaign in the critical realm of social media.
Rep. Eric Sorensen has definitely found his calling in Congress, warning about the impacts of the climate crisis and helping out farmers much like he did as a meteorologist. He straddles the line between progressive and moderate well, despite being in the more moderate New Democratic Coalition. Hopefully, he has a long career ahead of him in office.
Judge Joe McGraw is running heavily on the themes of law and order and on the border — both of which may resonate in a district on the periphery of the Rust Belt. It is up to Sorensen to paint McGraw as another MAGA enabler, especially on the social issues that the challenger has kept silent on.
I expect another close race for this seat, with the winner of this race being the same as which Presidential candidate wins the district. That gives Rep. Eric Sorensen a small edge, but by no means is he secure. According to Daily Kos Elections, he is the 23rd most vulnerable Democratic incumbent in the House. The question is, will 2024 be the end of the line for the incumbent?
Eric Sorensen for Illinois-17
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