‘Victory Within Reach’: Underwood Confident In Race With Oberweis

ILLINOIS — Despite trailing by several hundred votes Thursday, Democratic U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood said she was confident she will prevail in a neck-and-neck race with Republican Jim Oberweis to keep her seat in Congress.

Oberweis claimed victory Wednesday in the race to represent Illinois’ 14th Congressional District while holding a lead of less than 1,000 votes.

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However, no news organizations have declared a winner in the race as of Friday morning. Oberweis leads Underwood by 628 votes as of 9:30 a.m. Friday, according to unofficial election results compiled by the Associated Press.

Underwood said Thursday she was not surprised the race was so close days after the election, but she was confident she would win reelection “once every vote is counted,” the Chicago Tribune reports.

“Every vote must be counted,” Underwood said. “Once every vote is counted, I feel confident that I will be reelected to represent this community in Congress.”

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Election officials are continuing to tally ballots postmarked by Nov. 3 or placed in drop boxes during the final hours of the election Tuesday. They have until Nov. 17 to finish counting mail-in ballots.

Unofficial election results show Underwood is winning mail-in votes by a large margin over Oberweis, a trend Underwood believes will propel her to victory in the race for Illinois’ 14th Congressional District.

Underwood’s campaign slammed Oberweis for claiming victory and saying there were only a “handful” of uncounted ballots, though “there are thousands of ballots yet to be counted.”

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“Our Republican opponent has been spewing dangerous rhetoric this entire campaign — and that hasn’t stopped, because yesterday he attempted to claim victory in a Facebook video,” Underwood’s campaign wrote Thursday in a fundraising plea to supporters. “But Jim Oberweis doesn’t get to decide this election — the voters do.”

A spokesperson for Oberweis' campaign said the state senator was “confident” he would hang onto his slim lead after all votes were counted, the Chicago Tribune reports.