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Illinois 2nd District Primary: Robin Kelly Thanks The Netroots

BY Sarah Lai Stirland | Wednesday, February 27 2013

Robin Kelly, a former state representative in Illinois who won the special Democratic primary Tuesday night, made sure to thank the members of the DailyKos community during her acceptance speech for helping her to win the race against former U.S. Rep. Debbie Halvorson. Kelly won the primary with 52 percent of the vote compared to 25 percent for Halvorson. Turnout was low at around 15 percent.

News reports credit much of Kelly's victory to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Independence USA PAC, which spent $2.2 million in television advertising to both oppose Halvorson, and to support Kelly. But 6,507 members of the left-leaning Daily Kos community also poured $113,596 into Kelly's campaign coffers. And the editors of the site also solicited on-the-ground legwork from local would-be volunteers.

"I've also got to give a very, very special shout out to the Daily Kos family and the entire netroots community," Kelly said Tuesday night. "You embraced this campaign. You adopted this campaign. You fueled us with people power and you stood up and fought the NRA with us. You are the reason we made it this far. You--thousands of you coming together towards a common goal--- you are the reason that I know in my core that we are going to end the senseless killing that is robbing us of a generation. I'll never forget what you did in this campaign and, know this: I'll be your champion in Congress like you've been mine during this campaign."

Kelly, who ran to replace disgraced Illinois' 2nd District Democratic House Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr, faces another election in April against whoever ends up winning the Republican nomination. So far, reports the Chicago Tribune, that looks like the convicted felon Paul McKinley.

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