United States Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) was elected as the junior senator from Illinois on November 8, 2016. A former US Army helicopter pilot, she lost both legs and partial use of her right arm while leading a combat mission during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Following her recovery, she became a vocal advocate for veterans’ rights and later served as Assistant Secretary of the US Department of Veterans Affairs during the Obama Administration. After being elected to the US House of Representatives in 2016, she championed legislation to improve the quality of life and care for our nation’s veterans. She recently spoke with BPR about the 2024 election results and what comes next.
Matthew Kotcher: I want to start by going back to the night of November 8, 2016, when Donald Trump was elected to his first term, which was also the night that you were first elected to represent Illinois in the US Senate. Can you talk about the difference for you between this moment after the 2024 election and that night in 2016?
Tammy Duckworth: I was blindsided that night in 2016. I sort of saw some signs in Wisconsin that maybe there were some issues, especially with Russ Feingold, who was running to be elected that year as well, but we were all pretty sure that Hillary Clinton was going to win. My race was called pretty early. I went up joyous to give my acceptance speech, but by the time I came off the stage 15 minutes later, we knew that she wasn’t going to win, and it was just devastating. I spent the next day saying thank you to people in train stations and the like, and there were actually people coming up to me and weeping on my shoulders. Person after person after person.
This time, I knew we were in trouble. I was out there campaigning nonstop, but there were a lot of signs, and I was deeply concerned. To me, it was fifty-fifty, but I didn’t think that he would win by as much as he did this time—I thought he might win through the Electoral College but not that he would win the popular vote, so it was quite surprising that he did win the popular vote this time.
MK: Many saw these election results as a worst-case scenario for Democrats—in addition to President Trump winning all seven battleground states and the popular vote, Republicans took back the Senate and maintained control of the House. Is there anything in your view that the Democratic party could have and should have done differently?
TD: There’s been a lot of discussion about outreach to minorities, and I spoke with the party at length about outreach to, in particular, Asian Americans. One thing that I think we made a mistake on—and I’ve talked to leadership about this—is that we thought that having ballot initiatives on reproductive choice in red states was going to help turn out pro-choice voters or that suburban Republican women would vote for the pro-choice side of those ballot initiatives like they did in Kansas, and that would mean they would also vote for Kamala Harris. I think what happened with those initiatives on the ballot was that they allowed Republicans to vote for Trump and then “cure” themselves by voting pro-choice on the ballot initiative. I think those ballot initiatives actually hurt us in the long run. Many people within the Democratic party thought that if they could get these initiatives on the ballot, it would translate to a higher turnout of pro-choice voters and that those pro-choice voters would vote for Kamala. In reality, that’s not what happened. I think it gave an excuse to a lot of people to vote against the abortion bans but also continue to vote Republican.
MK: Switching to the president’s cabinet selections, can you share your insights about the new Secretary of Defense, former Fox News weekend show host Pete Hegseth? While he did serve in the Army, what is your read on the criticisms of his lack of readiness to run the Pentagon? As a woman who has served in combat, what do you make of his comments that women shouldn’t serve in combat roles?
TD: Bottom line, he’s not qualified. He has never run an organization larger than a platoon, and an infantry platoon is between 40 and 50 people. That’s it. That’s the last time he successfully ran any organization. The next two organizations he tried to run were two different veterans’ organizations, and they both asked him to leave because he was incompetent. He’s never run an organization larger, not even the size of a small business, and yet they have nominated him to run basically the largest department in the United States government. It’s three million people, both civilian and military. It’s got a budget of over $925 billion. I wouldn’t nominate him to run a medium-sized business, let alone the Department of Defense.
His statements about women in combat further show his being unfit to run. Our military simply cannot go to war without the 225,000 women in uniform, so to say that women should not serve in combat basically means that our military will no longer be able to defend America on foreign soil. Hegseth’s statements just speak to his lack of understanding and experience for running the Department of Defense. And then, of course, you’ve got the sexual abuse allegations. I don’t know that I would accept somebody who has admitted to paying off a woman who accused him of rape to be a babysitter for my two girls, let alone the Secretary of Defense. There are so many issues, but at the most basic level, he has no experience. He can’t run an organization of that size.
MK: What do you see as a path toward bipartisanship, and how does the need for bipartisanship square with the need to call out mistruths, lies, and disinformation?
TD: I think you can call out the lies and disinformation, but you have to remain true to the job that you have. When I talk about Mr. Hegseth, I am focusing on his lack of experience and his lack of qualifications to run an organization as big as the Department of Defense. It’s important to not get into the reality TV show that Donald Trump is trying to create with these nominations, so I’m not going to go there. I’m not going to go on TV and get into a tit-for-tat. I’m going to talk about the fact that he’s never run any budget larger than a few million dollars. How is he going to run a $900 billion organization? That’s how you make sure that your constituents understand that you’re being straight with them and that you’re being bipartisan—you’re just focused on the American people and our country and keeping us safe. Donald Trump is basically trying to bait everybody into participating in a reality TV show, and we just can’t fall for that.
MK: What do you say to the many Americans who worked so hard for a different outcome, who at this point have thrown up their hands? What advice do you have for the many Americans who are scared right now and feel like giving up?
TD: Don’t give up. You’ve got to field a team. You can’t forfeit the game. You can’t leave your side undefended. You’ve got to show up, and you have to work twice as hard and learn from the mistakes we made. We have a chance to win back the House and the Senate in two years. We have the opportunity to get checks and balances back into our government, and that’s what we have to focus on.
*This interview has been edited for length and clarity.