Despite having more years in public office than other candidates in the Democratic primary race to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly on Monday embraced her underdog status in the nascent campaign against a pair of opponents expected to be flush with campaign cash.

To take on Republican President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, both of whom will still be in office when Durbin’s successor is seated after next year’s election, “you need a fighter, someone that’s not afraid,” the seven-term congresswoman from south suburban Matteson said during an hourlong appearance before the City Club of Chicago. It was Kelly’s first major public event in Illinois since joining the race last week.

“I’ve been in tough fights my whole political life. I’ve been given nothing,” said Kelly, recounting a resume that includes defeating a longtime incumbent to win a seat in the Illinois House in 2002 and emerging victorious from a Democratic free-for-all in a 2013 special primary for her current seat representing the state’s 2nd Congressional District.

While the field for the Senate seat is still taking shape for the March 17 primary, declared Democratic candidates Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi are not expected to be wanting for campaign resources. Stratton is being backed by billionaire Gov. JB Pritzker and is also endorsed by Sen. Tammy Duckworth, and Krishnamoorthi is a five-term congressman from Schaumburg sitting on more than $19 million in campaign cash. Kelly had more than $2 million in her campaign war chest at the start of April, campaign records show.

“I just hope that voters can look past the money, they can look past some endorsements … and see the policies of my work and what I have done and what I will do,” Kelly said. “I’ve always been the underdog and underestimated, but most of the time, I come out OK.”

Underscoring the potential challenge Kelly faces in the money race, Stratton supporters on Monday announced a newly formed political action committee, Illinois Blue, a super PAC that under federal election law is prohibited from coordinating with her campaign but can receive and spend unlimited sums backing her.

Along with Stratton’s previously formed Level Up PAC and the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association, which has promised to spend seven figures supporting her candidacy, the new committee gives Pritzker, a Hyatt Hotels heir, another avenue to put some of his vast wealth behind his two-time running mate.

Kelly has faced off against Pritzker before, defeating his chosen candidate to become chair of the state Democratic Party in 2021 only to abandon a reelection bid a year later when she couldn’t round up the votes from party leaders needed to beat the governor’s new choice.

The congresswoman downplayed the importance of big-name endorsements in the race, even as her campaign announced the backing of 18 members of the Congressional Black Caucus, including U.S. Rep. Jonathan Jackson of Chicago, who represents the neighboring 1st Congressional District.

“If I can get to enough voters and if they’re making the decision based on effective leadership experience, getting stuff done … then I’m their person,” Kelly said in a brief interview after the City Club event.

During her time on stage, Kelly emphasized both her advocacy against gun violence, including a sit-in on the U.S. House floor with civil rights icon U.S. Rep. John Lewis and other Democrats after the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, and her record of bipartisan legislative accomplishments, such as a 2018 measure Trump signed into law that expanded access to dental health grants.

Although Kelly said she “hate(s) to look at his signature,” a copy of the legislation signed by the president during his first term hangs in her office.

That experience working across the aisle is important because when an Illinois Democrat comes to Congress, unlike in Springfield where the party holds all statewide offices and has supermajorities in the legislature, in Washington, “it’s not any veto-proof nothing,” Kelly said.

But at a time of deep partisanship and with congressional Republicans looking at cuts to safety-net programs such as Medicaid and food stamps, it’s also important for Democrats to fight for their constituents, Kelly said.

“I’m going to fight like hell to make sure they aren’t successful, and I know I’m not alone,” she said of Republicans, noting that more than one-third of residents in her district could lose access to health care under GOP proposals.

The nature of that district, which runs south along the Lake Michigan shoreline and the Indiana border from 43rd Street on Chicago’s South Side to Danville in central Illinois, could be a factor in the race to succeed Durbin as each candidate vies for downstate credibility.

The retirement of the longtime senator from Springfield risks ending a decadeslong tradition of the state’s two Senate seats being split by someone from the Chicago area and someone from downstate. All of the candidates for the seat so far are from the Chicago area and Duckworth is from suburban Hoffman Estates.

Pitching her statewide appeal, Kelly emphasized the blend of urban, suburban and rural communities — including 4,500 farms — in her district and the relationships she’s forged with leaders in redder areas, including some she said told her they weren’t sure at first if they were going to like her.

“It’s very important to me that people feel included and seen and heard,” said Kelly, who moved to Illinois to attend Bradley University in Peoria and lived in the central Illinois city on and off for two decades.

Krishnamoorthi was raised in Peoria and attended public school there, while much of Stratton’s downstate experience stems from her time in the lieutenant governor’s office, including leading the governor’s Rural Affairs Council.

Kelly said she’s “all in” for the Senate race and doesn’t plan to circulate nominating petitions later this year for the 2nd District seat. While she’s giving up seniority and a chance to rise in the ranks of leadership, Kelly said if she didn’t run now for the Senate, “I think I would always question myself.”

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