Metro East Sun

Incumbent Avery Bourne (R-IL) held off her challenger in Illinois' 95th Congressional District House primary on Tuesday.

Bourne, who has served in Congress since 2015, received approximately 85 percent of the vote, while Oliver Lawrence received the remaining 15 percent, Ballotpedia.org cites. 

"Thank you to all of my supporters for putting their trust in me once again," Bourne said in a Tuesday Facebook post."It’s the honor of a lifetime to fight for our values in the General Assembly!"

In 2019, Bourne supported house legislation that would protect paraprofessionals' standings if they are fired and re-hired within a year. 

"Schools have finite resources and this protects employees from being fired after 20 years of services and then rehired the next year as a first-year employee," Bourne said on the House floor last year. "There are concerns with finite resources but I'm urging an Aye vote. I think this is the right thing to do for school districts."

Last year, Bourne also re-iterated her pro-life values following the opening of a Planned Parenthood in Southern Illinois. 

“Illinois’ recent legalization of late-term and taxpayer-funded abortion is out of step with the majority of Illinoisans' views,” Bourne said in a Facebook post last year. “Stories like these are reminders of just how important it is that we keep up the fight for life.”

In November, Bourne will face her Democratic opponent Chase Wilhelm in the general election. 

"Super-majority Democrats in the legislature are pushing a far-left agenda - putting criminals before crime victims and law enforcement, expanding taxpayer-funded abortion, limiting our Second Amendment rights, waging war against Illinois coal, pushing income tax hikes, and enabling corruption by blocking ethics reform," Bourne said. "I look forward to debating these issues and more with my Democratic opponent, and I look forward to earning your support in November. "