When it comes to presidential elections, Illinois’ 6th congressional district is a true swing district. The district has flipped between red and blue in the past four cycles, going to George W. Bush in 2004, Barack Obama in 2008, Mitt Romney in 2012, and Hillary Clinton in 2016. However, since 1970, no Democrat has been elected to the district’s House seat. Sean Casten is hoping to change that in November. Like many other Democratic House nominees throughout the country, Sean hopes to tap into the Democratic energy Donald Trump has sparked. FiveThirtyEight even threw around Illinois’ 6th as one of the best bellwether districts in the 2018 midterms.

With a background in science and environmental policy, Sean Casten stands in stark contrast with incumbent Republican Peter Roskam. In 2006, Congressman Roskam called climate change junk science, though he has since changed his stance as a member of the House Climate Solutions Caucus.

However, even with his about-face on environmental issues, Roskam votes in line with Trump 94% of the time, 41 points higher than FiveThirtyEight estimates he should be based upon Trump’s 2016 margin in IL-06. Casten, on the other hand, has been unapologetic in criticizing Trump, an unusual choice for Democrats running in deep-red U.S. House districts.

Sean Casten joined us on the podcast to discuss environmental policy, immigration, criminal justice reform, foreign policy, and more. Listen on iTunes or in your browser below: