Democrat Betsy Dirksen Londrigan of Springfield, who came within 1 percentage point of U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, in their 2018 U.S. House contest, is running again in 2020.

“I am running for Congress again in the Illinois 13th Congressional District, and I’m thrilled,” Londrigan told The State Journal-Register.

Her campaign kickoff will be Thursday at Illinois AFL-CIO headquarters in Springfield.

“Health care is still the issue,” said Londrigan, 48. “As I traveled the district during the last 18 months, it’s what I heard over and over and over again. People want the protections that the Affordable Care Act provides, and they want to make sure that their kids get a good education. They want good jobs. But overarchingly, health care is the issue. And we still have an administration and a congressman that are trying to get rid of the ACA.”

Davis has favored repealing and replacing the health care act known as Obamacare but also said he had worked to make sure there were protections such as continued health coverage for people with pre-existing conditions.

Londrigan said the law “is not perfect” but wondered when opponents would “take the hint” that “people want their health care.” She also isn’t ready for a single-payer health care system.

“Here in the 13th District, so many people have employer-provided health care that they love that I don’t support anything that’s going to take that away,” Londrigan said. “We do need help lowering costs. … We know there are things we can do with the right people in the room to get these costs down.”

She also said she is “absolutely not” a Democratic socialist, as are some in her party.

“I think I am a good Midwestern representative of the Democratic Party, which means that I am focused on jobs, job growth, education, taking care of our kids, and number one, fixing our health care system,” she said.

Londrigan said the 13th is politically 50-50, and thinks her experience on the campaign trail will bode well for a second try.

“I was a first-time candidate who came real close to unseating a six-year incumbent, and we really built a movement,” Londrigan said. “I think that we tilled the soil profoundly in the 13th District and people … have gotten to know me. Clearly there are more people who need to get to know me and our campaign, and why I’m in this and why I’m going to fight for them.”

She also said she will continue to listen to district residents, as she did in a series of town hall gatherings last year.

“If you were on the campaign trail with me, you would be fueled by the energy of people who are desperate to have a representative who listens to them,” Londrigan said. “Every day, it’s a different story, it’s a different worry. And I know I can help them.”

She said she’s not sure how big a factor GOP President Donald Trump will be on 2020 voting in the 13th. People at town halls were concerned, she said, about “themselves, their families, their neighborhoods, their communities.”

As for her own view of Trump, she said, “I will work with anybody who is ready and willing to work for central Illinois,” including the president.

Bernard Schoenburg: bernard.schoenburg@sj-r.com, 788-1540, twitter.com/bschoenburg.