In a fireside chat at the Power Rising Summit, held in Chicago, Lt. Governor and Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Juliana Stratton said her current campaign simply reflects voters’ aggressive mentality.
“When I’ve traveled the state of Illinois, what I’ve heard from people is that they want to see us bring a real fight to Washington,” Stratton said. “That has been my charge from the people of Illinois.”
That chat occurred Saturday during the final plenary session on day two of the Summit, a gathering of Black women seeking to harness their collective energy to create an actionable agenda. She was joined by Minyon Moore, co-convener of the Summit and Chair of the 2024 Democratic National Convention.
Stratton tied her work as a practitioner of restorative justice to the summit’s goal of bringing together a diverse group of women to solve problems that have plagued the Black community for generations.
“You don’t have to go outside the community to solve challenges. Because, as we say in the restorative justice world, the wisdom is in the room,” she said. “If you want to know how to repair that harm through the restorative justice lens, it says that you talk to the people who know their communities.”
Stratton also took aim at President Trump, vowing to push the Democratic Party to be more “courageous.”
“There’s a need to use my voice and the bully pulpit that I will be given, but there’s also a need to push our party — and I’m a Democrat — to be more courageous in this moment, because this is not a normal president, he’s not a normal person,” Stratton said. “So you don’t go about business as usual with somebody who is not normal.”
When asked what courage looks like, Stratton said it means overcoming the mindset that not much can get done.
“I’ve been surprised at how there almost seems to be a ‘go along to get along’ mentality in Washington, D.C.: ‘There’s not much we can do. It’s so hard,’ and therefore we can’t even think big about what’s possible,” Stratton said.
As a way forward, Stratton referred to how the Pritzker-Stratton administration turned the state’s finances around after two years without a budget during former Gov. Bruce Rauner’s tenure. She also pointed to their early actions to raise the minimum wage to $15 dollars an hour. The national minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, and hasn’t been raised since 2009.
Stratton said the lack of political will to achieve progressive policies is linked to big money that influences races.
“There’s a strong corporate special interest that often seems to take center stage in Washington. We have to keep the needs of the people at the forefront, which is why I don’t take any corporate PAC money in this race,” she said.
Stratton received a $5 million donation in January from a pro-Stratton super PAC that was funded by Gov. Pritzker and members of his family. She was also supported by the DLGA PAC, the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association, that spent $222,000 on her behalf.
Speaking to an audience full of Black women at the Hilton Chicago, Stratton addressed the elephant in the room: Black women’s unemployment. According to the Economic Policy Institute, in 2025, Black women saw the largest employment losses compared to Black men, AAPI, Latino, and white women. Most losses resulted from federal job cuts, disproportionately affecting college-educated Black women who worked in the public sector.
In response, she wants to stand up for DEI and restore and protect those jobs that were lost.
“This administration is trying to make it a bad word to talk about diversity, equity and inclusion, she said. “Not because we can’t do the work and always have been able to do it, but because of systemic racism and so many other factors, [those opportunities] have been blocked. And we need the intentionality of making sure we can be in those spaces.”
Stratton said the racial challenges her father faced inspire her to keep moving forward and bring others with her. Growing up in a small town in Pennsylvania, he couldn’t attend his school trip to the nation’s capitol because the city didn’t have a hotel or restaurant that would serve Black people.
“I’m not talking about my great-grandfather. I’m not talking about my grandfather. This is my dad,” she said.
“I think about how he passed the baton to all of us to say that whatever space you find yourself in, go there and don’t just focus on yourself. Bring somebody else with you.”