Democrat Carol Ammons defeated her Republican challenger, Kristin Williamson, in the race for the 103rd District of the Illinois House of Representatives.

“I’m honored to be the state representative, I look forward to serving and we’re going to work hard,” Ammons said. “That’s what our campaign really showed: that we were willing to work hard and so I think people will appreciate the service.”

Ammons had been considered the favorite for the race, and had won the endorsement of retiring six-term state representative Naomi Jakobsson, a democrat. Ammons previously served five years on the Champaign County Board and is a member of the Urbana City Council.

Ammons said she owes a great deal of thanks to students who participated in her campaign.

“Students from the University and Parkland College played a major role in canvassing, door-knocking, strategy planning, map drawing,” Ammons said.

Williamson said others told her the race was impossible and not to try, but she reminded viewers to never stop trying.

“The person I want to say thanks to the most is this guy right here,” Williamson said as she motioned toward her son. “About six months ago, he said, ‘you know, mom, even if we don’t win, we can still knock on people’s doors and ask how we can help.’ It was in that moment that it didn’t matter how the race went. I did my job.”

Student interns for Ammon’s campaign and members of Illini Democrats, Laura Reimers, junior, and Evan Keller, sophomore, expressed their satisfaction in the result of the election.

“We’re very proud of the role that students have had in electing Carol Ammons,” Keller said. “Students were a big supporter in the primary; both in the amount of work they did for her and the vote totals for her.”

Reimers said she joined up with Ammon’s campaign because she believes Ammons is a candidate unlike the average politician.

“I think Carol’s definitely a different candidate than we usually see,” Reimers said. “She’s more progressive she won her primary when she was outspent 10 to 1 and she always sticks to her guns.”

Compiled by Josh Winters and Abigale Svoboda