After speaking with incumbent Mike Frerichs and looking at his record in the Illinois Senate over the past 4 years, The Daily Illini confidently endorses him to continue his work for the 52nd district.

Frerichs has been a long time supporter and proponent of student voting, a cause obviously close to our hearts. In meeting with The Daily Illini Editorial Board, Frerichs said his number one priority is the budget — as it should be.

Aside from our support of Frerichs’ policies and views, his opponent’s recent openly racist comments at a Champaign forum were disappointing and closed-minded, and they portrayed a negative view of a community trying to improve race-relations, not make them worse. We agree with Frerichs that Al Reynolds’ “comments speak for themselves.”

There is a long road ahead to getting Illinois back on track, and Frerichs’ is the right one to represent our district as we work toward that goal.