Darin LaHood

Paul Nolley, the Democratic challenger for Republican Darin LaHood’s 16th District Congressional seat, made a stop in Morris Tuesday night to meet with residents.

About 30 people attended, listening to Nolley’s visions for what the 16th District’s future could be, but he acknowledged that winning a seat in the district will be a challenge.

“I would say three quarters of these town halls we’ve held are held in small towns, these rural towns that sometimes get called Trump country,” Nolley said. “That’s not by accident. I’m doing that deliberately, because I want to be here and say ‘here i am. What questions do you have? Let’s talk.’”

A Rockford native, Nolley said he wasn’t interested much in politics growing up. He wasn’t involved in student government or anything like that, but he wanted to get involved because he views this time as a turning point: Either things turn around and get better, or they don’t, he said.

“Working-class people, we’ve had it rough because the economy has been stacked against us for the last 50 years,” Nolley said. “Where it’s going now, with the economy and the control the so-called 1% have over our political and economic stystems, it could be headed in a much worse direction. We all see this instability in Washington right now, and these crazy things that are going on.”

Nolley pointed to the civil rights, labor, environmental, and pro-women’s movements of the last century as times when radical ideas became enshrined in the constitution. He views the election of President Donald Trump as people looking around saying the last 50 years of this governmental model haven’t really worked.

The questions asked from the audience Tuesday night reflected Nolley’s words. Grundy County residents had a bevy of concerns about Social Security, data centers, the economy, and how to address despair.

A Morris resident asked Nolley how to address the despairing younger generation who fear it’s too late, ‘there’s nothing left, and we’re all screwed.’

“The train is going to keep on rolling,” Nolley said. “History can tell you what happens when you get involved. We have the labor movement, and civil rights, and things that made the country serve the people’s interests. [Franklin Delano Roosevelt] didn’t just wake up one day [with the New Deal]. He had all these different people saying ‘you’ve got to do something.’”

Another resident asked Nolley’s stance on AI and data centers, and how he would address fears of AI’s impact on the job market and the environment.

AI needs to be reigned in and regulated, Nolley said, but acknowledged that data centers are going to be part of a modern economy.

“We need to ensure that utility payers are not paying for their electricity, that their generation is off the grid, and the energy use, water use, and pollution need to be transparent,” he said. “Any deals with government, need to be transparent.”

He said he is in favor of moving America more toward renewable energy, and not just because of climate change.

“We’re talking about geopolitical global leadership,” Nolley said. “Energy costs are rising. It’s obviously connected to data centers, capacity and usage, and I mean, they removed green energy tax credits through the Big Beautiful Bill, and that killed off all these projects.”

America is the only place in the world where the use of renewable energies is politicized, Nolley said. Even right wing parties in Europe and Asia are often in favor of solar and wind farm buildout.