Jesús García

Democratic nominee Patty Garcia will succeed retiring Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García in Illinois’ 4th Congressional District, NBC News is projecting.

Garcia is expected to succeed the Congressman, under whom she served as chief of staff before jumping into the Democratic primary earlier this year.

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She ended up winning a four-way race for the seat against Republican challenger Lupe Castillo, Lyons Mayor Chris Getty and Working Class Party nominee Ed Hershey.

NOTE: You can track live election results here.

Garcia faced a tsunami of criticism when she jumped into the race, as the announcement was made that the incumbent “Chuy” García was dropping out just before the filing deadline for the March primary.

Her challengers in the race had argued that the way in which the incumbent had dropped out was meant to prevent other candidates from jumping into the Democratic primary, but Patty Garcia has defended the late timing, arguing that the Congressman’s health concerns made his withdrawal necessary, and that she had less than 24 hours to make the decision to run in his place.

Among the policy ideas Garcia put forth in the Midwest’s only predominately Latino Congressional district is that ICE needs to be abolished and that the Trump administration’s immigration policies need to be kept in check by Congress, specifically through budget constraints.

“I’ve been very vocal since day one that we have to abolish ICE, and that means not one more penny to a rogue agency that has had a blank check and has gone unchecked,” she said.

She also said it is critical that Latinos in the district continue to have representation in Congress.

“We’re trying to protect this district and make sure that the experiences and voices of Latino voter across this district continue to be represented in Washington DC,” she said.