A crowd of more than 200 supporters gave Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill, a standing ovation after she was sworn in as a member of the House of Representatives during a recreated ceremony in Matteson on Jan. 16.
“The road to progress is long, but it will never be a dead end. Together, we move toward a better, brighter future,” she told her audience at the Matteson Holiday Inn event.

In November, Kelly was re-elected to her seventh term in Congress representing the 2nd Congressional District, and she is now the highest-ranking Black woman in Democratic leadership.
The 2nd Congressional District includes urban, suburban and rural areas stretching from Chicago’s South Side to Danville. It includes Homewood and Flossmoor.
Kelly reminded her constituents: “Never underestimate your power. One act of kindness, one day of volunteering, one good deed, can create an endless ripple effect.” For her part, she strives to be a public servant with integrity, and pledged honesty and truthfulness.
With Donald Trump in the White House, Kelly said she knows many of her constituents are anxious about the future, especially if changes promoted in Project 2025 pass: 86,000 people in the 2nd District would lose Medicare benefits; 14,000 would lose Medicaid benefits; more than nine million Illinois residents would be impacted by Social Security cuts.
Project 2025 is a conservative governance blueprint developed by the Heritage Foundation with input from dozens of Trump supporters.
“There’s no sugarcoating it – the consequences of President Trump’s plans are horrifying,” Kelly told her audience.
She will keep a perspective on her future work by repeating this mantra: “Don’t be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams.”
Kelly’s dreams include a world free of gun violence. That was her mantra when she first ran for Congress in 2013 and she continues to keep the issue front and center.
“People sometimes ask me: Don’t you get tired fighting against gun violence? Of course!” Kelly said. “I refuse to give up hope, though. I still have plenty of fight left in me to create what the late Congressman John Lewis called ‘Good Trouble.’”
“Some people believe nothing can be done about gun violence, that we should just accept it as normal … I refuse to accept 43,000 Americans dying a year due to gun violence as normal.”
Kelly pointed out that it’s difficult to contain gun violence in Illinois when 2nd District residents can go to border states, like Indiana, where few restrictions on gun purchases are in place.
“I am fighting to modernize our federal firearm licensing laws to keep pace with advancements and technology used to acquire guns. If we can direct our laws to the people selling guns, instead of the millions of people buying guns, we can prevent dangerous people from obtaining guns in the first place,” Kelly said.
She dreams of “a future where our daughters and their granddaughters can make their own choices about their own bodies – without the overreach of government.”
To insure all people have access to health foods for healthy minds and bodies, Kelly has proposed the Food for Health Act that would partner with farmers, invest in healthy food programs and help those who struggle with diet-related diseases.
She stressed that privacy rights and civil rights need to be intact when the latest technological advance of artificial intelligence is used.
Kelly said her one constant is her constituents who “serve as my North Star. Your input and ideas help chart the course for a better future for our community.
“So, bring on the ideas. Whether I am here at home or in Washington, my priority is always you – my constituents. It is a pleasure and a privilege to serve you, a job I will never take for granted,” she told the crowd.