The midterm election is just months away, and candidates have been working to get their message out.

This weekend, CBS News Chicago's Jermont Terry hosted a forum on Saturday with Democratic candidates hoping to fill the seat of retiring U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois).

Several neighborhood associations hosted the discussion at St. Mark United Methodist Church, at 8441 S. St. Lawrence Ave. in the Chatham neighborhood.

The candidates in attendance at the forum were University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign agricultural engineer and community organizer Bryan Maxwell, Illinois Alliance of Boys & Girls Clubs chief executive officer Awisi Quartey Bustos, former congressional staffer and Chicago aldermanic candidate Steve Botsford Jr., activist and solar energy entrepreneur Jonathan Dean, attorney Sean Brown, and Chicago Public Schools teacher Kevin Ryan.

Maxwell endorsed a platform against war, in favor of universal health care or "Medicare for All," and also in favor of increasing taxes on the wealthy and corporations. He took issue with how military spending is held up as necessary for national security.

"I think that housing people is national security. I think that getting people to doctor they need when they need it is national security. I think that safe neighborhoods and good schools are national security," Maxwell said.

Bustos called for making Illinois "more affordable for everyone," so that children could "dream radically about what is possible for them."

"I'm running for U.S. Senate as a Ghanian American because this is my country, and the state of affairs is not working for anyone, and leadership deserves to look like each and every one of you," she said.

Botsford, who also played football at Notre Dame and earned a master's degree in economics, said his campaign is focused on affordability.

"It is too expensive right now to live in Illinois" Botsford said. "We need to do whatever we can to make housing more affordable, make health care more affordable, make child care more affordable, just make everyday life more affordable."

Dean said he is concerned about the future as the father of two small children, and feels the country is "backsliding" when it comes to progress.

"There's a lot of talk these days about how Democrats need to be tougher, and I've lived that. I've lived that in my life," Dean said, "and I also know that there's a lot of people out there who need compassion — who deserve and need compassion — and I'm here to give that too."

Brown called for reducing gun violence, and ensuring access to resources such as community centers and mental health care professionals.

"The reason I entered this race is because I looked at the individuals that are running our country — I don't see them in our community. I don't see them addressing the problems that we have every day — struggling with affordability, health care, housing, crime, education," he said. "So I said, it's time that one of us comes from amongst us so that we can step up and attack the problems."

Ryan, who identified himself as a "New Deal Democrat," decried "money in politics."

"We cannot fund Medicare for All, we cannot fund universal child care, we cannot fully fund our public schools so that no matter where a kid's ZIP code is, he receives or she receives the same equal education opportunities. It doesn't happen, because moneyed interests control our politics," he said. "Our government works for the 1%, not for us."

Also running on the Democratic side to replace Durbin are U.S. Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi and Robin Kelly (D-Illinois), Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, and Feeding America program manager Christopher Swann.

On the Republican side, the candidates include former Illinois republican Party Chairman Don Tracy, former Illinois Port District Board member R. Cary Capparelli, former Polish American Congress national director at large Casey Chlebek, Air Force veteran and former police officer John Goodman, occupational therapist Pamela Denise Long, and author Jimmy Lee Tillman.

Durbin announced in April of last year that he would be retiring and would not run for reelection.

A forum was also held at the church Saturday for candidates for Illinois state representative for the 34th District.