Illinois 2nd Congressional District candidates Donna Miller and Mike Noack make their case

Election Day is less than a month away, with control of Congress on the line. Four Illinois members of the U.S. House of Representatives are stepping down at the end of their terms, including Rep. Robin Kelly in the 2nd District.

Kelly has represented the 2nd District – which stretches from the Hyde Park neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago to the farms of Danville in central Illinois – for years, but is stepping down after a failed Senate bid in March.

The two candidates on the ballot who are running for Kelly's seat come with two very different approaches.

Republican Mike Noack is a first-time candidate who said he's bringing common sense back to politics.

"I am not a career politician. I'm a truck driver who is sick of the politics as usual," he said. "Everybody is struggling. You know, I'm struggling."

Noack said Congress needs to get oil companies to bring down gas prices.

"The executives, if they just give back a couple of million dollars of their multimillion dollar bonuses to the people that actually make them the money, you might have people actually showing up to work and being happy about it," he said.

Democrat Donna Miller has served on the Cook County Board for eight years, and said she's ready to help the urban, suburban, and rural families who live in the 2nd Congressional District.

"I think we need people who understand health care, which has been my background and my career for the last 25 years," she said. "People care about not being able to afford health care, I've heard that across the board. People have said that their premiums have gone up, and for a small business that makes it very unaffordable."

What can Miller do in Congress to help move those things along?

"One of the first things is to put the Affordable Care Act back on in place; all of the cuts, the $880 billion worth of cuts that this administration put forth are affecting everyday people. We have to put those back," she said.

Noack acknowledged this is an especially tough election to be running as a Republican in Illinois, with President Trump's approval ratings so low and the cost of gas so high.

"It is hurting the Republicans a bit," he said. "I think we're still doing good, though."

Miller said, while President Trump is not on the ballot, he'll still be a crucial factor in the election.

"His policies are on the ballot, and that's what we're talking about. That's where we have to take Congress back. So that's the first thing that looks like it's going to happen," Miller said.

Miller said she's very bullish about Democrats' ability to take back the House. If they do, though, Miller doesn't think there will be an immediate effort to impeach President Trump, saying, "I think that we have bigger things."

"People are tired of hearing about fighting," she said. "The more important thing will be to put things back in place that help everyday people."

Noack said, while he believes the immigration system is broken, he doesn't necessarily support how the Trump administration ran its immigration enforcement effort in Chicago, known as Operation Midway Blitz.

"I think that could have been done better," he said. "We've got a lot of protesters hanging out and being in the way, and I understand their point of view, too."

While Noack said his biggest problem with Operation Midway Blitz was the protesters, that doesn't mean he didn't have any problems with how federal agents behaved.

"It wasn't good all the way around. I mean, you've got bad actors on both sides," he said.