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U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth Announces Re-Election Bid

CHICAGO (CBS) -- U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth announced Tuesday on Twitter she's running for a second term in office in 2022.

The first-term Democrat posted a short message announcing her re-election bid, along with a fundraising link.

"We've made so much progress, but my work for Illinois families and Veterans isn't finished. But it won't be easy. If you can, chip in and let's go win this," Duckworth wrote.

Illinois' junior senator coasted to her first term in office in 2016, winning 64% of the vote in the Democratic primary before defeating incumbent U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk 55% to 40%.

A combat veteran of the Iraq War, Duckworth lost both her legs in 2004 when her helicopter was shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade.  After losing her first bid for Congress in 2006, she later served as director of the Illinois Department of Veterans' affairs from November 2006 to February 2009, when she became an assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for two years.

She ran for office again in 2012, winning her first of two terms in the House of Representatives, becoming the first disabled woman elected to Congress, before running for the U.S. Senate in 2016.

In 2018. she became the first woman to give birth while serving in the Senate.

No Republicans have yet announced they will run against Duckworth next year.

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