DeKALB — DeKalb area Democratic congressional and state representative candidates spoke to a crowd Friday night at the Holmes Student Center Sky Room.

The Democratic Unity and General Election Kickoff Party was hosted by Sara Dady for Congress and co-sponsored by the DeKalb County Democratic Party, Dream Action NIU and the College Democrats.

Dady said this event was an important step in reunifying the Democratic party, because she thinks primary elections always create division within the party.

Dady is opposing Republican Adam Kinzinger in the race to represent the Illinois’ 16th Congressional District in Washington, D.C.

“I was privileged to run in a primary with three excellent Democratic candidates,” Dady said. “I was told competition would make me a better candidate, and that was exactly right.”

David Simpson, the Democratic House of Representatives nominee in the 45th district, said Illinois has a governor who does not respect the state, and he is concerned with Gov. Bruce Rauner’s anti-union agenda and supports implementing a $15 minimum wage.

“[$15 wage] gets a lot of kickback, you’d be surprised,” Simpson said. “People fear that we will put our small business out of business. But won’t it create a better workforce and better service? Won’t it make our small businesses more valuable?”

The Sky Room was plastered with posters in support of democratic gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker, who could not be in attendance. The Pritzker campaign did not reply to request for comment.

Also in attendance were Amy Davis, who is running to represent the 90th district, Paul Stoddard, who is running in the 70th district, and Carolyn Morris, the DeKalb County Clerk candidate.

“I didn’t pay much attention to this until the last election when I got involved with a group in DeKalb called Action for a Better Tomorrow,” Davis said. “One of their goals was to make sure that no candidate runs unopposed, and I knew Tom Demmer had run unopposed the last two times. So, I’m on the phone trying to find people to run against him when I realized that ‘oh, that’s me.’”

Tom Demmer is the current 90th district representative.

The November general election will feature a record setting 309 women running for office in America, according to an April 6 report from the Center for Women in American Politics.

Dady said Kinzinger’s constituents do not have a representative in Washington, D.C., rather. they have somebody who does not listen.

“At the end of the day, representation means not advancing your own agenda,” Dady said. “It’s about having the backs of the people who are depending on you to represent their best interests, and you can’t know what their best interests are unless they tell you, and unless you listen to them. We know that our best interests are not being represented.”