Former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL), who is known for regularly making outrageous and inflammatory comments, says he’s “very seriously” looking at challenging Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) in the Republican primary.
“I am very seriously considering challenging him in a primary,” Walsh, a former one-term lawmaker, told The Hill in a report published Monday. “Mark Kirk has got to be challenged.”
Kirk is a top target for Democrats in the 2016 cycle, so the prospect of a primary challenger will only encourage the sense that the seat is ripe for the taking.
Even after leaving office, Walsh has continued to attract attention for eyebrow-raising comments. In January, he said he hoped staffers at major television networks would have to face beheadings for refusing to air cartoons that were published in the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. He later said that was a joke. In 2014, Walsh was kicked off of his eponymous radio show because he used the n-word during a discussion on the Washington Redskins’ name.
Throughout his time in Congress, Walsh was also in a public dispute with his ex-wife over child support. At one point in 2011, he said that he hadn’t paid tens of thousands of dollars in child support because he thought they had an informal agreement that he didn’t have to. After he left office, he claimed that he was unable to pay child support because he was no longer employed.
Walsh was defeated by Rep. Tammy Tuckworth (D-IL) in 2012. Duckworth has shown interest in running for Kirk’s seat as well, saying she’s taking a “real serious look” at running for Senate.
