Mark Kirk

“I want to make sure we have elected people constantly looking at helping the African-American community.”

“I would say that I definitely became much more religious. They say there are no atheists in foxholes, and this stroke put me into a very deep foxhole. Yet that feeling of faith sustained me, so I have no feelings of anger or regret.”

“The Spending Control Act. It would recreate President Reagan's grace commission to have a bipartisan commission on how we reduce spending.”

“The intelligence community agrees 30 percent of the terrorists released from Guantanamo are known or suspected to have already re-joined the fight against Americans_- a statistic that translates to a horrific reality.”

“We should all be neo-abolitionists here to make sure that there is no right in America to enslave others using the Internet.”

“The decision to go to war is the most important decision that I can make as a representative in Congress. As a veteran, I see any potential military action first through the eyes of the young men and women who volunteered to wear the uniform and would carry out such a mission.”

“It's okay to take the food out of the mouths of the citizens from a government that's plotting an attack directly on American soil.”

“The biggest challenge I have with Washingtonians is they think Illinois is exclusively a Democratic state.”

“When you look at the state of the economy right now, you have to set a priority. And my top priority is the deficit of jobs and economic growth, and especially this perception that the United States could be falling behind especially Asian economies.”

“There was a lot of feeling that with an African-American president, life on the South Side of Chicago would be radically different.”

“We need to focus on issues where we all agree, which is spending discipline and control and making sure that government, both in Springfield and in Washington, doesn't take more from your family budget.”

“For those of us who want to accomplish something for the country, we need to come up with a list ... of anti-spending reforms which are locked into place so we are dramatically lowering the appetite of the federal government over the future.”

“I would say the difference between 'old Mark' and post-stroke Mark ... is that pre-stroke Mark was a major micromanager. I just don't have the time or inclination to micromanage as much as I used to.”

“I'm pretty disappointed in Sony Pictures' decision to pull 'The Interview' under pressure from North Korea.”

“With all this rehab, for me just to walk was a huge effort. I had to re-learn how to walk again after the stroke. And all the rehab and all the effort shows the mental determination times 10 to keep serving.”

“I've been thinking, in an age of Trump where you don't know the direction of the country, the person you need most is a steady conservative hand like Mark Kirk in the Senate to be advising the president, especially on national security topics ... which is my particular expertise after 23 years in the Navy.”

“And taking more money out of the private economy and having the government perform as it has poorly done with the stimulus I don't think is the right way to go.”

“I've always backed energy independence policies, but I've heard from people on this issue like no other. The energy interests of Illinois are far broader and deeper than my North Shore district.”

“The tough thing about these senatorial jobs is you get 'yes' or 'no' votes. Your whole job is to either say 'yes' or 'no' and explain why.”

“The Constitution is a total living document that can change quite a bit.”