Chicago City Clerk Anna Valencia brought her campaign for Illinois Secretary of State in Illinois’ June 28 Democratic primary to Peoria’s Labor Temple in April, when she was introduced and endorsed by retiring secretary Jesse White.

If elected, Valencia will not only succeed White after his decades in office, but she’ll build on his innovations, she said.

The Southern Illinois native, who’s been Chicago’s City Clerk for 17 years, vowed to expand access to Department of Motor Vehicles services by creating an online portal, boost help to libraries to provide WiFi access, and create a Civics Corp that pays youth to more fully engage their communities.

Already, she’s been endorsed by labor groups including the Associated Fire Fighters of Illinois, UNITE HERE Local 1, Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers District Council #1, IUPAT District Councils #14 and #58, the Illinois Nurses Association, and the Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers Local 1, plus Gov. JB Pritzker and Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, and U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth.

The portal she envisions would be “kind of a one-stop-shop where you can create your own log-in, and you could renew your driver’s licenses there, you could register your business there. You could do all the things you need to do with your own online portal system.

Recalling her first exposure to the state capital as a youth, she said a priority is getting young people more involved.

“I want to help our young people — regardless of their ZIP codes — to have an opportunity to intern at the Secretary of State’s office,” she said, “and we want to create a Civics Corps, which would be young people getting paid stipends to learn how to register voters, be civically engaged, be part of their community, to help families like my own access services, have a seat at the table, for our young people [to] know that anything that feels impossible is possible.

“It really is my way to serve,” she added.

If elected, Valencia would be the first woman to become Illinois Secretary of State. She’s one of three Democrats running to replace White, also including Alexi Giannoulias and David Moore, plus three Republicans: Dan Brady, John Milhiser and Michelle Turney.