CARBONDALE — While incumbent U.S. Rep. Mike Bost won’t face a challenger in next month’s primary election, Democrat voters will choose between Joel Funk of Mascoutah and Ray Lenzi of Makanda to face off against him in the primary this November.

Both candidates recently sat down with The Southern Illinoisan editorial board to talk about the issues facing voters in Illinois’ 12th Congressional District, which runs from the Metro East St. Louis area through rural Southern Illinois.

Lenzi, a union coal miner turned academic who founded the SIU Research Park, said his experience in both arenas have given him a unique perspective on how to best serve the district. He learned the benefits of strong unions in his time underground, and his time studying economics gave him an understanding of how current systems are not working for the majority of constituents, he said.

Funk, a 13-year veteran of the U.S. Army, grew up on his family’s generational farm near Mascoutah. He said he wants to “try to fix the same reason why I left (the farm).” That means finding ways of reducing income inequality, increasing the ability for many in the district to make ends meet, he said.

On the issue of gun control, Lenzi was frank: he is a gun owner who wants more regulation.

“I’m a gun owner … but it’s time to put a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines,” he said, adding he supports red flag laws and universal background checks.

Funk took a more measured approach, stressing balance.

“I am in favor of looking at a red flag law nationally and expanded background checks,” he said.

Lenzi spent a lot of time talking about climate and his ideas for reducing the district’s — and the country’s — impact on it.

“The climate crisis is real and we have to take urgent action to move to renewable energy in 25 to 30 years,” he said. However, as a former union miner, he said he knows how important those jobs are to residents in the 12th. So, he proposed a tax credit system that would aid miners displaced by the shift to renewable energy to be able to get jobs building a new renewable energy infrastructure.

Funk also acknowledged the region’s dependence on coal money and said there would need to be a transition to renewable energy.

“There’s only so much dead dinosaur fuel to go around,” he said. However, he did not go into specifics.

Both agreed that insurance companies and drug manufacturers needed to be put in check. Funk said people have lost their collective bargaining power with the companies.

“We pay what we are told to pay,” he said.

Lenzi said he’d like to see a bigger push toward a government option, but was not willing to ban outright the private sector options.

“I’d like to see a much simpler system,” he said.

The Illinois primary election will be held Tuesday, March 17.