Rep. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., left, and Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., speak at today’s “Rally for Rural America” held by the National Corn Growers Association to protest proposed cuts for corn ethanol in the Environmental Protection Agency’s Renewal Fuel Standard. (Jerry Hagstrom/The Hagstrom Report)

In a dramatic display of the dynamics of the 2016 Illinois Senate race, incumbent Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., and Rep. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., his opponent, spoke at the National Corn Growers Association Capitol Hill rally on the Renewable Fuel Standard.

Corn farmers are upset that the Environmental Protection Agency has proposed cutting the volumetric requirement for corn ethanol by 3.75 billion gallons through 2016, which represents nearly 1.5 billion bushels in lost corn demand.

Each candidate arrived in a wheelchair. Duckworth lost both her legs while serving as an Army helicopter pilot in Iraq. Kirk has returned to the Senate after suffering a stroke in 2012 and undergoing extensive rehabilitation.

Duckworth arrived first and rolled her chair to the podium, where she stood and said she comes to the RFS “from a national security standpoint.”

Eighty percent of convoy operations in Iraq are to support oil shipments, Duckworth said. Her colleagues in Iraq, Duckworth said, “risked life and limb” to support oil.

“As a veteran and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, I see renewable, home-grown fuel as not only critical for our environment and our economy, but also as a national security imperative.”

The Environmental Protection Agency’s recent announcement of volumetric requirements under the RFS “falls short of what Congress intended,” Duckworth said.

The congresswoman ended her comments by telling the corn farmers, “Don’t forget the troops standing guard and in the hospital.”

She also told the corn growers that when they visit congressional offices they should not settle for a meeting and photograph but seek a commitment to their issues from the member or the member’s staff, and then follow up with a phone call a few weeks later to find out if promises had been kept.

After Duckworth left and as a drizzle began, Kirk arrived. He got out of his chair and using a cane, walked a few feet to the podium and said that he “came here to say two things.”

He told the corn growers that in the upcoming elections he is the candidate who supports free trade agreements, and that he supports the RFS.

After speaking for about one minute, he walked back to his chair and an aide wheeled him back to the Capitol.

Before and after Duckworth and Kirk spoke, farm leaders expressed their frustration with the EPA’s decisions.

“Our message to the EPA is clear and unequivocal: Don’t mess with the RFS," said NCGA Chairman Martin Barbre, a farmer from Carmi, Ill. “We are gathered here today because we all understand what’s at stake.”