Friends,
We are excited to share that our Illinois Freedom Caucus members who faced contested primaries all won re-election on Tuesday.
And it wasn’t even close.
The results of the elections are significant because the Establishment burned over $700,000 to try and unseat our members, the most significant funding of which came from the state’s teachers’ unions.
If you recall, Illinois Democrats, at the behest of their teachers’ union puppetmasters, killed the state’s only school choice program, which expired at the end of FY2023. Our Illinois Freedom Caucus members, while unsuccessful, played a prominent role in the fight to save the program and making it a national story.
When you think of teachers’ unions donating to lawmakers, you probably assume it means funding Democrats. But over the last few years, they’ve quietly began working to elect “Republicans” that will do their bidding.
And in response to the support Illinois Freedom Caucus members have for school choice, the state’s largest teachers’ unions poured money into Republican primary challenges against them.
ILFC member Rep. Blaine Wilhour faced the most opposition. The unions spent over $400,000 to unseat him. That was 4x the amount of money that Blaine spent in the race.
The result? Blaine won with nearly 80% of the vote.
Freedom Caucus member Rep. Adam Niemerg also faced a coordinated attack that was just plain dirty. Democrats and teachers’ unions conspired to successfully kick Niemerg off the ballot based on a technicality. Adam was then forced to run a “write-in” campaign, while the Left recruited their own “write-in” fake Republican candidate. The unions then poured over $300,000 into attacking Adam’s record.
Since it’s a “write-in” race, they are still counting the ballots, but Adam is leading with over 90% of the vote.
In addition, Rep. Brad Halbrook overwhelmingly defeated a RINO primary challenger with 68% of the vote. And on top of it all, ILFC-endorsed candidate Regan Deering won her primary in an open seat with nearly 70% of the vote.
Not only did our members torch the Springfield special interests that tried to unseat them, but they even increased their ranks.
The lesson here? When you push strong conservative policies, the voters will reward you. The future is bright for the Illinois Freedom Caucus.
Keep fighting,
Andy Roth
President
State Freedom Caucus Network
P.S. Your help is critical in building out a network of patriots and freedom fighters throughout our nation’s state capitols and in your home state. Please consider a contribution and join us as we work to advance the cause of liberty.