As Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s legislative stances this year have landed him in hot water with members of his own party, there are growing calls to replace him on the gubernatorial ballot next year.
The idea of running a new candidate gained traction recently when a piece in the conservative National Review slammed Rauner for his stances on state-funded abortion and the enforcement of immigration law, and suggested Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) could be a possible replacement.
Now, Rep. David McSweeney (R-Barrington Hills) has thrown his full support behind Ives in a press release on his campaign website.
"Bruce Rauner, is a failed governor who admits that he's not in charge of the state,” McSweeney said in a statement to Politico.com. “National Review is right that he is the ‘Worst Republican Governor in America.’”
A press release from Ives’s office cited the story, saying the report focused on the controversy surrounding Rauner and some of his unpopular legislative decisions this year.
“Republicans understand that Gov. Rauner is unelectable,” Ives said in the release. “He betrayed his party’s values. He broke promises. And lied about his intentions, most notably on a bill that forces taxpayer funding of abortion on demand."
McSweeney agreed with Ives’s position about Rauner’s failures.
“Under Gov. Rauner, there has been a massive tax hike,” McSweeney said in the Politico statement. “He has also signed bad bills making Illinois a sanctuary state and providing unlimited state funds for abortions. I'm voting for Jeanne Ives, a West Point graduate, because she will fight for lower taxes and real reform."
The National Review was upbeat about Ives’s chances of unseating the governor.
"Now Jeanne Ives intends to stop his re-election … she looks like the kind of pro-life conservative who can beat a pro-choice incumbent in a Republican primary,” the article stated.
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