The Central Committee of the Chicago Republican Party voted overwhelmingly this week to throw its support behind Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) in her Republican primary run against Gov. Bruce Rauner.
In a 17-3 vote with two abstentions, the committee voted Wednesday to back Ives during a meeting of ward committeeman.
Prior to the vote, Ives spoke to the committee at length while Rauner declined an invitation to take part in the gathering. Since signing HB40, the controversial taxpayer-funded abortion expansion bill into law, some have noted Rauner has essentially taken a much lower profile.
“Jeanne impressed everyone with her determination to hit the state’s problems heads-on,” Chicago Republican Party Chairman Chris Cleveland said in a release Thursday. “She also showed a command of policy details. It’s almost unheard of for a Republican organization to fail to endorse an incumbent governor. The people in the room felt that Rauner had betrayed them.”
The Chicago Republican Party vote unofficially kicked off endorsement season for GOP county and township organizations. Thus far, Ives has bagged the endorsements of two other suburban organizations in the run-up to the March primary.
Typically, Republicans in the city produce roughly 5 percent of the GOP primary vote and nearly 8 percent of the Republican vote in the general election. Cook and DuPage counties are the only counties to produce a larger share of the vote for Republicans.
Ives has vowed to restore fiscal responsibility to Springfield, re-earning the faith and trust of disgruntled voters along the way.
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