Chicago City Wire

The Northwest Side GOP Club (NWSGOP) has thrown its support behind Democratic businessman Willie Wilson in his run for mayor of Chicago.

“The Northwest Side GOP Club strongly recommends that Republicans and center-right independents take a hard look at Willie Wilson for mayor,” the organization said in a Feb. 1 news release. “Dr. Willie Wilson is a self-made businessman who believes in free enterprise. He supports school choice to insert more competition into the education system. He promises a property tax cap to protect our home values and stop people from fleeing the city. And most important of all, he will use all tools available to solve Chicago’s crime epidemic, including working with state officials and the president to secure more funding for law enforcement and neighborhood programs that protect all citizens.”

The 70-year-old Wilson has previously run for mayor of the city and U.S. president, garnering almost 11 percent of the vote in the 2015 mayoral election, which was ultimately decided in a runoff.

Comprised of mostly individuals residing on the Northwest Side of Chicago and neighboring suburbs, NWSGOP bills itself as “a grassroots organization of politically active individuals” dedicated to providing a “united and powerful voice and force for change.”

The club also prides itself on being “a united and powerful voice and force for change that believes that Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness are superior to increased regulation, waste and corruption.”

According to NWSGOP Chairman Matt Podgorski, a quote on Wilson’s website where he opines, “It can no longer be Republican against Democrat, citizens against police, White versus Black, rich versus poor” is one of the first things that attracted the group to him.

Wilson adds in the statement, “We must achieve the original vision of our country—to be a place where all people can be free to pursue life, liberty and happiness—truly one nation under God.”