Chicago City Wire

29th House District Candidate Jeffery Coleman hosted GOP gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey and a host of others for a campaign event held at Trump International Hotel in Chicago on Aug. 12.

Bailey was one of the attendees of Coleman's “Pre-Billiken Party.”

The party was prior to the Bud Billiken Parade in which the Southland Republican Organization is organizing, along with the Illinois Black Republican Federation, which put together a large Republican contingent.

“Following the most slated candidates in along in over 40 years in these races that were basically not opposing the Democrats. So expect, well, at least two or 300 parade participants to follow floats for candidates who were slated in Illinois on the Republican side, that's just about it. And we're doing that,” Coleman told Chicago City Wire.

Coleman will take on incumbent State Rep. Thaddeus Jones (D-Calumet City) who serves double duty as mayor of Calumet City. 

Jones beat Democrat challenger Moment Wilson in the June 28 primary 77.9 to 22.1 percent with a vote count of 7.851 to 2.,230.

The Cook County GOP is fielding over three dozen candidates this year – the most in several decades. Coleman is a Republican running for the 29th House District in the Nov. 8 general election. He is a businessman who started Barbershop News Network in 2003, which gives barbers and stylists access to more than 200,000 merchants through his network.

“I want to shed light to my community that we need to stop being so blind – we need to spread our options, open our options up to other possibilities and not just blindly follow one party that necessarily doesn't work for us,” Coleman told South Cook News of his reason for running.