Dupage Policy Journal

Jeanne Ives is reintroducing herself to the voters of Illinois by highlighting a pledge she first made as a West Point cadet years ago.

“My name is Jeanne Ives. I will not lie, cheat or steal or tolerate others who do,” Ives said in a video she posted on her website, officially announcing her plans to challenge first-term lawmaker Sean Casten (D-Downers Grove) in the Sixth Congressional District in 2020.

Ives, who previously served as state representative in the 42nd District for six years and narrowly lost her 2018 Republican primary run against then-Gov. Bruce Rauner, said in a news release she’s grown weary  of “false prophets and false choices” during her time away from office.  

She characterized Casten as a “ruling class politician” and a “race-baiter, who calls a man who wishes “all f###ing Republicans were dead” as someone he could align himself with.

“Sean Casten and his House Democratic socialist colleagues like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar want to rewrite America's history into something it never was in order to transform America into something it should never be,” she added in the release.

Ives said the level of commitment expressed in the West Point pledge she took and still strives to live by is one of the biggest virtues missing in Springfield.

“Demonization of disagreement is crippling our politics and dividing our country,” she said. “It leaves people susceptible to the most extreme ideas and false choices. We do not need to be subjects of big government or servants of big corporations.”

Ives concluded it’s time Illinois voters think long and hard about the kind of government they want: 

“Politicians come and go, but our values will endure as long as we demand that those we elect embrace them.”