Former state Rep. Jeanne Ives, a far-right social conservative who almost beat then-Gov. Bruce Rauner in last year’s GOP primary, announced that she would challenge Democratic freshman Rep. Sean Casten in Illinois’ 6th District. Surprisingly, Ives said that former Rep. Peter Roskam, an establishment ally whom Casten defeated in 2018, is supporting her. Ives will face former Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti, who was Rauner’s running mate last year, in the primary for this suburban Chicago seat.
Ives decided to challenge Rauner in late 2017 after the governor signed a law allowing public funding for abortions. Ives’ bid quickly received $2.5 million from conservative mega donor Richard Uihlein (Illinois has no campaign finance limits), which is largely what kept her campaign afloat. However, Ives still spent the entire contest as the underdog against the wealthy governor, whom she tried to portray as a liberal.
Ives infamously used a racist and transphobic ad to make that case. Her spot included a deep-voiced actor in a dress telling the governor, “Thank you for signing legislation that lets me use the girls bathroom.” The commercial also included a man in a hoodie wearing a bandana around his face expressing his appreciation to Rauner for ostensibly making the state “a sanctuary state for illegal immigrant criminals,” as well as a woman sporting a pink protest hat meant to invoke the Women’s March saying that the governor now had Illinois families “pay[ing] for my abortions.”
This spot attracted plenty of attention, but every poll still showed Rauner beating Ives. However, the Democratic Governors Association decided to launch a late attempt to try and take down the governor in the primary. The DGA ran commercials in the final week of the contest pretending to call Ives out as "too conservative" in a barely disguised effort to boost her with, well, conservatives. It almost worked, but Rauner prevailed by a very weak 51.5-48.5. However, according to analysts and Daily Kos Elections contributor Drew Savicki, Ives carried the 6th District 50.2-49.8.
Rauner was already in bad shape before his close shave, and Ives did absolutely nothing to help out her old rival after the primary was over. Instead, she continued to pillory Rauner until the last possible moment. Days before Election Day, Ives was asked if she’d done everything she could to aid Rauner in the general and she responded, “That was never my job. I was very upfront with people." Ives did say she’d vote for Rauner over Democrat J.B. Pritzker, but she also took the time to (correctly) predict the governor would lose.
Ives certainly looks like a very poor fit for a suburban seat that swung from 53-45 Romney to 50-43 Clinton, but Sanguinetti’s first months on the campaign trail have not been impressive either. Sanguinetti raised just shy of $100,000 from donors (she had to self-fund to get herself into the six digits), and she only had $70,000 to spend at the end of June. Meanwhile, Casten raised $706,000 during the quarter and had $900,000 on-hand.
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