Former Republican gubernatorial candidate Jeanne Ives is launching another campaign for office, as she will seek to unseat first-term Congressman Sean Casten in Illinois’ sixth district.
Ives, who lost to former Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner in the 2018 Republican primary, called Casten a “false prophet” and a “race-baiter” in a fiery email, and linked him with Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar.
“Sean Casten and his House Democrat 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,” the email said.
Ives isn’t alone in her quest to beat Casten, as former Lieutenant Governor Evelyn Sanguinetti is also looking to take on Casten in the 2020 election.
Sanguinetti served as Rauner’s lieutenant governor during his lone term in Springfield. She has already secured the former governor’s endorsement, as well as significant Republican support statewide, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Casten, who unseated incumbent Peter Roskam in the 2018 election, has not shied away from controversy, joining calls for an impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump.
His campaign manager Chloe Hunt criticized both potential challengers, calling them “out of touch” with voters in the district in a statement to the Chicago Sun-Times.
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“Jeanne Ives and Evelyn Sanguinetti both embrace an extreme partisan ideology that would deny a woman’s right to choose and raise our health care costs,” she said. “Sean Casten is a businessman and a scientist, not a politician, so he’s focused in Congress on listening to his constituents and delivering for them by working to lower health care costs, reduce taxes, and tackle the existential threat of climate change.”
The Illinois primary is set for March 17, 2020.
