John

It’s Jackie McGowan, the dirt road Democrat running to keep our hold on Illinois’ 17th Congressional District. On Tuesday I told you about the GOP’s attempt to see us removed from the ballot.

Today we found out It's not just the Republicans that we have to worry about.

We’ve been under fire left and right from the Illinois GOP and while they play dirty we never would have expected for a fellow Democrat to stoop even lower then them.

We are currently polling just a few points behind Litesa Wallace, a former Illinois State representative. Despite having name recognition, having been in the race for longer than us, and having raised a small but not insignificant war chest, evidently team Wallace feels threatened enough by our underdog campaign’s progress that she is spending thousands of her campaign's budget on a frivolous challenge to our ballot access.

Wallace team members are now impersonating Team McGowan staff and are trying to get our supporters to invalidate their own signatures on our petition.

A message received by one of our supporters from a Wallace operative pretending to be both a supporter of our campaign and an official conducting business on behalf of the Democratic party. Neither are true.

As candidates we are entrusted with spending our donors' money in the spirit of how they would want us to, and like us, Wallace has been campaigning on holding IL-`17 to keep our House majority. We have to ask, are her donors aware of how she is spending their money on frivolous lawsuits against her opponents? Would her donors agree with her expending campaign resources on impersonating the staff of other candidates?

I’ve had supporters and advisors suggest I fire back with a counter motion to challenge her signatures but I refuse to stoop that low. I plan on beating Litesa this June based solely on my strength as a candidate.

With over 1200 signatures (more than three times Illinois’ required amount for 2022) we are making that ballot whether the IL GOP or Wallace campaign like it or not. However, it’s clear they are trying to bog us down with dirty Chicago style politics to get us to waste as much of our campaign’s budget as we can. If this is how Litesa runs her campaigns it is clear that she is unfit to take on the Republicans this November let alone hold elected office.

This district is a blue square surrounded by a sea of red and if we lose this vital seat because of a weak Democratic nominee, Kevin McCarthy could become the House speaker and Democrats could very well be out of power for the next decade. Rural Illinois needs a fighter who will lead with integrity and transparency. Can I count on you to chip in $10 or whatever you can spare to help ensure that the right nominee takes on the Illinois GOP this November?

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