On this date in 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Jeanne Ives, who was first elected to office in the Illinois House of Representatives back in 2012 after winning the GOP Primary for her seat by about 700 votes. In 2018 she challenged Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner in the GOP Primary, and provided far more of a threat than she should have. In March of 2013 that Ives referred to same sex marriage as a “disordered relationship” on a local Christian radio show, implying gay couples with adopted kids will try to molest them, and in April of 2014, she was part of a GOP effort to block passage of a ban on gay conversion therapy in Illinois. By August of 2017, the Illinois GOP hadn’t done anything to dissuade Jeanne Ives from openly hating gays and lesbians, so she just decided that it meant it would be fine to share articles from honest-to-not-goodness hate groups online that claimed Christians were somehow victims of gay people because LGBTQ protections exist.
Now, while people were expecting maybe a little bit of homophobia or transphobia from Ives during her gubernatorial campaign, they didn’t think they would see it in the GOP Primary, where Ives ran an ad spot featuring actors thanking Gov. Rauner for a lot of things he actually didn’t do, including having minority actors in it sarcastically claiming to be able to use whatever bathroom they want, a woman proud of getting an abortion, and a proud member of a teacher’s union. When Republicans and Democrats alike called the ad “repulsive”, Ives refused to take it down, doubling down and saying “Rauner’s policies are what were really repulsive”. She topped that but at a candidate forum on Martin Luther King Day where she was asked about a solution to high gun violence statistics in Chicago, she gave the solution as “more fathers in the home”, disgusting Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chris Kennedy enough at her racism and ignorance that he just walked off stage. In a moment that’s terrifying to consider as the status quo for the Republican Party, the hardline bigot, Ives, still managed to get 48.3% of the vote against Bruce Rauner in the GOP Primary in the Governor’s Race. That’s far closer to sniffing the governor’s mansion than she should have ever gotten.
And while we linked to all the above stories in our previous profile, we had thought that her loss in 2018 might be the last we would hear from her… terrible Republicans from Illinois just do not go away. Jeanne Ives has decided to run for Congress in Illinois’ 6th Congressional District in 2020, winning the GOP Primary in an attempt to unseat Democrat Sean Casten. While Illinois’ 6th would technically grant a +2 Republican lean to any member of the GOP, Casten won in the 2018 Blue Wave with 53% of the vote against the long-tenured climate change denier, Peter Roskam.
Frankly, while Roskam might deny science, he’s not near the level of loon that Jeanne Ives is, and it’s unlikely that she will help Republicans flip this seat back red in 2020.
One Year Ago, April 6th, 2019: Mark Lovell (TN)
Two Year Ago, April 6th, 2018: Jeanne Ives (IL)… Original Profile
Three Years Ago, April 6th, 2017: Tara Mack (MN)
Four Years Ago. April 6th, 2016: John Picchotti (ME)
Five Years Ago: April 6th, 2015: Mary Sue McClurkin (AL)