AUTHOR’S NOTE: The author of this story is an election judge in Vermilion County, Illinois who may be called to serve as a poll worker in the 2018 spring primaries in Illinois, in which major political parties will nominate joint tickets for Governor and Lieutenant Governor of Illinois. The story contains personal opinions from the author, and the story is not connected with the author’s election judge duties in any way.
Ameya Pawar, a Chicago alderman who is one of several candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for Governor of Illinois, picked Tyrone Coleman, who is the mayor of Cairo (pronounced KAY-ro), Illinois, the southern-most city in the state and a city that lost most of its population over the last several decades due to racism, to be his lieutenant-gubernatorial running mate. In Illinois, major-party primary voters vote on joint gubernatorial/lieutenant-gubernatorial tickets in the primary election, with the ticket receiving the most votes among tickets within a particular party’s primary advancing to the general election.
Having done a small amount of research on who Mayor Coleman is, it looks like he has some serious ties to far-right Republicans, including racist U.S. Rep. Mike Bost (R-IL-12). As a matter of fact, the Chicago Tribune included a reference to Coleman’s support for Bost in its piece about Pawar picking Coleman to be his running mate:
Coleman has been mayor of the community of about 2,400 people since 2011. He is a retired Marine, former pastor and radio host. While Coleman is joining a Democratic ticket, last year he endorsed the re-election of Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Bost of Murphysboro.
Ameya Pawar picked a running mate who endorsed a far-right Republican Congressman who gave a racist explanation for why he doesn’t like doing town hall events with his constituents. That is a valid enough reason for any reasonable Illinois Democrat to not vote for the Ameya Pawar/Tyrone Coleman ticket.