One of the more intense primaries in the upcoming March 15th GOP primary is in the Downstate 58th Senate District where State Senator Dave Luechtefeld is stepping down. Two Republican candidates – Paul Schrimpf and Sharee Langenstein – are vying to face former Lieutenant Governor Sheila Simon in the November General.
Schrimpf has the backing of Governor Rauner and high dollar PACs, while Sharee Langenstein has the active backing of grassroots family and pro-life groups.
Tuesday, Langenstein's husband sent out an email introducing his wife to 58th Senate District voters. In the letter, he reviews his wife's contributions as a constitutional attorney that argued for traditional marriage before the U.S. Supreme Court and explains why he thinks she'd make a good state senator: she's generous, smart and principled.
The letter from Mr. Langenstein:
Hello Illinois,
I am so proud of my wife Sharee and the hard work she has put into her race for the Illinois Senate. With only four weeks left until the election, the momentum is ALL hers. The people of Southern Illinois recognize that she is the only candidate whose principled leadership can bring economic opportunity and prosperity back to Southern Illinois without compromising our core values of life, family, and gun rights.
My wife is brilliant, but she is also humble. She really doesn't like to talk about herself, so I have grabbed her laptop and taken over her email in order to make sure all of her followers can learn what kind of a person Sharee really is.
The first thing you need to know is that Sharee is generous.
I can't even list the numerous times I have seen her working hard on a case, but when I asked how many hours she was billing on it she'd tell me she was working for free. She spent hours fighting the Freedom from Religion Foundation when they were interfering with the work of Kids for Christ. She donates her time to veterans who are having difficulty navigating the court system. She has worked free of charge for several Southern Illinois churches. In fact, the day we met, Sharee was organizing law students to help female inmates with family custody arrangements so their kids wouldn't end up in foster care.
Sharee is not only generous with her legal talents– she has spent the last 20 years serving the people of Southern Illinois. Sharee has been a volunteer for Big Brothers Big Sisters, both as a mentoring "Big" and as a member of the Board. Just over a month ago, she took the better part of three days off of the campaign trail to feed families being displaced by the flooding Mississippi River. Sharee is the kind of person who will help anyone and everyone she can, even when she is busy with her career or our family– which is probably why even the neighborhood stray animals flock to our house. She makes sure they all get food, water, and veterinary care.
The second thing I want to tell you about my wife is that she is one of the smartest people I have ever known.
Before my mother-in-law passed away, she would tell me stories of Sharee as a child prodigy, who was reading Jane Eyre in second grade and who was always coming up with new "inventions" to make the world a better place. It was no surprise to me, then, to learn that Sharee made Deans List in college and earned other other honors as well. We met when we were both in law school, and I personally witnessed Sharee receiving several academic awards.
Sharee is admitted to the US Supreme Court where she argued in defense of traditional marriage. She is Ted Cruz's attorney. She has defended parental rights in the Illinois Supreme Court and has won dozens of appellate cases. She didn't decide to enter the race for Senate lightly- she has invested a lot of time and research into how to best solve our state's economic crisis, working with small business owners and legislators. She has the intelligence and imagination to think of solutions no one else has even considered.
Finally, my wife is principled.
She is not a squishy Republican who will say one thing to get elected and do something else after being elected. That's why the shenanigans going on in her Senate race really bother me.
Sharee is up against an Establishment candidate who claims to be pro-life, but then says that life should only be protected at 16 weeks gestation. Her opponent claims to be pro-gun but has advocated for additional restrictions on concealed carry. He claims to be a pro-coal conservative, yet at 1:35 of this video, he brags that he worked for the Obama Administration on "climate change." (At 27:00 in that same video he again states that he won't work to protect life until 16 weeks.)
Sharee refuses to go along with Republican leadership that does not vote according to the Republican platform, but her opponent made a back-room deal, trading a leadership vote for financial backing in this election.
Sharee is too honest to play those kinds of games. Fortunately, the people of the 58th Senate district are beginning to see through the Establishment propaganda. Sharee has the endorsement of conservative organizations around Illinois and the voters are paying attention.
I married well didn't I? Sharee is the kind of self sacrificing consistently conservative leader we need in Springfield. If you believe in Sharee like I do, I would appreciate your help in getting Sharee elected. Here's how:
1) FORWARD this email to 10 friends who live in the 58th District. Here's a map so you can see which of your friends and family live in the 58th Senate district.
2) Sign up to volunteer by clicking this link. We need people to help deliver signs, make phone calls, and knock on doors.
3) Donate if you can. You have probably already received the fake "news" promoting Sharee's opponent. Our response to that is coming, but we need to raise a few more dollars to get it in the mail. Every donation, no matter how small, will help us spread Sharee's message of conservatism without compromise.
4) Most importantly, please pray for Sharee. Pray for our girls. And pray for me if you can. Sharee and I pray together every morning and we spent a lot of time on our knees before we decided she should enter this race. Your prayers got us this far and they will see us through long past the primary election on March 15th.
Thank you all for all you do for Sharee. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your support for my beautiful and talented wife.
Sincerely,
Mike Langenstein
