GOP US Senate candidates Mark Curran, Peggy Hubbard, Robert Marshall, Thomas Tarter
TINLEY PARK – In one of the 2020 IL GOP primary campaign season's first candidate forums, last Thursday night Bremen Township Republican Organization and Will County Republicans joined together to hear from an array of Republican candidates seeking offices ranging from countywide to state legislature to the US Senate.
During the evening's discussion, each of the four participating IL GOP US Senate candidates admitted they were former Democrats that had "walked away" to become Republicans.
The following questions were asked of the four US Senate candidates Mark Curran, former Lake County sheriff; Peggy Hubband, veteran and former law enforcement officer from Metro East area; Robert Marshall, physician from Burr Ridge; Thomas Tarter, cancer surgeon from Springfield (5th candidate Casey Chlebek did not participate in the forum):
QUESTION: What are your qualifications to represent the state of Illinois as one of 100 voices in the U.S. Senate?
QUESTION: Pretend all these people are potential campaign donors. Give us your elevator speech as to your plan of action to defeat Dick Durbin.
QUESTION: What issue would you want to tackle first if you were elected and the Republicans held the majority in the US Senate, the US House and the White House?
QUESTION: We have a unique situation among you four candidates. Three of the four of you recently became Republicans after being active Democrats. Dr. Marshall, you ran in 2018 Democrat gubernatorial primary that JB Pritzker eventually won. Ms. Hubbard, you have said you voted for Barack Obama. Mr. Curran, you “converted” from being a Democrat just a few years ago. As far as I can find, only Dr. Tarter has been active as a Republican in the past 10 years.
(The moderator asked Dr. Tarter if he has a background with Democrats as the others do, and he responded, "I do…" to the moderator's surprise. The discussion continued with that amendment made.)
Our question for each of you that have switched parties is what can you say or point to that would convince the most cynical Republican here that you would adhere to the Republican Party Platform in word and deed, come hell or high water?
QUESTION: We’re going to give each of you 1 MIN to make your case to this audience. Why should they vote for you to be the U.S. Senate nominee in the March 2020 Primary?
The moderator for the evening was Illinois Review's editor Fran Eaton:
More audios of other offices will soon be available on Illinois Review.
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