By Theresa J. Jacobs-Raborn, IL GOP candidate in 2nd CD -
I always start from a point of taking a person at his or her word until he or she gives me a reason to doubt him or her. When I first heard about Peggy Hubbard running for U.S. Senate, I was excited! There has been such a horrible attack on men in this country that a lot of men (certainly not all) that have lost their “fight” for fear of being called “sexist”. Female Republicans are perfectly poised to defend our Republican gentlemen and fight for them as they are under attack. I was thrilled to see that we could have a Republican woman in the Senate representing Illinois and with Republican women, like me, representing Illinois in the U.S. House, we could truly change the narrative.
I love it when we can show those Democrats that there are a lot of women in the Republican Party. So I envisioned teaming up with Ms. Hubbard and presenting a united coalition. She was being primaried, so I wanted to stay back and see what happens in the primary. After all, I didn’t want to burn any bridges. Campaigning is about building coalitions, not burning bridges. In the beginning, I was secretly cheering Ms. Hubbard would win.
While I sat back and watched the U.S. Senate race, I noticed some things about Ms. Hubbard that bothered me. I found myself asking, “What is she doing? Why would she say that? Why would she do that?”
I heard the racist comments she made about African Americans. That really bothered me because I am not a racist and I refuse to be around people who are. Racism has no place in my life or in America. Period! I emphatically denounce any and all racists! I wasn’t prepared to deal with racist comments coming from an African American woman, whom I may have to work with in Congress.
I was in the midst of trying to figure out how to deal with these comments and how I could explain Ms. Hubbard’s comments to my constituents, 55% of whom are black. Ms. Hubbard was certainly putting me in tough situation.
Her social media was riddled with spelling and grammar mistakes, which made me question her professionalism and fitness for office. A couple months ago, I realized others were questioning the same thing, I made my first comment. I did not name Ms. Hubbard at all. I simply agreed that the spelling and grammar were bad and that maybe we need to have higher standards for people running for the U.S. Congress.
Whoa! That was all it took – a relatively minor criticism. Peggy Hubbard and her team attacked me. They made up lies about me and tried to rally the Republicans to gang up on me to get me knocked off the ballot. I found that suspicious because I am the only Republican in my race, which means Ms. Hubbard wanted to remove the sole Republican to give the Democrats a win by default.
Why would a true Republican want to see a Democrat win? That’s when I started to really question whether Ms. Hubbard was a real WalkAway / Blexit story or a Democrat Trojan Horse.
I did not go after her. But, she continued to stalk me on social media, by creating fake account, posing as another person. I have a great team and we quickly ban these fake Peggy Hubbard accounts (Cheryl Lahniers being the latest - Hi, Peggy! We see you!) because all she wants to do is stir up drama.
Still, I held my breath and prayed she would not get the Republican nomination. I didn’t want the drama of dealing with her, until and unless she got the nomination.
Then she crossed yet another line that I just could not ignore a moment longer. Not only is Ms. Hubbard racist, vulgar, vile, manipulative, and a Trojan Horse, but she openly admitted to endangering the lives of children!
On February 18, 2020, Peggy Hubbard commented on her own Facebook page with this comment:
That same day, February 18, 2020, Peggy Hubbard was at a forum in Washington, IL where she stated, “I walked in with a concealed carry and I had a gun and three clips and nobody checked.”
This was reported by various newspapers and there is an audio clip of Ms. Hubbard saying these exact words verbatim HERE.
Outraged parents contacted the school in question and notified law enforcement. Ms. Hubbard was investigated. During that investigation, she claimed that she “misspoke” and that she actually left her gun in her vehicle. She claimed that she was “trying to get a rise out of people.”
On February 20, 2020, Peggy Hubbard posted a video on her Facebook page. In the video, Ms. Hubbard claims that she showed her FOID card (not her Concealed Carry). She also held up a newspaper story about her and I thought she was claiming the article was fake news, just like the president says. When President Trump talks about fake news, he is talking about completely made up stories or when they use partial statements, without giving the full statement for context. These articles used Ms. Hubbard’s full statements and did not take anything out of context.
However, when I reviewed the video again, I realized that was mistaken about what Ms. Hubbard said. She actually stated, “this, like our President, is fake news!” She called our president “fake news”! She may have misspoken (again) or it may have been a Freudian slip. You can decide for yourself. The video is HERE. The statement is about 3 minutes into the video.
What bothered me the most is that Ms. Hubbard, regardless of whether she smuggled the gun into the school or not, was bragging about it and calling the school out by name. This amounts to a dog whistle to any potential school shooter to target this particular school because you can get a gun through their security. Ms. Hubbard should have discussed this with the school’s principal, resource officer, security team, and/or law enforcement to inform them of the holes in their security and advise them on how to close those loopholes. She could have described this story publicly using general terms (i.e., “I was at an event at a suburban public school and this is what happened”) without naming the school. She could have proven that she is a leader by helping to make that school safer.
Instead Ms. Hubbard put a target on the backs of every student and staff member at that school! She put these children at risk. If a shooting happens at the school, the blood of the victims will be on her hands because she is the one who advertised it.
That was the last straw for me. I could not stand by and let this racist, criminal Trojan Horse continue to fool my fellow Republicans and bring the entire party down.
I went to the IL State GOP Committee Meeting this past Saturday morning. I was allowed to speak. As soon as I brought up Peggy Hubbard's record, Chairman Tim Schneider leaned over to the gentleman next to him and that gentleman jumped up and came for the microphone. They wanted me to shut up! After the look I gave him, he backed off a bit. I gave him back the mic when I was ready. I will not be bullied into silence! I am defending my party from a Trojan Horse!
Does Chairman Tim Schneider actually support this racist, vulgar, self-admitted criminal Trojan Horse - Peggy Hubbard?
If we do not root out the enemies infiltrating our party, who will? It is up to us to weed out those who wish to destroy the Republican Party. After all, the Republican Party is the only thing standing between the American citizen and the Socialist, Communist enslavement of all of us!
This is not just an election. We are fighting for our very lives and we have been infiltrated. It’s time to wake up. Tomorrow will be too late!
Republican candidate Theresa Jacobs-Raborn will face incumbent Democrat US Representative Robin Kelly (IL-2) in the November 2020 General Elections.
