Kathleen Murphy & Jeanne Ives in 2018 Facebook photo
WHEATON – Thursday, Kathleen Murphy left as President of Breakthrough Ideas, a policy advocacy organization focused on connecting the dots for voters on public policy in Illinois. She announced Friday morning she is joining the Jesse Sullivan campaign as his GOP primary candidate for lieutenant governor.
However, Ives – who had a substantial following in 2018 and nearly ousted incumbent Republican Governor Bruce Rauner in the GOP primary – is withholding her choice to endorse in the 2022 gubernatorial primary until a later time.
Breakthrough Ideas' CEO Jeanne Ives issued the following statement in response:
Kathleen Murphy has worked for me and alongside me for ten years as a legislative assistant, campaign communications director, and most recently as a co-founder of Breakthrough Ideas. More than anything Kathleen, and I, believe that Governor Pritzker must not be re-elected. His policies do not reflect the mid-western values of the people who live here. The Governor has made our state worse off. He governed for the last two years on emergency orders, turned our schools into a woke indoctrination centers that continue to educate just one-third of our children, protected the political class and criminals and offered no real and substantial reform. For that reason, Kathleen has accepted the offer to be Jesse Sullivan’s Lieutenant Governor.
Breakthrough Ideas will continue its important messaging about key policies being debated in Congress, the statehouse, and on local boards. We will continue to weigh in on the issues that concern the people of this great state. We look forward to hosting top national figures that can energize and inform the grassroots. To join us, please visit our website Breakthrough-Ideas.com and join our email list.
Breakthrough Ideas, as a 501c4 organization is not making an endorsement in the Governor’s race. However, I am carefully considering the Republican candidates for Governor and assessing each candidate and their campaign’s ability to win before making my own personal endorsement. To be clear, I am not endorsing any campaign at this time.
