IL-14: First Impressions of Newly Minted Republican Candidate Jerry Evans

Jerry Evans

Waking up this Monday morning on the 21st of October and seeing the announcement of a new 14th district Republican candidate was definitely not expected.

Unlike other recent candidate entries, you generally hear rumor, or hear about them announcing their decision at a Republican organization meeting.

Not Warrenville resident Jerry Evans, who announced his primary campaign bid to challenge Congresswoman Lauren Underwood.

Evans is the first DuPage County resident to enter the race, and McHenry County Blog has put him on the map:

Locations of Congressional Candidates’ Home Residences Approximate
Compiled by McHenry County Blog

Given Evans’ late entry into the campaign, he had the opportunity to adapt his campaign launch and message to what he had seen the other 7 candidates do. Here’s an outline of what we observed Evans doing and which campaign he likely adapted:

  • Highly professional introductory video
    • Ted Gradel “Underdog”
    • Catalina Lauf “Heartland”
  • Social Media presence on all platforms including Instagram
    • Catalina Lauf
  • Using WinRed to raise online donations
    • Catalina Lauf
  • Substantial & Relevant Content on the Issues
    • [Nobody]

While Evans’ video lacked star-power of Gradel’s “Underdog” of former Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz or Lauf’s complementary feature in the New York Post, we are impressed by the depth his video contained about the issues, and about Lauren Underwood’s stances on some issues.

In Gradel’s video, he did not speak once, Holtz did all the talking. While Lauf showed an Underwood quote from early August article, she did not show positions on issues. Evans briefly did.

Additionally, Evans’ press release included the following quote:

“As a businessman, I measure success based on tangible results and that’s why I am releasing a slate of detailed policy positions at the same time I announce my candidacy. While career politicians may think that vague political buzzwords are sufficient platforms to run on, I want everyone to know exactly where I stand from day one of this race.”

Jerry Evans
.

Definitely, he touches on the issues in the video. On his campaign website, Evans gives a good top-level introduction to what should be a well-researched policy/position statement paper, far beyond the abstract bromides of some of his competitors. Evans is applauded for providing more depth than the other Republican candidates on the issues in his campaign launch.

While Evans’ details are a start, it is not the finished product, and he needs to refine each of his issues, with specifics of where Underwood stands and has voted in her first 9 1/2 months in Congress.

Then voters can gauge if he is ready to stand-up to Underwood if he is the nominee, especially when she claims, as an example, she sponsored and supported significant immigration reform to address the crisis at the southern border.

Evans and all the other Republicans need to know what those bills are, what’s right and what’s wrong with them, and what they would do different.

Overall, it’s a good start, and most in-depth on the issues campaign launch seen to date in the 14th. Evans has room for improvement, and he’s expected to do that to quickly be seen as viable to Republican primary voters.

In case you missed it, here is Evans’ video introduction:

Source: Jerry Evans for Congress YouTube Channel

Comments

IL-14: First Impressions of Newly Minted Republican Candidate Jerry Evans — 9 Comments

  1. The hairstyle, unkempt shaving style, and vacuous grin do not engender hope. Who’s bankrolling this poser?

  2. That map of candidates’ residences is something.

    How can Rezin run if she doesn’t reside in the district, this being a non-census redistricting year>?

  3. The U.S, Constitution says oe must be a resident of the state, not the district.

  4. Fort Drum MP, OK, let’s not pick on the 2 graduates from Division III schools in CCIW. Wonder if there was a time when 2 graduates from the CCIW were in the same primary election for Congress. Sue Rezin is a graduate from Augustana College, and Jerry Evans a graduate of Wheaton College. A Viking and a Thunder.

    I think Rezin was at Augustana when the Vikings won 4 straight national championships in D3 football in the 1980s. And I think Evans was already out of Wheaton when the Thunder made the national semi finals 11 or 12 years ago.

    So the 8-candidate field there are:
    2 Big Ten graduates, Jim Oberweis from U of I, James Marter from Purdue
    1 Notre Dame graduate, Ted Gradel
    1 MAC graduate, Miami of Ohio, Catalina Lauf
    2 CCIW graduates already mentioned
    1 GLVC graduate, Anthony Catella, though not sure if Quincy U. was part of GLVC when he was there.
    1 MVC graduate, Danny Malouf, Illinois State

    Given the number of Republican candidates in the 14th, we can form a conference of our own.

  5. Does Underwood really live where she claims to live?

    How can Rezin run if she doesn’t live in dist?

  6. As far as we know, Lauren Underwood lives in the Will County portion of Naperville.

    Please see Cal’s comment above for the Rezin answer.

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