Here is the text provided by the Jesse Sullivan campaign:

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery: Jesse Sullivan on Joining the Illinois Governor’s Race

Delivered on September 9, 2021 at 4:30p CST

Petersburg, IL – Nine score and 9 years ago, a young, tall, and awkward country boy stood right here on this wooded hillside above the flowing Sangamon River in front of a few close friends to announce his decision to enter politics.

It was here that our nation’s greatest president lived his most formative years, endured failure and loss, and developed the character required to lead this nation through the most divisive time in our history.

Today, nearly 200 years later, a young, tall, and slightly awkward country boy stands in front of a few friends to announce his decision to enter politics.

I grew up running around these same hills and have muddy Sangamon River water flowing through my veins.

My first job at 14, outside of working on a farm, was right here at Lincoln’s New Salem.

If I go any farther with the comparison to Abe, I risk one of my cousins in the crowd yelling, “You sir are no Abe Lincoln!”

No, I definitely am not.

How could any of us measure up?

I can’t even grow a nice beard like that to save my life.

But, I have looked up to Lincoln all of my life.

He is the epitome of what a leader should be

• honest, principled, a uniter, who’s not afraid to fight for what’s
  right. An example of true moral leadership. Don’t you wish he were around today to take on our divisive times?

Growing up in the shadow of Lincoln instilled us with this belief that someone from here, someone like us, not born with a silver spoon in our mouth, someone like us – who are imperfect and have failed along the way, that just like Abe, we too have the strength to shape our nation for the better.

I love this great state of Illinois. This beautiful land of Lincoln.

After traveling all around this country and all around the world, my wife Monique and I chose to return to Petersburg 5 years ago to raise our kids here in Illinois.

My children are 6th generation Illinoisans, and God willing, we’ll raise our grandkids and great grandkids here too.

Ronald Reagan, another great president from Illinois said, America is a shining city on a hill.

Well for us, Illinois has always shined the brightest.

From the North shores of the Great Lakes in Chicago to the Garden of the Gods in the South and the corn, soybean, and prairie fields in between.

It is filled with kind, generous, resilient people who live deeply rooted midwestern lives.

The core values we Sullivan’s live by are – Faith, Family, and Service.

My Irish Catholic faith growing up was simple: be a good person and help people in need.

My personal relationship with God is the single most important relationship in my life.

Whether you are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Bhuddist, or a Humanist it is important that we all develop a set of core values that drive our life and that we strive to be the best version of ourselves.

On the statue behind me are inscribed the words of Abe Lincoln

“With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right…” If there is one thing we could do as Illinoisans to turn this state around and make it strong, it would be this: deepen our relationship with God – A God who calls us to love one another, and to pursue what is right. “…With firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right.”

The most important role in my life is as husband and father.

My wife Monique and I have been married for 11 years and we have 4 biological children with a 5th on the way.

We are also lucky foster parents to amazing teenage girls.

I also have incredible parents and siblings and over 100 relatives in this town of 2000 people who have made me who I am.

I’m a coach’s kid and we were a sports family growing up, so I remember crying as a child when the Fighting Illini lost in the 1989 final four.

I broke my back playing HS football which ended my dream of playing college football at Notre Dame.

My older brother KC taught me discipline and to put mind over matter so I could recover and eventually play college basketball.

My grandpa Sullivan was an oak of a man, and my hero, and I often pray that when he looks down from Heaven that he is proud of me.

Family is the most foundational unit of our society.

It is a sacred place where values are transmitted and unconditional love is given.

If we prioritize our families, and the role of fatherhood and motherhood the way we should, I think a lot of our society’s problems would be solved right there.

I believe that true fulfillment in life comes from serving others.

I saw education as a tool to be more effective in serving others so I studied hard.

As my dad would say, I was the biggest redneck to ever attend Oxford University.

I went to developing countries and saw children dying of basic needs.

I realized that delivering compassionate aid was important, but the only sustainable and effective way to tackle extreme global poverty is not to give handouts but to create jobs… lots and lots of jobs.

So, I launched my own company out of Stanford Business School to back the best entrepreneurs around the world.

And finally, I proudly served our nation in uniform doing counterinsurgency work in Helmand Afghanistan with the US Department of Defense.

Seeing the devastating recent events in Afghanistan is a reminder that our politics have real life consequences.

And boy do our politics need to change!

We are proud to be from Illinois.

But, we all have to admit that today… our politics are an absolute embarrassment!

They’re terrible!

Our political class is driving our great state into the ground.

If you need one indicator for this: are people coming to Illinois or are they leaving Illinois?

Did you know that we’ve lost more people in the last decade than almost any other state in the country?

We are down on the bottom.

People are voting with their feet and fleeing in huge numbers to better run states.

Do you know why?

Our politicians are failing us.

Illinois is known nationally for 3 things: high taxes, corruption, and crime.

Illinois has some of the highest taxes in the entire country.

We’re generous Midwesterners, and if we really thought that those high taxes were really helping our neighbor in need we probably wouldn’t mind so much.

But we know they are not.

We are also thrifty and love a good deal.

You can’t give someone here a compliment on their clothes without them letting you know that they got it on sale!

So, if we are sending all that money to our state government, we expect the benefits of a well run government… but it’s not happening.

We have a contract with our government, we give you money and you spend it wisely and effectively to help our people.

Well our government has failed to live up their their end of the bargain.

That’s why Pritzker’s one big signature push for his term, a new tax hike, was rejected by the people.

We know our tax dollars are being wasted and siphoned off so why would we want politicians to take even more?

It’s like a leaky hose, the answer is not to pump more water through it, the answer is to fix the leak!

It’s not about big government or small government, but efficient and effective government.

A government that is held accountable for measurable outcomes!

The next thing Illinois is known for: corruption.

It’s sad, but we’ve become a laughingstock

4 of our last 11 Governors have gone to prison.

When I told a friend I might run for governor he said, “well surely you can find an easier way to go to prison than that!”

Madigan is under federal investigation.

Pritzker is under federal investigation for tax evasion.

Old school machine politics.

You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.

Self-interested politician meets special interest group

Insiders benefit themselves, us outsiders lose.

Because of all this I’m no fan of politics and politicians.

It just seems like too many self-serving ideologues who know how to talk but not get results.

I don’t want to be a politician, I want to be the anti-politician.

A common-sense problem solver who is capable of getting results for his neighbor in need.

I am an outsider to politics, but I believe what we need is a whole lot less of how things have been done and a whole lot more integrity.

I want to propose the strongest ethics reform ever passed in the history of the state of Illinois.

Anti-gerrymandering, term-limits, bans on the revolving door between legislator and lobbyist.

And recruiting the next generation of IL legislators to replace the corrupt ones.

Let me tell you this, if you are a corrupt legislator, lobbyist, contractor, or special interest in the state of Illinois… your days are numbered!

The third thing Illinois is known for is violent crime in our cities.

Safety is one of the most basic and fundamental duties that the government should provide its citizens

We have this ridiculous defund the police narrative happening.

When you devalue one of the most important institutions in our society – law enforcement – then this is what you get… homicides and violent crimes are going through the roof.

The dividers among us want to frame this as cops versus black people, and say you can only choose one.

Well, that is equally ridiculous.

Nearly 800 people have been murdered in Chicago alone in the past 12 months.

95% – were African American or Hispanic.

I want to support our minority communities by supporting our law enforcement.

I invited my friend to visit Chicago and his parents back in Pakistan said, “oh no, don’t go there, Chicago is way too dangerous!”

People are scared to visit let alone move here.

Governor Pritzker has avoided blame by shifting responsibility all to Mayor Lightfoot, as if Illinois’ largest city and its crime problems are somehow not his problem.

A strong governor takes responsibility and fixes the problem.

We have to support our police, we have to be tough on crime, and we have to make our cities safe again.

Instead of the land of Lincoln we are looking more like the capital of Capone!

Al Capone, the Chicago mob boss presided over a land of lawlessness, corruption, and crime and was eventually arrested for tax evasion.

We have a choice, do we want to be the Capital of Capone or turn things around and be the Land of Lincoln again?

This is a critical moment and a time for choosing.

We can continue this downward spiral or we can stand up, fight for what is right, and take back our state.

The mission of our campaign is Illinois Strong.

We are tired of our politicians making Illinois weak, we must make Illinois the strongest most competitive state in the nation.

Strong on jobs, strong on safety, strong on moral leadership.

We cannot be strong if we are divided, and we are more divided than ever.

As Lincoln would remind us: a house divided against itself cannot stand

The media and politicians thrive on this division.

They love it.

They benefit financially from it.

But you know who loses?

All of us.

Normal people trying to live our lives.

It’s not only with the stress of watching this extreme division and seeing our neighbors as enemies… we mainly lose because our government no longer works.

It’s all about ideology and partisan infighting, not actually solving problems.

We are all fighting each other and we need to lift our head up and realize that all of us are Illinoisans and all of us are losing!

To Indiana, Wisconsin, the list goes on for 48 states who are all taking our people and taking our companies. Infighting makes us weak.

I’m an Illinoisan.

I’m team Illinois and I want us to start winning again!

We need to love Illinois enough to cross old divides to make Illinois stron

In Afghanistan our mission was so strong that differences and divides, ideologies and identities melted away and all that was left was pursuit of the mission.

We need a shared purpose, a shared mission, and a shared identity.

We have to believe that what unites us as Illinoisans is stronger than what divides us.

What does it mean to be an Illinoisan?

It means to be as deeply rooted in Midwestern values as the roots of the old oak trees in our black prairie soil.

It means faith and family and service.

It means to be honest, hard working, common sense people who moderate the crazy extremes, not give in to them.

To be Illinoisan means to be the very backbone of America.

And right now a divided America needs us to be strong.

This race is not about Left vs. Right, this race is about Down vs. Up.

Right now we are down at the bottom of every list, we need to go up.

This is about Weak vs. Strong.

It’s about politics as usual vs. Moral Leadership.

Our politicians have dragged us down to the bottom of every list – weak on taxes, weak on corruption, weak on crime.

We need to be strong on jobs, strong on moral leadership, and strong on safety.

We want our politics to match the strength of our people.

We want Lincoln not Capone.

We want our Midwestern values to be reflected in our government again and Illinois to be a role model to the nation of what the future of politics should be.

We want to represent a Republican Party that Abraham Lincoln would be proud of.

We want Illinois to be the greatest state in the country to live, to start a business, to raise a family.

If we want to change Illinois, we have to change the governor.

So, I’m here to announce:

My name is Jesse Sullivan and I’m running to be the next governor of Illinois.

Together, let’s fight to make Illinois strong!

The turnaround of Illinois starts right here, right now!

Thank you and God bless our Great State of Illinois.