Brought to my attention by a Friend of McHenry County Blog was the first evidence that Algonquin Township’s 2020-22 Democratic Party Congressman is positioning himself to replace U.S. Senator Dick Durbin.
“Why not me?” Casten must be thinking. “I have represented parts of the largest counties in Illinois and won a contested primary election against a female Democrat.”
The observations below are from the Friend:
Attorney Tom DeVore said on Facebook that Sean Casten is doing this tour to mobilize Democratic voters against Congressman Darin LaHood (who Democrats chose not to even run someone against in 2024) and Congressman Mike Bost (whose district is 70-75 percent Republican).
I believe a more plausible explanation is that Casten is seriously considering a run for U.S. Senate and is trying to build his name ID across the state.
DeVore encouraged Republicans to go to these events with Casten but now claims that Rhonda Belford who serves as a Republican State Central Committeewoman, the National Committeewoman for Illinois, and the chair of the Illinois Republican County Chairs Association told Republicans to not go to the event, so now DeVore says he is not going to attend, but he also thinks Rhonda Belford is wrong in regards to strategy and that she is “useless.”
He originally said people should go, and he thinks Belford is bad, but Belford allegedly said to not go, so now he is not going to go…
His own followers called him out and said he should attend anyway and then he retorted by asking them how many hours they have volunteered, implying he has done more work than they have.
DeVore, who is at least 55 years old, only got involved in politics within the past 5 years.
DeVore is now telling his followers to harass Belford via email.
He also claims to know how Republicans can win elections in Illinois.
In 2022, DeVore lost to Kwame Raoul by about 11 points and about 445 thousand votes; Kwame Raoul was arguably the Democrats’ weakest statewide candidate.
DeVore’s genius revelation: Republicans need more people to vote. He says that if more people vote for Republicans, then Republicans can win. He has been going around the state sharing his wisdom with Republican and conservative organizations for many months now, yet most people who analyzed the April 1, 2025 election consider it to have been a bad night for Republicans.
Even the Tribune picked up on the “Senate Tour”:
The Tribune reports only about 120 people attended the Carterville Town Hall.
Michael Butler recorded almost all of the audio:
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzQZVKCJbFdWVfsLltFdRKFXJmJF?projector=1
And, to add to the Tribune’s allowing reporters to use the term “far-right,” reporter Rick Pearson uses it to describe former Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey in this article, as it did to describe the U.S. Supreme Court in this one:
