Meet The Candidates For Lieutenant Governor Of Illinois

Sasha-Ann Simons (0:12)

Hey Chicago, I'm Sasha-Ann Simons, and this is In the Loop.

Be sure to listen all the way through to the end of the podcast for a breakdown of the state's top local stories. But first, who will be the state's next lieutenant governor? We're putting a spotlight on the ticket as Illinois voters get ready to choose a governor and lieutenant governor in just two weeks. And we've been hearing directly from the people vying for that number two spot. Three individual interviews, one clear mission, to become Illinois' next lieutenant governor.

In this episode of the pod, you'll hear from Democratic candidate Christian Mitchell, whose governor Pritzker's running mate, Republican candidate Aaron Del Mar, who's on the ballot with gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey, and independent candidate Carolyn Schofield, running alongside Colin Corbin. We'll get into each of their backgrounds and their visions for navigating various issues on behalf of Illinois residents. First up is my conversation with Democrat Christian Mitchell. He spent three terms as a state rep, was a former deputy governor, and now he's JB Pritzker's running mate. So I started by asking what specifically he believes has prepared him for this role. Here's Christian.

Christian Mitchell (1:25)

So listen, I feel fortunate to have a lot of experience in state government, both as a state representative from the legislative side, and our legislative partners are so important. We had a very, very different administration before JB, where we had had eight credit downgrades, we've had 12 credit upgrades, and that's in part because of our partnership with the General Assembly. So that relationship with the legislature is important. My experience there, I think, is thus very important. And then as deputy governor, I oversaw some of our most difficult agencies, Department of Corrections, Department of Transportation, Commerce Commission, Power Agency, Department of Natural Resources at one point. So it's a varied experience, and it's a combination of legislative and administrative experience that I think gets me ready to step in and be a good governing partner for the governor.

Sasha-Ann Simons (2:11)

What do you think sets you apart from your opponents?

Christian Mitchell (2:14)

I mean, I think some of that's experience, but I think also some of it's just values. I think we see the world a bit differently. I think that you just saw this morning, there was an announcement from the Trump administration that inflation has gotten so bad, they've had to raise the CPI value for social security. So his own government is admitting that the cost of everything is out of control, as the president says, well, everything is better than it's ever been. And I think that for JB and I, it's a major problem when Illinois farmers are having trouble selling their crops, when everything from the cost of diesel to the cost of their machinery has gone up before the harvest, and people are struggling to put groceries on the table. You know, we are standing up on this. We are making sure that we are investing in lowering the cost of housing. We are investing in cutting the state grocery tax, about $120 a year for a family here in the city of Chicago. We just gave a roughly $1,400 tax cut to nearly a million Illinoisans last year between earned income tax credit and child tax credit.

And our opponents seem to think that Donald Trump's agenda is just fine for the people of Illinois. So we're going to keep fighting to make sure that we are raising your wages, lowering your costs. I think our opponents need to account for why they're not standing up to Donald Trump as he crushes Illinois families.

Sasha-Ann Simons (3:21)

Yeah. Tell me more about some of those priorities when it comes to affordability, right? Because that is what is top of mind for Illinoisans and for people across the country. Let's be real here. You talked groceries a little bit there. I mean, they've been several cuts to snap, right? Any other priorities on the table?

Christian Mitchell (3:37)

Yeah. I mean, let me talk about what we've done. Let me talk about what we would still like to do, still need to do. So part of what we've done, you've got to. You know, the Trump administration has cut hundreds of millions from the SNAP program. For those listening who may not know, that's food that goes toward feeding families that are struggling, especially poor children. And we've tried to put a $400 payment back in the pockets of families that have lost their SNAP benefits. I want to be very clear, Sasha, it's not enough, but it's something and it's what the state can do.

We have worked very hard to make sure that we are cutting taxes for working families, especially those with children. We instituted a tax credit for families with children, an income tax credit, which is huge in the state of Illinois, again, about $1,500 a year for a family in this state. But there is something we still need to get done. We pushed $250 million new dollars into housing this year. It's a big deal to build more middle market housing. But the governor also proposed a build plan to build more middle market housing, cut red tape, unleash our builders. So much of this, Sasha, is a supply program. If there's more housing out there, then the cost of rent and mortgage goes down. We didn't get that done in the legislature last year. We're going to go back and we're going to re-attack that.