The burning cross discovered at Grant Park last week, which Governor Pritzker immediately denounced as hate with no home in Illinois and promised would result in accountability for those responsible, has been acknowledged by a twenty-one-year-old Naperville native and University of Illinois Chicago senior named Merlin Louu, who told NBC 5 he placed a MAGA hat atop the cross and burned it to protest Trump administration injustice, adding that his protest had nothing to do with race or gender. Pritzker, who was loud in his initial denunciation, has gone silent since the perpetrator was identified.
Kevin Coyne, chairman of the DuPage County Republican Party, joined Dan Proft on Chicago’s Morning Answer to discuss the episode and to promote the DuPage GOP’s second annual summer kickoff event, happening Wednesday June 24th from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at Pub American Tap and Eatery, 701 West Lake Street in Addison, with doors opening at 6:30, featuring newly minted Illinois Republican Party chairman Bob Grogan, former Cubs pitcher Steve Trout, and local candidates. Tickets and information are available at dupagegop.com.
On the state of the Republican Party in DuPage County and the broader challenge of restoring Republican competitiveness in a region that used to be reliable red territory, Coyne was direct about what has gone wrong. He said the party has been far too passive and far too nice for far too long, operating on the assumption that doing a decent job would be enough to win reelection and that suburban voters would never elect far-left candidates. Both assumptions turned out to be wrong. He said the party has lost close elections as a direct result of running campaigns that lacked punch and urgency, and that the path back requires getting louder and more aggressive in holding the Democratic majority accountable for what it actually does and intends to do.
He said the core message is straightforward: the problems driving people and businesses out of Illinois are all rooted in failed progressive Democratic policies that keep becoming more extreme. Property taxes so high that DuPage residents cannot afford to stay in the region when they retire. Sanctuary state policies. The Safety Act. And the Build Act, which would have allowed as many as eight residential units to be built by right in areas currently zoned for single-family homes, without a public hearing and without any local government input, effectively stripping mayors and village councils of zoning authority and handing it to Springfield. He said Naperville Mayor Scott Wehrli and other suburban mayors were right to oppose the Build Act loudly and publicly, and that the vote coalition that formed against it was strong enough to force the Democrats to table it rather than push it through. But he said it is a worst-kept secret that they intend to bring it back after the November election once the immediate political heat has dissipated, just as Pritzker waited for an opportune moment to pursue the graduated income tax.
He said the lesson that needs to be internalized is that the Build Act, the graduated income tax attempt, and the stream of policies coming out of Springfield tell you exactly what the ruling party’s intentions are and what they will do the moment they believe they have the political cover to do it. Republicans need to remind voters of those intentions relentlessly, not just when the legislation is being debated but continuously, because the political class in Springfield never actually changes its goals, only its timing.
On what a stronger Republican posture in DuPage specifically would look like in practice, Coyne said he believes there is no path to saving Illinois that does not run through DuPage County. If Republicans cannot hold and build their advantage in the suburbs, they cannot win statewide races, and without winning statewide races the legislative majority that drives all these policy disasters cannot be broken. He said more resources would help, but the more fundamental change needed is a willingness to run harder, punch more pointedly, and stop treating the political fight as a gentlemen’s agreement with an opposition that has no interest in reciprocating.