Sangamon Sun

Former state senator and current Republican candidate for governor Paul Schimpf has tabbed McHenry County Board member Carolyn Schofield as his running mate.

Schimpf made his choice known earlier this week during a Jan. 11 stop in Crystal Lake that was followed by the start of a three-day, statewide announcement tour “to share the campaign’s plan to fire Pritzker and renew Illinois.”

Schimpf, who previously served in the 58th District, has long argued that Gov. J.B. Pritzker is all wrong for Illinois.

“Gov. Pritzker has lost the moral authority to lead our state on the pandemic,” Schimpf told WHBF. “He’s set rules he didn’t follow himself. He asked us to stay home and continued to travel to his farm in Wisconsin. He asked us to avoid crowds but went out and stood shoulder to shoulder with people at political rallies. He hasn’t followed rules he set for us so he has lost the moral authority to lead on this.”

 Over time, Schimpf has spoken out against the governor’s mask mandate targeting all public and private school students. The new restrictions also impact all state workers.

"J.B. Pritzker’s mandatory vaccination order for state workers is inconsistent with the civil liberties that I spent 24 years on active duty defending,” said Schimpf, who in addition to once serving as a state senator for the 58th District was the minority spokesperson for the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, and chief American attorney advisor to Iraqi prosecutors in the trial of Saddam Hussein during his time as an active-duty Marine Corps officer.

Schimpf and his family live in rural Monroe County.

Schofield also serves on the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning. She previously ran for the House of Representatives in the 66th District in 2016 and 2020.