Sangamon Sun

“I love our home, but I hate our politics,” Jesse Sullivan said at the Peoria and Woodford County Republican Party's Central Illinois GOP Governor Candidate Forum on April 25. “These politicians have taken everything that I love about our great state and driven it into the ground. I feel like you can do one of two things: get up and leave, like many of our neighbors are doing, or you can stand up and fight back.”

Sullivan defined himself as a “fiscal, social and constitutional” conservative.

“My Christian faith drives my entire life,” he said. “I feel like if we do one thing to save Illinois it’s this: we need to deepen our relationship with God as individuals, a community and a state.”

"We are pro-First Amendment against this woke cancel culture. We are pro-Second Amendment. We are pro-life. We stand for the unborn. We are pro-small business. Enough with these ridiculously high taxes. I have had enough of these corrupt politicians running our state into the ground."

Sullivan was born and raised in Petersburg and continues to raise his family in Petersburg. He is one of eight children and has four biological children of his own and two foster children.

Sullivan served as a Special Assistant to the Haitian ambassador after the 2010 Haitian earthquake. He also served as a Human Terrain Team Analyst in Helmand, Afghanistan.

“What I learned there was to protect and serve,” he said. “At home, we have these corrupt war zones. We have a lack of political leadership to stand up on behalf of our police and make the streets safe.” 

In 2010, VOA News reported he spent 30 nights in a tent in Washington, D.C., to bring awareness to the homelessness situation in Haiti.

The primary election is scheduled for June 28.