CHICAGO (Legal Newsline) - When Stephanie Trussell was campaigning to be lieutenant governor of Illinois as the running mate of gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey, GOP advisors told her not to talk about abortion unless questioned.
Now she regrets not leading with the controversial topic.
“In Illinois, a little girl can get an abortion without her parent's permission," she said. "I think we should have led with that and gone into churches."
Elder
| Black Conservative Summit
Although they had five opponents, Trussell and Bailey won the Republican primary with 57% of the vote but only to lose the general election to incumbent J.B. Pritzker who garnered 54.9% of the vote compared to Bailey's 42.2%, according to Ballotpedia.
Trussell lost to Juliana Stratton.
“Obviously, Illinois isn’t hurting enough,” Trussell told Legal Newsline. “They've doubled down, and they voted for J.B. Pritzker again and he got in again.”
Trussell was a panelist at the 2023 Black Conservative Summit in Tinley Park, a suburb of Chicago on March 25, along with talk show host Larry Elder and Lt. Col. Allen West, chair emeritus of the Texas Republican Party.
The annual conference is organized by the Freedom's Journal Institute, which was founded by Dr. Eric Wallace who ran for Illinois State Senate in 2006.
Although there's interest in staging a national Black Conservative Summitt, for now, Wallace is staying local.
"We're trying to change Illinois," he said. "Illinois is so blue and especially Cook County, which people joke about and call Crook County. We're keeping it here so we can try and change what's going on and bring other people into the conservative movement."
In January, Trussell became a precinct captain, and as a black Republican elected official, she foresees factors other politicians might overlook.
“I think the Illinois GOP needs to be better at marketing to people what we have to offer,” she said. “In the city, our kids can't get to their schools safely or they can't go outside and play but then at county fairs in tiny towns, I saw black kids walking around wearing cowboy boots, cowboy hats, and belt buckles. They're living in rural communities without being ostracized.”
The 2022 midterm elections attracted a record number of Black Republicans running for Congress. Some 28 Black candidates were on the ballot, according to the National Republican Congressional Committee. But, currently, only three Black Republicans serve in Congress, which is the largest number since Reconstruction when there were five to seven Black Republicans House members at any given time, according to media reports.
Lt. Col. Allen West, a former Florida Congressman, blames Republican Party leaders for the dearth of elected Black Republicans.
“You have a Republican Party that does not hold some of the same values that are fundamental in the Black community and that's why I say there is no calvary from a political party aspect coming over the hill now,” he said. “You better do it yourself and you better be an influencer so that you can affect the platform and be that voice.”
While campaigning to replace Texas Gov. Greg Abbott last year, West said he learned an age old lesson of politics.
“More people are focused on their own self-interests and special interests than they are on the interests of their constituents or the American people,” West told Legal Newsline. “You have to be uncompromising, you have to guard your integrity and you have to demand, or at least, seek people of high levels of integrity as well.”
When Larry Elder was running for governor as a Republican during Gov. Gavin Newsom’s special recall election last year, the former lawyer was labeled the ‘black face of white supremacy’ by detractors.
“I laugh at it,” he said. “It's supposed to make me feel bad and get angry. That's what they want. But it's so silly. It's juvenile to slander someone with name-calling instead of debating the issues. It means they're completely and totally out of ammunition.”
Despite the mud-slinging, Elder garnered the support of 47.9% of 6.6 million Californians who voted to replace Newsom in question number two on the ballot, according to CalMatters data. The next highest candidate received only 10% of the vote.
As previously reported, 11.7 million or 62.7% of Californians voted 'No' on question number one to replace Newsom in the first place.
Now that Elder is considering a potential run for the U.S. presidency against former President Donald Trump, raising money is his greatest obstacle.
“I spend much of my time on the phone asking for money…dialing for dollars,” Elder told Legal Newsline. “I don't intend to say anything negative about Donald Trump for whom I have a lot of respect."
On a bus tour traveling to the 102 counties that make up Illinois, Trussell found that being a politician of any race is grueling.
“Darren Bailey and I had a very aggressive schedule,” she said “There were sometimes nine stops a day on a four or five-day bus tour. It was physically draining. I gave up a lot of family time. I felt guilty because you always feel like you should be home.”
Despite the physical demands, the 57-year-old suburban mom would do it all over again but next time for a seat as a lawmaker in Illinois' General Assembly representing DuPage County.
“My state rep is a symbol of everything that's wrong with our state,” Trussell added. “I would love to give her a run for the money, but who knows what's going to happen. I am just dedicated to the great state of Illinois and I want to do something to help it.”