Frequently Asked Questions about the John W Hursey Jr Campaign for Congress
Q: Aren’t you that guy from the paper who said “I don’t have a chance in hell” of winning?
A: Yep, that’s me! Faced with running against a 22-year incumbent with over a million dollars in their campaign account, I was brutally honest about my chances. Thousands of newspapers picked up that story, because readers found that type of candor to be refreshing and unique in a very cynical time. That statement, and my candidacy, has resonated with lots of people who also face tough situations with the same type of honesty and frankness.
I said we didn’t have a chance in hell if we played by the same old rules. We haven’t so far, and now the incumbent has suddenly announced that he won’t be seeking reelection.
Hell just froze over.
Q: What kind of issues are you running on?
A: Issues are for losers.
I teach high school English for a living. I can do issues if I want to.
The simple fact, though, is that the majority of voters in Illinois 15th Congressional District–the ones that have kept John Shimkus in office for the last 20 years–are not issues-based voters. They want to know that their representative will have to balance their ideals against the ability to compromise, and find the right solution for our country somewhere in the middle. These are values-based voters.
The only issue Democrats in this district need to be worried about is branding their progressive ideology as beneficial to the working-class, values-based voters that make up the majority in this district. That’s where I can help.
Trying to argue issues against people like this is pointless. It’s so easy to get lost in a stream of endless fighting on social media that only divides families and friends, and makes it harder to actually solve our country’s problems. I’d like to try as hard as possible to focus on the aspects of our lives that are similar.
Q: So wait, are you saying that Democrats should pretend to be like Republicans so they can win?
A: NO!
It’s easy to forget this when you’re yelling at some stranger on Facebook, but most Republicans want something to be done about gun violence in America. What those same Republican voters don’t understand is that most Democrats don’t want to punish law-abiding gun owners who aren’t hurting anyone.
We can use that sliver of consensus to do some small amount of good in the world, like perhaps increasing funding to the agencies that investigate and authorize the enormous backlog of people with a FFL (federal firearms license), which is how the majority of illegal firearm purchases occur. That’s a solution that is fundamentally Democratic in nature (more money for government agencies), while also not encroaching on a person’s individual liberty. (See? I can do issues!)
It’s not a compromise to point out that both sides actually want the same thing.
Q: What’s going on with your campaign now that John Shimkus has retired? Wasn’t your whole campaign about defeating him?
A: I first became interested in running against John Shimkus after learning about his involvement in the Mark Foley sexual abuse scandal. I felt that I could not abide such an egregious moral and ethical lapse from a person that was supposed to be representing my values and district. When my campaign announcement was picked up by over 1,000 different news outlets across the country, I made sure to inform readers that I intended to bring his past actions to light.
Now, faced with the prospect of a strong insurgent campaign aimed squarely at his abhorrent decision to remain silent, John Shimkus has decided not to seek reelection next fall.
So……we won.
I know that pundits and supporters of Shimkus will point to the current trend of long-term incumbents seeking to retire, and they certainly have valid arguments to make. However, it should be noted that he was a 21 point favorite that won against his last Democratic opponent by 105,000 votes. He had never shown any inclination to retire up until my campaign announcement and subsequent attacks.
Faced with an insurgent campaign that wasn’t going to play by his rules, Shimkus chose to step down rather than fight.
We’ve already slain one giant, now there will be opportunists who want to take credit for the hard work we’ve already established. Phase One is complete.
On to Phase Two.
Q: Let’s say you actually do win the general election. What’s the first thing you would do?
A: The first thing I would do is update our Hulu subscription so that we would not have any more ads. Last year my wife and I made about $48,000 combined, and the starting salary of a Congressperson is about $175,000 a year. We would also probably add HBO and Showtime to our subscription, too. Do they still have Starz? Remember Starz, the movie channel? If I got elected I would get the cable package that has Starz.
Q: No, like what would you do as a Congressperson?
A: Oh, my bad.
Growing up in a military family, I had a really weird conception of what a “career” was supposed to be like. When I was a kid, the thing I loved the most was holding the door open for people when they were walking into the BX or the Commissary. I would stand by the door, just waving and smiling at people while they were walking in to do their shopping. My Mom or Dad would have to go ahead without me, and I would just be holding the door open for people with this cheesy little smile on my 9-year-old face, asking how they were doing, giving salutes, that kind of thing.
That’s what I want to do for the people in the 15th district. I want to be there to hold the door open for you wherever you are trying to go. That’s why I love the House of Representatives so much, because it is the populist chamber of Congress, where the representatives are supposed to be spending their time back home listening to what their people are talking about.
When you need that tax cut for a small business person such as yourself to get your company off the ground, I want to be that guy holding the door open for you, making sure you’ve been taken care of. When your kids are ready to go to college, and you’re wondering how a middle-class person like yourself is going to afford to send them to where they will get the best opportunities for success, I want to be there holding the door to make sure you don’t have to mortgage your future or theirs to make that happen. When you have to make any number of difficult or personal decisions regarding the healthcare of you or your family, I want to be the one holding the door open for you, making sure that your rights as a patient and a person will always be respected.
My experience in politics so far is that the gatekeepers are all too willing to slam that gate in your face if you don’t have just the right connections or the right amount of money. I want to be standing in front of those guys, ushering people like you through the doors.
Q: This seems crazy.
A: that’s not a question.
Q: Okay…but this IS crazy, right?
A: To be sure, I am definitely crazy.
The plan I have to get elected, though, is actually not crazy at all. It’s literally straight out of the insurgent candidate playbook. Insurgent candidates (people like us who run grassroots campaigns against long-term incumbents) often fail for three reasons: They don’t announce early enough, they don’t control the narrative to drive fund-raising, and they have a poor ground game.
We haven’t made any of those mistakes so far.
Q: Okay, I’m convinced. How much money do you want?
A: Did you know that you can make a second donation for the maximum amount while still using the same credit card by simply filling in the name of your spouse or child in the appropriate fields?
Q: Wow, really? Isn’t that illegal or something?
A: I know!!! It really should be, it’s a giant loophole that politicians use to squeeze donors and keep the little guy out of the conversation.
As a former history teacher, I always think about how the historian Frederick Jackson Turner said that Americans aren’t actually idealists, they’re pragmatists. We didn’t invent democracy, we just made the best one on Earth. We didn’t invent the car, but we figured out how to build them better than anyone else.
Let’s apply that same pragmatism towards your gift to this campaign!
PAID FOR BY THE JOHN W HURSEY JR CAMPAIGN FOR CONGRESS