Chicago,IL  HR 40 and stopping the pipeline of illegal guns and drugs from Mexico and  are the immediate issues Jimmy Lee Tillman, II, candidate for the 1st Congressional District GOP nomination,will bring to the floor when elected to Congress. Read this week's edition of the HydePark Herald for the entire story below or click linkhere

Tillman takes on Republican ticket for 1st Congressional race

By ALLISON MATYUS
Staff Writer

The 1st Congressional District has had a Democratic leader for the past 81 years. Republican candidate, Jimmy Lee Tillman II, is trying to change that.

Tillman is an African American Republican and is trying to represent the minority in the majority of Congress.

“We have a Republican majority and it’s going to be a Republican majority for the next eight or ten years at least. If we don’t have anyone in the majority speaking on African American issues, then our Black communities will suffer,” he said.

Most of Tillman’s issues are geared towards the African American community, but they parallel with the issues that Republicans push towards. Growing up in a strong political family, he saw his mother, former 3rd Ward alderman, Dorothy Tillman, being overlooked by the Democratic Party in Chicago.

“I realized early on that the Democratic Party is not in step with the Black community. It was a smoke screen because the laws my mother was trying to pass for the Black community were getting shut down,” he said. “All the same principles she had matched up with the Republican Party.”

Those principles include creating jobs and ending the gun and drug traffic that come in through Chicago. Tillman said that tighter immigration laws are the solution to these key problems.

“We have a direct connection between the drugs and guns coming from Mexico to our communities,” he said. “It is in the Black community’s [best] interest that the border is secure.”

Tillman explained that stricter immigration regulations would be one of the first things he would improve in the district to stop the pipeline of drugs and guns, as well as open up more jobs. He said if he were elected, he would create real results in the district in his 13-14 month term before the next election.

“I have to do things really quick and really fast to make sure the community sees what I have done in a short amount of time,” he said. “Immigration reform and pushing forth HR40 are things that can be accomplished.”

Tillman is also looking at improving the infrastructure in the district and instilling a cap on taxes. He said that he believes that student loans should be deductible on taxes. As far as education goes, Tillman’s approach is to let the people choose.

“I believe that if the state and the federal government allowed citizens vouchers and let the parents choose where they want to send their children, only then can charters and public schools operate on the same playing field,” he said.

In the last election in 2014, Tillman went up against incumbent U.S. Rep Bobby Rush (D-1) with only $500 in his election campaign. This time around, he is hoping to get some Democrat votes on board for his campaign.

“The pathway to victory is much more easier this time than it was last time. The dissatisfaction from the African American voters with the Democratic Party is louder now than ever before,” he said.

Tillman said he may be an anomaly to Chicago politics, being one of the only African American Republicans, but his belief in the Republican Party is what has driven him forward.

“This primary is going to show Chicago that the Republican Party is not their father’s party,” Tillman said. “It might be their grandmother’s party, but it’s not their father’s party. It’s the party that gave Blacks the first opportunity to be senators and congressmen and that’s the party I’m trying to bring back again.”

a.matyus@hpherald.com