Ill. first lady stresses impact of the female vote in TV ad
Diana Rauner, wife of Bruce Rauner and president of a Chicago nonprofit that helps children, is featured in a new ad by the re-election-seeking Republican governor and she says her husband has “stopped the insanity and delivered.”
In the ad, the state’s first lady says, “Bruce ran for governor to try to save our state. It hasn’t been easy. But nothing important ever is. Bruce took on the big problems — education funding reform, Medicaid reform, criminal justice reform.”
She continues: “He stopped the insanity and delivered. But 40 years of mismanagement can’t be turned around in four years. This election is a choice. Do we keep moving towards reform or go back to the status quo that got us into this mess?”
In featuring Diana Rauner, the Rauner campaign is acknowledging the need to appeal to female voters, particularly socially moderate women in the traditionally GOP suburbs, in his re-election contest with Democrat J.B. Pritzker.
At the same time, the governor, himself, has been spending time campaigning Downstate to try to unify a socially conservative GOP base unhappy with his signature on laws expanding abortion, immigrant and gay rights.
Moderate suburban women are an important swing vote that can help decide the fate of statewide candidates. They were critical in handing Hillary Clinton a 17 percentagepoint win over Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election in Illinois, and they are also considered a key demographic in deciding the fate of Rauner and other Republicans amid the controversial Trump presidency in November. Diana Rauner’s script also is noteworthy.
By talking about education, Medicaid and criminal justice, she’s talking about issues of interest to those moderate suburban women without touching on the more controversial issues surrounding the governor — such as abortion rights — that could anger conservatives.
Diana Rauner is president of the Ounce of Prevention Fund, which backs early childhood education, and she was featured by Rauner’s campaign in an online ad last year discussing education funding.
Her debut appearance in an April 2014 ad for her husband contained the line that Rauner “doesn’t have a social agenda.” That was mocked by social conservatives over his actions to expand taxpayer-funded abortions to poor women and those on state health insurance.
The newest ad also is rare in that it doesn’t mention the governor’s top political nemesis, Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, or seek to tie Pritzker to Madigan.