IFT Primary Night Reaction: Billionaires Are Putting Democracy in Jeopardy, It is Up to the People of Illinois to Turn them Back

Fairview Heights, IL - In response to the election night primary results in Illinois that saw more corporate and right-wing dark money entities spent the most money ever in a primary, more than $40M dollars, Illinois Federation of Teachers Vice President Cyndi Oberle-Dahm issued the following;

“Teachers and parents know better than anyone that when there aren’t consequences for someone’s actions, they just act worse. What we’re witnessing by the unchecked billionaires, right-wing front groups, and corporate, crypto, and gambling lobbies amounts to a full assault on our democracy.

While members in every underfunded district in this state volunteered on weekends and after class to do our civic duty and inform our neighbors, billionaires spent more than $40 million dollars to confuse and control the outcomes of the night. Project 2025’s Illinois branch wasted taxpayer dollars in more than a dozen counties for voters to weigh in on vouchers with a ballot question that was so dishonestly worded it’s impossible to make any actual meaning out of it.

Working people who believe their vote matters stood in line to vote in races where the ultra-rich spent ten times more in one primary cycle than what most of us will make in our entire lives. And still, in many races, we prevailed. We prevailed because the people of Illinois want their children to go to fully funded public schools. We want people who will invest in our school communities instead of letting Washington invest in private armies to attack them.

To prevent the billionaires from continuing to corrupt democracy as we head into November is going to take clear action from the legislature and collective action from the rest of us.

One person, one vote is a foundational principle we teach in civics class and we learn from the civil rights movement. But when the state lets the ultra-rich and special interests buy elections instead of taxing them, it puts the foundational principles of democracy in peril.

The Illinois Federation of Teachers is proud to have helped power candidates who committed to be public school champions like Julianna Stratton, Miguel Alvelo-Rivera, and others. IFT believes in the power of democracy. That’s why we will redouble our efforts to defend it and defend our public schools as we move toward the general election. In multiple races we saw that the power of the vote by the people is still more powerful than the pocketbook of the billionaires. Like the movements that have come before us, we will continue to build on that momentum to defend what has been won before and win what we have yet to accomplish in this group project called American democracy.”

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