The Illinois gubernatorial election will occur on Tuesday, November 6, along with the midterm elections, to determine the new governor of Illinois. Incumbent Governor Bruce Rauner will be running on the Republican ticket against venture capitalist and Democrat JB Pritzker.

Although both candidates have respectable backgrounds, Bruce Rauner is the clear choice for Illinois.

In a state with a current debt of $160 billion dollars, excessive government spending, and unpaid pension liabilities, Illinois has earned itself the title of 2018’s least fiscally stable state.

Under the control of Michael Madigan, Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives, Illinois has been run by machine politics for the past 30 years at the expense of taxpayers. Basically, no law gets through the House or Illinois General Assembly unless it receives Madigan’s blessing first. Using his legislative control, Madigan has passed tax hikes after tax hikes forcing even more taxes on our burdened shoulders and forcing many to leave the state of Illinois. The last thing we need is a Democrat Governor, like JB Pritzker, who will stand by the political machine that has long plagued the land of Lincoln.

Throughout his 4 year term, Governor Rauner has been fighting for term limits, which are not required by the Illinois constitution, and a calling for an end to corruption. According to the Chicago Tribune, Rauner has been doing what no governor has ever done: Opposing Madigan’s grip on state politics.

Furthermore, Governor Rauner has based his platform around freezing property taxes, creating a pro-business climate in Illinois to keep companies in our state to create more jobs, and increasing funding to public schools. If someone can stabilize our broken economy and attract businesses to our state, its Bruce Rauner.

Opponent JB Pritzker has pumped $80 million dollars into TV ads, which we’ve all seen over and over again, under the belief that he could buy this election. Adding on to that, Pritzker has even proposed a gas mileage tax, a vague tax revenue plan he never clarified during any televised debate or forum and increased funding to social services.

What Pritzker fails to answer is how we are going to pay for all that. Under Pritzker, we could see more of the tax and overspending policies that drove us into this mess in the first place.

We need a Governor that will fight for us, not special interest groups or Speaker Madigan, and will serve as a counterweight to the Democratic political machine that has exacerbated Illinois’s fiscal health for the past 30 years. We need a Governor that will reduce deficit spending without having to increase taxes or slash funding to more important services like local hospitals or schools. That’s why I endorse Bruce Rauner for a second term.