UPDATED: Tom DeVore, Attorney Challenging Pritzker Mandates, to Run for Attorney General
Attorney Tom DeVore, who has filed multiple suits against Governor JB Pritzker’s pandemic executive orders, speaks to a reporter after a Sangamon County Court hearing in November. DeVore says he will run for Illinois Attorney General. (Photo: State Journal-Register)
Southern Illinois attorney Tom DeVore, who has become the face of legal challenges to Governor JB Pritzker’s pandemic executive orders and school mask mandate confirmed to The Illinoize last night he is circulating petitions to run for Attorney General.
DeVore, 52, who lives in Sorento near Greenville in Bond County, had previously announced a run for Appellate Court, but asked supporters last week to stop circulating his petitions.
In a video posted on his personal Facebook page last night, DeVore confirmed his plans.
“I have no desire to be a politician. No interest,” DeVore said in his video. “My desire has always been, and it still is today, to try to help people. At one point in time, I believed that running for the Appellate Court was a way that I might be able to accomplish my ultimate goal, which is to help people help themselves.”
DeVore said the actions of Democratic Attorney General Kwame Raoul, who has defended the Pritzker mandates in court, influenced his decision.
“The last three or four weeks have kind of changed [things] a little bit for me,” DeVore said in his video. “I can’t sit by and do nothing and not be able to help people fend off [these executive actions] ever happening again. These children have convinced me of that. There’s only one way I can help, and that’s making myself available to the people of this state as Attorney General.”
DeVore has directed multiple comments at the Governor over the course of the legal battles, but said he would not attack Raoul.
“There should be a stark difference of the two personalities that are going to be there if I’m the nominee,” he said. “I’ve got nothing bad to say about him. I’ll never talk bad about him. I will say I’m disappointed in him for how he represented the people for the last two years, but that’s as far as I’ll go.”
Raoul’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
DeVore faces a candidate backed as a part of billionaire Ken Griffin’s Republican slate in a potential primary. Attorney Steve Kim, who ran for Attorney General in 2010, has announced his campaign, though has not received funding from Griffin yet.
Raoul defeated Republican Erika Harold by around 13 percentage points in 2018. He had just shy of $1 million in his campaign account to start the year. DeVore’s Appellate Court committee had around $1,000 with an additional $5,000 loan from himself earlier in the year.
UPDATE (5:04 P.M.):
The Democratic Party of Illinois is out with an attack on DeVore, calling his campaign a “circus act.” From DPI Executive Director Abby Witt:
“For nearly two years, Tom DeVore has used the pandemic as his personal publicity tour, filing countless absurd and frivolous lawsuits in an attempt to grab headlines, enrich himself, and undermine our state’s public health apparatus. Now, DeVore wants to take his circus act statewide, running for Attorney General in a pathetic gambit to extend his 15 minutes of fame and further gin up his followers against the local leaders who are working to protect the public. Sadly, the Illinois Republican Party has seemingly abandoned any shred of decency, inviting extremists like DeVore to the forefront. Illinois voters want sensible, honest, reasonable leadership from their elected officials, and there is no better example than Kwame Raoul.”
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