State Rep. David Welter Needs To Hear From You

Written by David E. Smith

State Representative David Welter (R-75th Dist.) is promoting some town hall meetings next week in Morris, Plano, Wilmington, and Seneca so that he can “listen to your feedback, your questions, and concerns.” We thought you, a conservative pro-family voter in this district, should know how your local state representative has been voting in Springfield.

For a number of important reasons, we believe your local official, Rep. Welter, has failed us. (See this flyer for more information.) You may want to attend one or more of these meetings to ask him about his shocking voting record and failed leadership. For example, you may want to ask him about the following:

Equal Rights Amendment

Last year Rep. Welter voted in favor of the radical Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) despite the fact that pro-life groups throughout the state were lobbying hard to defeat this left-wing agenda. Ann Scheidler, chairman of the SpeakOut Illinois Coalition pointed out in a press release that our chief concern with the ERA was that it would “further enshrine abortion as a constitutional right.”

IFI’s own Laurie Higgins also pointed out in article after article that passage of the ERA would eliminate “recognition of the real differences between men and women in all laws and policies.” In so doing, it will be exploited to advance the goals of the “trans” cult, thereby harming women.

The proponents of this constitutional amendment included Planned Parenthood of Illinois, ACLU of Illinois, National Organization for Women, Equality Illinois, Women’s March Chicago and a host of other liberal activists and groups. These groups worked diligently to convince unprincipled state lawmakers to vote for the ERA. Would a principled, pro-life Republican ignore the concerns and warnings of pro-life/pro-family groups and choose to side with apostles of human slaughter?

Any true pro-life Republican knows and reveres the anti-ERA, anti-feminist, pro-life work and legacy of Phyllis Schlafly. It is unconscionable that Rep. Welter would reject decades of work by this pro-family heroine and instead side with pro-abortion villains who are racing to implement destructive policies.

Recreational Marijuana

Illinois Family Institute worked diligently over the past few years to educate voters about the consequences of legalizing “recreational” marijuana in Illinois. Billionaire Governor J.B. Pritzker was very involved in jump-starting and passing this foolish legislation during the last few weeks of regular session. On Friday, May 31st, the Illinois House debated the so-called  “Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act” (HB 1438 Senate Amendment 2), and passed it by a vote of 66–47 with two voting present and two not voting. Rep. Welter was one of three Republican votes helping the Democrats pass this George Soros agenda.

The fact that our federal government still classifies marijuana as an illegal schedule 1 drug and that there are left-wing activists working tenaciously to decriminalize or even legalize high-potency marijuana nationally is alarming.

Welter’s apparent lack of understanding of the serious consequences of marijuana legalization in other states–including addiction, psychosis, schizophrenia, violence and brain damage in young users–is astonishing. Furthermore, these consequences lead to greater dependence on government entitlement programs and the consequent expansion of the size and cost of the nanny state.

This also disqualifies him from claiming any fiscal conservative label.

Jeanne Ives

Finally, we have to point out that Rep. Welter was AWOL in the 2018 Republican Primary challenge to abortion cheerleader and incumbent Bruce Rauner. Republicans throughout the state had the chance to show their leadership qualities by standing up for pro-life stalwart Jeanne Ives as well as the state and national platforms and against the radical social agenda of Bruce Rauner.

Like so many other invertebrate politicians, Rep. Welter decided that the status quo didn’t need to be challenged. Instead, he back Rauner who wrote a $50,000 personal check to Planned Parenthood, signed into law taxpayer-funded abortion, signed legislation to quash the rights-of-conscience protections of pro-life doctors by mandating that they refer patients to abortion providers (HB 1564), and banned professional counselors from helping children suffering from unwanted same-sex attraction or gender-confusion (HB 217).

Where was Rep. Welter when Bruce Rauner was sending out egregiously dishonest mailers and running misleading television and radio ads about Jeanne Ives? As a political leader in the Republican Party, why didn’t Welter correct the record and denounce the blatant lies about Ives? How could any veteran pro-life/pro-family lawmaker not get behind Jeanne Ives who drubbed Rauner in the Chicago Tribune debate?

For these reasons and others, we are compelled to go on the record as opposing Rep. Welter candidacy for re-election in 2020. We view Welter as unfit to represent conservative voters in the Illinois General Assembly in Springfield.

Simply put, we do not need more foolish, cowardly, or establishment Republicans at the state capitol when we already have a super-majority of Democrats.

Instead, we hope you will join us in praying for a serious conservative Christian candidate to step up to run for the 75^th House District in the 2020 primary election.

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