Jesse Sullivan Desperately Tries to Hide Baggage — But Here’s the Truth

So far, GOP gubernatorial candidate Jesse Sullivan has failed to break through the noise, drowned out by MAGA candidate Darren Bailey and flailing one-time frontrunner Richard Irvin. Now, with just days to go, he’s trying anything he can to grab voters’ attention in a last-minute hail mary.

After weeks of polling at third place, Sullivan this week released a “polling memo” showing him tied in the lead with Bailey. The memo was produced by a firm founded by the same consulting group working for Sullivan’s campaign — and that “late lead” hasn’t been confirmed by any other polling.

A flashy memo isn’t enough to hide Sullivan’s baggage in the home stretch, no matter how hard he tries. Here’s a refresher on all that’s come out about the real Jesse Sullivan:

• He came out of the gate with a nasty stolen valor scandal. After claiming in his campaign launch that he led combat patrols in Afghanistan, it was revealed that he was a civilian contractor, never active duty, and not a veteran.

• He prides himself on being a “true conservative” and a “political outsider,” but his past work for a Democratic candidate and a leaked photo of him wearing an Obama shirt years ago tells a different story.

• He often points to his business background as an example of his leadership, but one of his nonprofits owed money to the state of California and another was listed as “delinquent.”

And those are just the highlights.“With days to go, Jesse Sullivan is bending over backwards to rewrite history. He’s trying everything to bury the baggage that’s exposed serious contradictions about his past and his record,” said DGA Illinois Press Secretary Yael Sheinfeld. “Unfortunately for him, voters know the truth — and they’ll remember it at the ballot box next week.”