Greenville attorney and former 2022 attorney general nominee Tom DeVore said Republican U.S. Senate candidate Pamela Denise Long holds views he considers inconsistent with party principles, including her support for reparations and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
“This lady is a racist,” DeVore told Prairie State Wire, citing Long’s advocacy for race-specific policies and her social media posts on reparations.
Long, 53, is an organizational development consultant and occupational therapist from Edwardsville with a Ph.D. from Grand Canyon University. Her background has made her a polarizing candidate in the March 17 Republican primary, in which she is competing against Don Tracy, R., Cary Capparelli, Casey Chlebek, Jimmy Lee Tillman II and Jeannie Evans.
DeVore questioned Long’s party loyalty, pointing to what he described as inconsistencies in her voting record and online statements.
“When Ms. Long decided to run I started, like I do with most candidates, by looking at their public record of what they do and what they say, and whether it’s relevant to politics or not,” DeVore said.
“Clearly, she has racist tendencies,” he said. “And given that, and her desire to have white people pay descendants of slaves $800,000 a person, I think it’s ridiculous that she’s running as a Republican.”
“I also heard her say that she’s been a Republican since 2008,” he said. “Yet she voted only in one primary since that time, and she voted in the Democrat primary in 2012. So you can’t tell people you’ve been a Republican since 2008 when you voted in one primary and it was a Democrat in 2012.”
DeVore cited Long’s social media activity as additional context for his assessment.
“Her social media account is just littered with racist commentary,” he said. “It’s clear that she wants, and she’s not even shy about saying, that American people should pay reparations to descendants of slaves to the tune of $8,000 per person.”
On Feb. 17, 2023, Long wrote on X:
“People saying reparations shouldn’t happen cause white people will hate Black Americans more…”
“Clearly, she’s suggesting that white people hate black people and then she cusses like a sailor and tells us to go fuck ourselves,” DeVore said.
In a Dec. 9, 2023, post on X, Long wrote:
“Dear Black Americans, DO NOT save anybody that you have to convince to have empathy or sympathy for the Black American Negro Freedmen cause. FOUR HUNDRED FUCKING YEARS !! If they don’t get it by now, fuck them. If they don’t ‘empathize’ by now, they don’t WANT to. If they aren’t offering reparatory policy given 400 fucking years, they LIKE you dying and under resourced.• Make them as uncomfortable and uncertain as you are.• Shut it all down!”
Other posts by Long include:
“While I (a multigenerational Black American) was denied food supplement for my family, an immigrant with the same family structure was approved for those same food benefits,” she wrote on Feb. 19, 2022.
“If Freedmen taking care of ourselves after 400 years feels divisive to you that’s YOUR PROBLEM. Fix yourself and change your thieving ways,” she wrote on Apr. 2, 2022.
“HELL YES! Descendants of U.S. slaves should and must have special set asides that NOBODY ELSE is entangled with,” she wrote on Nov. 3, 2022.
“Where are we going to find the money for Reparations…” she wrote on Aug. 21, 2024.
Long’s campaign website also notes her commitment to reparations:
“Black Americans have reported reparations as the top issue for members of the Congressional Black Caucus to address. Black people comprise nearly 30% of the population of Chicago.”
Long also markets a DEI consulting service. Her SpeakerHub bio notes she is CEO of Youthcentrix® Therapy Services, providing “trauma-informed Allied & Behavioral Health” and an “immersive learning lab to facilitate your mastery of diversity, equity, inclusion, antiracism (DEIA) & trauma-informed practices.”
She also wrote that she was completing a dissertation in organizational leadership on “executive leadership of implementing racial equity through the antiracist lens, across an organization.”
In a 2021 Newsweek op-ed, Long argued that organizational change requires “submission of white power to the direction and self-interests of Black people and other people of color equitably.” She reiterated similar points on Hill.TV’s Rising:
“There are ways in which Black voters are reticent to engage in Republican spaces because they anticipate a level of racism and conversation that they don’t want to engage in voluntarily,” she said.
DeVore said Long’s public statements are part of a political strategy.
“I think this lady saw an opportunity to try to exploit a weak Republican bench and get to the show, and then she would be able to give a little bit more of who she is to try and win over the suburbs,” he said.
Long has earned some endorsements, including from the Peoria County Republican Central Committee, and State Rep. Wayne Rosenthal (R-Morrisonville) invited her to a fundraiser in Montgomery County.
DeVore cited a setback at the Woodford County Republican Lincoln Day Dinner, where Long was removed as keynote speaker after party officials reviewed her social media posts.
“She was going to be the keynote speaker, and they removed her after they found out that, again, they agreed with me,” he said. “They think she’s racist.”
Long was also involved in a disputed incident at the Du Quoin State Fair over a missing petition.
“I was informed that Ms. Long entered the tent and dropped off one of her petitions for persons to sign,” DeVore wrote on Facebook. “She then left and came back some time later to find her petition was no longer in the tent. Ms. Long then threw a fit and went and found two ISP (Illinois State Police) officers and brought them back to the tent. It was then I am told that she was having a temper tantrum and accusing unidentified people of racism for taking her petition.”
It was unclear who removed the petition.
“[O]f course she is quick to accuse others of racism. That is what racists do is accuse others of being what they are,” DeVore wrote.
“Sorry Ms. Long but this was not racism Ma’am. The Republicans just don’t like what you stand for and would prefer you start passing a Democrat petition. The Republican Party does not want you running on their behalf, but as usual, I am the only one who will say it out loud.”
DeVore said Long’s candidacy reflects structural weaknesses in the Illinois GOP.
“These types of not serious candidates, the reason they get as much oxygen as they do in Illinois Republican politics is because our party is so weak, the infrastructure is so weak and so somebody like Dr. Long, can say, ‘I’m going to run for US Senate,’ and there’s not a strong party organization that just kind of overwhelms them,” he said.
