Prairie State Wire

After Hadiya Afzal's tweet in July promoting violence against a police officer, the DuPage County Democratic Party took down its endorsement of Afzal from its website, according to an Illinois GOP news release.

Afzal had shared a video on Twitter of a federal officer who was struck by a projectile during Portland riots with the words, “I’ve been watching this on repeat for fifteen minutes and laughing every single time." After the tweet, which was later removed, Afzal announced on Twitter that she would step aside as the candidate for the DuPage County Board.

The Illinois GOP noted that while the DuPage County Democratic Party did the right thing, U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Naperville), for whom Afzal was previously a staffer, remained silent on the situation and did not condemn Afzal's actions.

"Let it be known that when a prominent activist, suburban county board candidate, and her former employee promoted violence against the police, Congresswoman Lauren Underwood was silent," Illinois Republican Party Chairman Tim Schneider said in a statement. "While law enforcement wondered if they could count on Underwood to stick up for them, she was hiding while her handlers moved quickly to force Afzal to step down from her county board race."

Schneider said that it wasn't surprising that the people of Underwood's district can't count on their current representative to support police officers and those who put their lives on the line and keep communities safe.

"Rep. Underwood is a wannabe ‘Squad’ member who chooses to appease her liberal base at every turn and refuses to condemn the most extreme and violent elements of the left. She deserves to be voted out of office," Schneider said in the news release.

Afzal, 20, previously ran for DuPage County Board in 2018 and worked as an election judge, as well as a Milton Township precinct committeeperson before deciding to run again for DuPage County Board.