Prairie State Wire

St. Charles investment and wealth manager Bobby Piton has joined four other Republicans who want to unseat incumbent Illinois U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth in next year's General Election.

Piton said in a video statement posted to his campaign's Facebook page  that he is running for Senate as a "Constitutional Republican," which he said "means following the U.S. Constitution first and foremost."

He contrasted himself with the two current Illinois senators who he said don't support the Constitution.

"Right now, we have somebody representing the State of Illinois, Tammy Duckworth, that does not believe in the Constitution," Piton said.

Piton accused Sen. Dick Durbin of saying that the U.S. Constitution is obsolete and should be done away with. Piton made that comment while showing a video attached to a May 27, 2013, Illinois Review article in which Durbin questioned whether blogger journalists are "entitled to constitutional protection." 

Another Illinois Review article, published in March 2015, referred to Durbin's earlier comment that the Constitution "is fatally flawed."  

"So, right now we don't even have a single senator representing us in the State of Illinois that believes in the document that has led to our incredible prosperity as a nation," Piton said.

Piton, who lives in Geneva, is a managing partner at PreActive Investments and an investment adviser at Total Clarity Wealth Management, both headquartered on South Tyler Street in St. Charles. Piton has about two decades of experience in the industry, including time at Rothschild Investment Corp and UBS O’Connor, according to his bio at PreActive Investment's website. Media Matters for America has identified Piton as a QAnon supporter.

In other comments during his video statement, Piton said his goal is to "restore the federal government to its proper size, i.e., 50 to 60% - if not more - smaller than it currently is," and he described Illinois as "a mess."

"Illinois is one of the highest-cost states in the country," he said. "Right now, we are losing people and we have been for a good decade or so. Entirely out of whack tax structure, cost structure, regulatory structure. In fact, over half of the people that have left Illinois have left in 80 of the counties that are the smallest in the state. So, the counties that can afford to lose the least amount of people are suffering the most."

Piton also accused Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot of being "an open Communist" and criticized Duckworth for having "openly supported trade with China" and Pritzker for buying "masks from China during the pandemic."

"We have a corrupt governor, corrupt senators, a corrupt mayor in the largest city in our state and we have little hope of turning it around until we take decisive bold action," Piton said.

Piton defined "decisive bold action" as Arizona-style election auditing.

"Audit everything," he said. "Audit all the elections in the state of Illinois, audit all of the federal elections in this country and see what the true will of the American people is."

Other Republicans who have filed candidacy papers to run for Duckworth's seat are insurance salesperson Timothy Arview of West Frankfort; small business owner Rob Cruz of Oak Lawn; U.S. Navy veteran and retired IRS worker and police officer Peggy Hubbard of Belleville; and sales, marketing and social media administrator Allison Salinas of Pekin.

Duckworth, a retired Army National Guard lieutenant colonel, has been the junior U.S. senator from Illinois since 2017 and is currently serving out her first term. No Democrats have signed up to oppose her.

Illinois Republicans will decide early next summer who their candidate to challenge Duckworth will be. Earlier this year, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a bill to move the 2022 primary to June 28 and make curbside voting a permanent part of voting in Illinois. Candidates have until March of next year to file candidacy papers.

The General Election is Nov. 8, 2022.