Prairie State Wire

Jay Swidler, Chairman of the Vernon Township Republicans, emphasized the importance of community-level action over national headlines for lasting political impact. He made this statement during a Prairie State Wire podcast.

"We started realizing just how much local influence really is the big difference," said Swidler, Vernon Township Republican Chairman. "And as you start to learn more, you start to learn about how things work and really nothing moves unless you work locally. We always focus on the federal. We always focus on what the president's doing or the Congress, but you know, really on a local level, it just ends up being, it has to come down to the people."

Local politics in Illinois exert a significant influence on policy outcomes, often surpassing state or federal actions, according to the Chicago Tribune. City councils and county boards are responsible for determining budgets, education priorities, and public safety strategies. These decisions have immediate effects on residents and frequently shape the success of reforms within the state.

The Urban Institute reports that local government initiatives in areas such as housing, public health, and economic development often result in more effective and measurable improvements than federal programs. Local projects tailored to specific neighborhood needs can enhance quality of life and resident satisfaction.

A report from the Illinois Board of Elections indicates that voter turnout in local elections is typically 20–30 percentage points lower than in federal contests. However, engagement at the municipal level significantly influences decisions on school funding and ordinances, underscoring the importance of local political participation in Illinois.

Swidler is a Republican leader with experience in grassroots organizing and township initiatives, as described by the Vernon Township Republican Organization. He is active in suburban Chicago politics and has advocated for conservative policy priorities at the local level.

___________

FULL, UNEDITED TRANSCRIPT

Brian Hyde: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Prairie State Wire Podcast. I'm Brian Hyde. Today I'm joined by Jay s Swidler, and Jay is a guy who has a lot of work on his hands and is doing some great work for that matter. He is a business owner, a resident of Buffalo Grove, and born and raised in Illinois. I understand. Jay, tell us a little bit more about some of the work that you are involved in.

To, to make sure that your influence as, as a conservative, as a Republican is, is being felt in a state that otherwise is, is sometimes written off as being hopelessly blue. Oh, Brian, thanks 

Jay Swidler: for having me. The people of Vernon Township are doing some great work. This all really started on a journey for me.

I've been involved with politics from just a, a, a learning perspective over the years, but really got active. Uh, once COVID started shutting down our schools we're in the Stevenson School district. They seemed to have no interest in getting the schools open. So my wife and I started, actually my wife was the one that started it, setting up [00:01:00] rallies and trying to get the administration to budge on that.

We started realizing just how much local influence really is the big difference. And as you start to learn more, you start to learn about how things work and really nothing moves unless you work locally. We always focus on the federal. We always focus on what the president's doing or. Or the Congress, but you know, really on a local level, it just ends up being, it has to come down to the people.

And the people locally have, I think, like you said, kinda written off Illinois as a blue state, even though we know it's not. So again, we started getting involved. I, I've listened to people that were like, you gotta get off the sidelines. Steve Bannon, Sonny Johnson. And then I saw the precinct strategy, and once I saw the precinct strategy from Dan Schultz out in Maricopa County, I was like, oh, I know exactly what I have to do now.

So I became a precinct committeeman in my township because that is the real way to start making a difference. [00:02:00] It's not that you are abdicating to the party by, by becoming a part of the Republican organization. You become part of changing the organization if it needs to change and being a part of affecting change.

And the only way to do that is to be part of the organization. It's easy to be on the outside and rally against things and say how, how much you hate things or don't like things. Well, we see with the Democrats all the time, but they're on the inside and they're doing that. So the, the understanding for me.

That you have to get involved on a, on a, a, a ca, uh, individual basis in your local townships, in your local areas. Meet candidates, interview them, have conversations and you will have influence if you have good ideas. It's always the, the person with the best ideas when, so it doesn't matter who you are. If you're in the room and you have the best idea, you have the opportunity to affect change.

I think that's what people don't quite understand and voting is not enough. In, in, in Illinois, [00:03:00] as we have learned, it really must be done. The, the work has to get done. The people have to knock on the doors, the people have to reach out because people don't even know elections are going on, which is what we find all the time.

So how do you get people to actually vote if they don't even know the election's going on? So you can't, you gotta put the cart before the. 

Brian Hyde: I can hear the conviction in your voice as as you describe what you're involved in. So let me ask you this, Jay. Why is it that that people tend to be apathetic? I mean, you mentioned there's no shortage of people who can see the problem, and even sometimes clearly I and loudly identify it.

But when it comes to taking action, what excuse do people give for not getting out there and doing more than just voting? 

Jay Swidler: People always thank us for doing what we're doing because they're, they don't, they're not able to do it. In fairness to people, they're living their lives. They're trying to run their look.

I try to run my business. It takes a lot of time. People are doing that, they're running their families. And my vice chair has three kids that are in the system at varying stages and school [00:04:00] system, and it's like, and she has a business. So it's like, I don't know how people do it, but you have to be committed to doing it.

I think that's the bottom line. I think you can find time. It doesn't take. You know that much. If you spend an hour a week or something like that, you can really make a difference. It, it really is a matter of, of, of many hands make the light work so you really end up, if you have some people that can take over projects, small little things for your township, for your, for your local municipality or whatever, it takes it off the people that are doing a lot more of the work.

Okay. So my vice chair and myself, yes. We've committed to doing a lot more of the work. Other people can't necessarily do that, but we appreciate anytime somebody can do anything, that that helps us move the things forward, whether it be help plan a parade, or whether it help, help plan some sort of event or whatever the case is.

It just helps. It all helps. And every time you reach out to your precinct and you fi and you, we touch the precincts multiple times during the year, every time you do that, you're just that much [00:05:00] closer to bringing that person out to vote. And as a pre, as a precinct committee, more what people don't understand.

Who, who don't understand the, the whole thing is you are not one vote, you are many votes because you are affecting your precinct. Your precinct ends up looking to you to become the voice of the Republican party. And so when they have questions about local offices or who's better in a primary or something like that, they're asking you, you become the point of contact.

So your, whoever you like, whoever your ideas are because you've met them, because you've talked through it with the person or whatever. Suddenly you have 50, 60, a hundred, 200 votes depending on your precinct that kind of go your way. So you're delivering much more than just a single vote. So people always look at their vote not being important or their vote not being relevant.

In some, in some, to some extent, I guess it's true, but if you move, mult, move other people in the same direction, that's when you can make the change. So when I hear people have given up, I hear people they don't [00:06:00] wanna. They, they, they just, they just don't want to spend the time or they, they feel it's a lost cause.

Voting isn't gonna change anything and they don't what they say it, but they don't do any work to change their behavior. They don't go out and meet the candidates. They don't go out and, and find out which person is better for a primary, find out what the person's issues are. They're kind of just staying home.

And there's not a lot of local news on, on politic, on politics locally in Illinois. You might get stay wide, but you're not gonna get like a lot of local stuff like the, like what you guys are doing. And what other organizations do is to try to focus more on the local well. People don't get that unless they're actually actively searching it out.

So that's why it's really important that people do that. But we need to help them. We need to help them find these sources. That's also what we found. People don't know where to find information. People don't know where to get this type of, of knowledge. You have Illinois Policy Institute doing great work.

You have other organizations putting out to like wire points, putting out information. [00:07:00] People need to read it, people need to look at it. We've, I have one precinct committee. Who he has trouble with his friends. 'cause his friends are all like anti-Trump. But when he talks to 'em about local issues, they just, they don't have any knowledge whatsoever.

And that's all that really matters 'cause that's what's coming out, taxing them or whatever the case is. And for some reason it, it's, it's just a battle to try to get those people, to get off that, that media rollercoaster that they're on and say, well wait a minute, what's going on locally? Who are these candidates?

What do they, what do they do? And how do they affect me? And what he realized with like Illinois Policy Institute and, and that that kinda work is that that's what matters. Like, it was like a, it was like a light bulb moment for him that, that he realized this is, this is where, this is where it's at. So that's what's so interesting about it is when people do real start to look into and people start, do, start to learn about, they start realizing, wait a minute, we can make a [00:08:00] difference here.

I mean, we had more votes in Illinois. For Donald Trump than we did for JB Pritzker in 2024. As, as a, as a, uh, an overall number. So the people are here, they just don't vote in every election, and that's where a precinct committeeman, that's where a township organization like ours, Vernon Township Republicans, work to, to change that dynamic.

And you're changing it. You, you, you think it's big numbers. You think it's overwhelming. It really comes down to, on a precinct level first, filling all your precincts, which is always a challenge, but increasing the turnout in that precinct by, let's say 20%, 30%, that's all you're trying to do. If you have a hundred people, you're just trying to get like 120 people out or 125 people out, and that difference alone done multiplied across the state.

That's where you start to see the difference. 

Brian Hyde: Jay, I wanna come back to something that you had mentioned at the very [00:09:00] beginning of our conversation and, and it was something along the lines of, look, I work with the GOP, or I work with the Republicans, but that doesn't mean I have subsumed myself to, I. The, to the party.

I know that that's an issue for some people where they'll say, well, I, I agree on many things, but there are some things that I don't agree on. How do you strike that balance for, for those who, who wanna be part of an organization that actually magnifies their effectiveness, but don't necessarily want to be marching in lockstep with something they, they may not agree with.

How, how do you find that balance? 

Jay Swidler: Well, you do have the opportunity to not be in lockstep, but you have to be part of the organization in order to push that the way you wanna push it. Now, there are places I, I know there are places, townships and whatnot, counties, that it's not, you're not always welcome if you have differing opinions, but that's why it really starts at the local level.

That's why it's not a matter, like county, you know what? We have 18 townships in in Lake County. So on a county [00:10:00] level you have certain limitations. So if you wanna effectuate change. Well, is getting involved with the county the place to do that? Well, maybe not on the local level. As a pc, you're affecting your township.

Okay. Well let's just say your township officers are kind of that old school, don't rock the boat. It just kind of the old school Republican that a lot of people really detest. Which is, which is fair because they've gone get along, go along to get along, and that's just no way to be. Especially as we've seen with Trump and with, with the success that we've seen even from the Democrats.

It's not go along to get along. It's, it's, it's, it's push change and not just for the sake of change, but push actual ideas, actual things that can make the party better. And push the party to be better. So when you get involved at the local level, when you get involved at the township level, like I became the township chairman, I wasn't looking to become the township chairman.

I, I was just a pc. I'm happy being a pc, I'm fine just being a pc. [00:11:00] If there was someone else who wanted to be the township chair in Vernon Township, I would step back and say, go for it. Thank you. It's not a problem. I, I'm in this to try to help make change and try to help the Republican party in Illinois be better because I think it can be, but I think we've just, we've got issues in the State House.

We've got issues in the, in the state Senate. We've got people who vote for things that a lot of us are like, what do, what's going on here? It does make it harder. It, it makes our job harder when Republicans are doing the things, whether it be nationally or locally, not standing up for the ideals that we, that we represent or that we want represented.

So we have to be, that, we have to make, that we have to find on a local level. I get asked, do you have any candidates for this? So that it's hard to find candidates, but you look to find candidates to fit these bills that fit the ideals that you're looking for. That's the idea on a, on a local level for your township board, then your, your county board.

This is where these [00:12:00] ideas are gonna happen, and it does take time. It does take energy and it takes not giving up because the Republicans stab you in the back again. Because we know that's what happens. Look, Roers signed the, the abortion Bill Roers signed the, the sanctuary state bill. I mean, look, we're still feeling the effects of all that.

I mean, it's, it's ridiculous that a Republican would be, would be part and parcel to all that. So people start to say, well, what difference does it make if I vote for a Republican? How do you argue with that, that that doesn't mean you stop trying to make changes? 

Brian Hyde: Jay, I'm curious if Illinois has some of the same uniparty woes that that other states do, where there's excessive crossover, not just, not in name necessarily, but the Democrats and Republicans.

There's a, there's a place in the middle where they are indistinguishable in terms of how they govern. Do, do you find that Republicans who wanna stay in power, for instance, in Illinois, may tend to play toward a more democratic governance in order to, to keep that? 

Jay Swidler: That seems to be [00:13:00] what we see. I know there were some votes that had to do with like, I remember specifically with like the local one elect.

The local one? No, not local one. The prop prop one. No, what was the prop one? The, the, the, it was the, it was the vote that was gonna give unions power over, what was that? Amendment one. Thank you. Amendment one. So with amendment one, we had people, we had downstate senators that were pro amendment one. They had maybe some constituencies of union workers, so they felt that this was the right thing when it was obviously clearly the wrong thing for the state.

So when we have our own people working against us, it's hard to have a unifying message. That's what we found during that time. There should be unifying message from the top, from Kathy Salvy from the Illinois Republican Party. It should be clear, it should be concise, and everybody should be able to get behind it.

But the problem that we see is people have their little, their own little things, but at the same time, I [00:14:00] get it to a certain extent because they're trying to get reelected in a state where we're outnumbered, outmatched with, with, in big numbers. So, I, I, when you're on the inside, you see the delicate balance.

You see how challenging it is. That's why I, I, I'm loathed to attack too much. But at the same time, we need to make changes. We need to have better messaging, and I think that is one of our biggest issues is not having the right messaging. 

Brian Hyde: So I, I'm just wondering if you could share with us the, what, what was the moment where you realized that to even the small victories starting local?

Are are important. We tend to think, I think you'd mentioned this earlier, we look to Washington, we look to the state House and, oh, this is where all the important stuff happens. I think you've made a pretty strong case though, that for people who are willing to get involved, you will see the needle move.

Yeah. What was it that, what was it that first made you realize this is where my efforts are best spent? When you look at 

Jay Swidler: municipal elections and you look at a 13% turnout. Okay. That's a 30 13% [00:15:00] overall turnout. We're allowing people to be elected. We're allowing some awful people to be elected for school boards and things like that with 13% of the population.

Well, they move the, they move the needle because they've got the unions, they've got the teachers during the summer, everything else. This is what they do. They go out and knock doors. They go out and they do these things. I've watched it for years in my area. Then we don't come out and vote. So we say, okay, we'll turn our school board over to these people, you know, the, the same people who don't know whether a man's a woman or whatever the case is.

So the Deerfield stuff that was going on you, under you, you wonder how you got to that because everyone says, oh, our school's great. Oh, Stevenson, oh Deerfield, these are great schools. So, oh, I don't wanna rock the boat. And that's what ends up happening. So you end up with these people in these, in these positions.

So we just had a, like CLC election. And we had some great candidates for Republicans and we ended up flipping that board. The College of Lake County Board and College of Lake County is a good school. It's a good option for people. It's a good alternative to, for people not going [00:16:00] away for four year college.

And it's, and for older people too, to get, to get additional skills. So you wanna have this available in a way that would be the most efficient, most cost effective, and deliver the best 20, 20, 20 first century skills and, and, and, and knowledge and not be focused on the woke nonsense ideology. I. So having a board that is focused on the mission of CLC is what you want.

You, you don't want them involved with the other stuff. That, that's just, it's a, it's a waste of energy, waste of time, waste of money. And all it does is focus kids in the wrong direction. It gives them no tools, not just kids, but adults who are taking classes. There no tools for what they wanna do. So I think that's where we saw like CLC that just happening.

That was a Lake County wide election. That was a good win. That was a good lake County wide election win. But even on local levels where your tru local trustees, local, local township organizations, things like that, those little things can make the difference. And I get the difficulty because [00:17:00] when you go to some of these meetings, when you sit there and you sit there for hours.

And, and it's just, it's, it is, it's very challenging to even be there as someone watching. So I get the challenge on, on being there for every meeting on the board, but it is, it is where the bench is created and this is what they have, this is what they do. The Democrats do this very well. People take those roles.

They maybe they just operate, maybe they just do whatever. Maybe it's not even that bad. Maybe they're not even running it poorly or things like that. They're just people trying to do their best. I give 'em, I give 'em for that. I, I give 'em kudos for that, but next time it something opens, that's the next level a county board position versus a township board position or something.

Next thing you know, that person's moving up to that and all of a sudden those things that they were very normal about before, they're just not anymore. All of a sudden it, it becomes all about pushing agendas and and whatnot, because that's where the party is pushing them at that point. So on a local level, you might not [00:18:00] notice the difference between a Democrat and Republican, in all fairness.

But on the, as you start to move up the ladder and you have the bench, you know, Democrats put themselves in the position for these things. I mean, we're gonna see that Abyss, Daniel Biss and Evanston is gonna be, I believe, gonna be the ninth Congressional district, a candidate. I know they got that Hamas who was, was running for the ninth also.

But Bis is the mayor of Evanston. He's a loon, absolute loon, but he's gonna be the guy because he is on the bench and he is the next great whatever, great white hope for them. So into, we need to start filling those benches we need with, with good quality people that aren't gonna compromise their ideals as they move up the latter.

Brian Hyde: Again, we are talking with Jay s swr, he's chairman of the Vernon Township Republicans. Jay, is there a website you would direct people to if they'd like to, to get more information, even get more 

Jay Swidler: involved? Absolutely. Vernon GOP Win www dot Vernon GOP Do Win is our [00:19:00] website. We have Facebook as well, Vernon Township Republicans, and we're also on x Vernon Township Republicans.

Alright, Jay, 

Brian Hyde: thank you so much for your time. 

Jay Swidler: Thank you. Thanks for having me. Really appreciate it. And just to everybody get involved. Find a way. If, if you're not getting what you want from your local organization, you're not, you're not, they're not letting you become a PC or things like that. It doesn't matter.

You can actually do it anyways. There are ways to do it. Just get involved, get on the, get on a space, like a next space, like make Illinois great again. I highly recommend people getting on that. Just the, the voices from across the Illinois who are trying to make a difference, who are trying to work together and come up with the, the new ideas.

Highly recommend people jumping on if you have a question about how to do these things. These are where you're gonna get your answers. We, people do want to answer those questions, so get involved, find a way and do what you do, what's good for you, whatever's right for you. Whether it's being a pc, whether it's just helping out making phone calls, whether, [00:20:00] whatever it is for you, there are, there's a space for you in the Republican party.

Brian Hyde: This is the Prairie State Wire Podcast.