Speaker Mike Johnson has been stumping for Republican candidates around the country, most of whom are proud recipients of an endorsement from former President Donald Trump. But Joe McGraw, a moderate retired judge from central Illinois who Johnson is eager to see come to Congress, isn’t interested in Trump’s stamp of approval.
At a private home in Peoria earlier this month, Johnson appeared alongside GOP Reps. Jim Jordan, Darin LaHood and Carol Miller. Johnson delivered a stump speech for a couple hundred guests, all there to support McGraw, who’s running to unseat freshman Democrat Eric Sorensen.
But unlike Johnson, LaHood, Jordan and Miller, McGraw has never been endorsed by or endorsed Trump. In an interview with local TV host Jim Niedelman in July, McGraw said he’s “never considered [himself] a Donald Trump Republican, or a Mitt Romney Republican, or any other kind of Republican.”
Eric Paige, McGraw’s spokesperson, said the campaign hasn’t been focused on the former president’s support. They’ve been courting local leaders instead, including some, particularly from unions and Black churches, who aren’t the usual target of Republican appeals.
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But if Republicans keep the House, it’ll be because of people like McGraw and places like Illinois’ 17th District — that encompasses the city of Peoria and is the only competitive House race in the state. The fundraiser was Johnson’s second visit to the district this cycle, and this time he helped McGraw raise about $40,000. Projections have the race rated as a likely Democratic victory, and Sorensen has outraised McGraw $4.6 million to $1.3 million. But Johnson is still betting on McGraw in the last week of the race.
Mallory Payne, DCCC regional press secretary, wrote in a March memo that McGraw wouldn’t be different from “MAGA extremists,” saying he “had taken over $70,000 from the most extreme members of his party who threatened our democracy and voted to overturn a free and fair election.” The DCCC did not respond to requests for further comment by deadline.
Johnson has also embraced Trump more than ever in the final weeks of the campaign and was onstage with him last weekend at the Madison Square Garden rally. Trump praised Johnson there and Johnson has told Axios he expects Trump to be “fully supportive” of his speakership if Republicans take the House.
“I think the speaker, being as busy as he is, for him to come down to Peoria to do an event for Judge Joe just shows that they really believe in this race,” Paige told NOTUS.
Among the other candidates Johnson has appeared for in the Midwest in recent weeks are Rep. John James, Paul Junge and Tom Barrett, all of whom are from Michigan and have been open about their support for former president Trump (the latter two are running in open seats but James is a vulnerable incumbent). But those races are much tighter than McGraw’s race currently looks.
Johnson’s focus is on mobilizing for Republicans — no matter who they are. The speaker currently has the slimmest House majority in recent history, and though McGraw might be ideologically to the left of Johnson, he’d still be a reliable Republican vote for the conference.
“Judge Joe McGraw has spent his life standing up for law and order and putting dangerous criminals behind bars,” Johnson said in a statement to NOTUS. “He is exactly the candidate we need to stop Eric Sorensen and the far left’s soft-on-crime policies that are hurting Illinois families.”
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Helen Huiskes is a reporter at NOTUS and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
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