Thank You, Bruce Rauner

rdf:langString Thank You, Bruce Rauner

rdf:langString Thank You, Bruce Rauner

rdf:langString English

rdf:langString Thank You, Bruce Rauner was a 2018 political advertisement against the gubernatorial campaign of incumbent Republican governor Bruce Rauner of Illinois. The ad was aired by Illinois state representative Jeanne Ives, a fellow Republican who was challenging Rauner in the Republican gubernatorial primary. In the commercial, which parodied a commercial Rauner had aired the previous year in support of his re-election, a variety of actors — portraying, among others, a transgender woman, a Women's March protestor, and a Chicago schoolteacher — thank Rauner for signing legislation which they believe benefitted them, and which was opposed by conservatives in the state legislature. Upon its release, the commercial was accused of transphobia, sexism, and racism; it drew criticism from Republican and Democratic figures, including the chair of the Illinois Republican Party, who urged Ives to pull the commercial. Ives resisted pressure to pull the ad, contending that it drew attention to Rauner's record and that its criticisms were aimed at policies, not people.