Greenville attorney Tom DeVore, who confirmed that he will run on the Republican ticket for Illinois Attorney General, said he had no intentions of pursuing politics until he watched children across the state stand up for themselves by walking into school without masks and vowed to fight for the people rather than against them.
DeVore is largely responsible for seeking an end to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s school mask mandates after he filed lawsuits against the forced COVID-19 measures. His request for a temporary restraining order on behalf of hundreds of students and their parents was granted by Sangamon County Judge Raylene Grischow on Feb. 4. Pritzker’s appeal was then dismissed as moot by the Fourth District Appellate Court on Feb. 17.
In a video shared on Facebook on Feb. 21, DeVore said he has no intentions of talking negatively about the candidates he is running against, but said he is disappointed in incumbent Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, a Democrat.
“For two years, he has been the governor’s lawyer, fighting against the very people he took an oath to represent,” he said.
For example, Raoul, representing Pritzker, began the process of appealing Grischow’s order and the Fourth District Appellate Court’s dismissal by filing petitions with the Illinois Supreme Court on Feb. 22. Raoul and Pritzker asked the Illinois Supreme Court to put a hold on the temporary restraining order.
“If I’m attorney general,” DeVore said before Raoul filed his petition, “you will never have to worry about that office representing the governor against the people. That’ll never happen, ever.”
DeVore said that if he were to become Illinois Attorney General and anyone in an elected position tries to overstep their authority, “you’re going to have the full force of the Attorney General’s Office against you.”
He added that state and local governments “need to be held accountable at all levels, top to bottom,” saying he would work to put an end to corruption.
“The corruption that’s been plaguing our state, I’ll take care of it for you,” he said. “It’ll get nasty, but that’s OK. I’m not scared.”
DeVore said that if the people don’t agree that his approach is the correct course of action as attorney general, then he understands.
“That’s OK. If I’m not the right person for that office, then I don’t want to be there,” he said.
“I am more than happy to continue doing what I’m doing,” he added.
DeVore said that after Grischow granted the temporary restraining order, he watched kids as young as seven years old attend school without a mask for the first time in almost two years.
“Can you imagine how hard it was for that baby to do that? At that age? Most adults I know don’t have that courage,” he said.
At first, most school districts in the state maintained mask mandates, saying the order only applied to named plaintiffs. However, after DeVore’s continued fight, parents pushing back against school districts and the Joint Committee of Administrative Rules (JACR) rejecting Pritzker’s attempt to reissue the school mask enforcements, roughly 702 of 852 Illinois school districts have eliminated mask mandates. That translates to roughly 82 percent.
DeVore originally announced his plans to run for the Fifth District Appellate Court, saying the position would allow him to continue his focus on helping people.
“My desire’s always been, and it still is today, to try to help people,” he said. “I think you can help people … by working with them so they can help themselves.”
However, he told supporters to hold off on circulating petitions, because “there are other petitions I’ll need your help with.”
“But then the last several weeks kind of changed me a little bit,” he said.
DeVore said that after seeing the students stand up for themselves, he set his sights on the Attorney General’s Office in an effort to keep a similar situation from happening again.
“If some other disaster comes along, are we going to be able to survive it again?” he asked.
DeVore said Pritzker “failed miserably” at handling the COVID-19 pandemic.
“He didn’t govern, he ruled,” DeVoer said.
“I made the decision that there’s only one way that I can help, and that is making myself available to the people of this state as attorney general,” he added. “I don’t know if I’m the right guy for the job. Only you guys know if I’m the right guy for the job. But I do know that we have to have somebody in that position that is going to stand up for the people.”
In his campaign for attorney general, DeVore will oppose Rockford attorney and former candidate for Illinois Lieutenant Governor Steve Kim in the Republican primary in June.