Republican candidate for House District 112 Jennifer Korte reacted to Thursday's decision by a panel of the Centers for Disease Control recommending that children six months and older, as well as adults, should get the Covid vaccine and boosters when eligible.
The CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices' unanimous vote to add Covid shots to the recommended childhood vaccine schedule should alarm every parent of school age children in Illinois, Korte said.
"I have always been an advocate for parental rights," Korte said in a release. "I believe parents and their family doctors know better than politicians and bureaucrats what is best for their children and should choose whether or not their child should get the COVID vaccine.”
Korte, a newcomer to politics this election, launched her campaign largely in protest of the state's strict school masking policies and the harmful effects those policies have had on children.
She faces three-term incumbent and well-financed Rep. Katie Stuart of Edwardsville.
Korte has been critical of Stuart's alignment with Democrat Gov. JB Pritzker, who from the start of the pandemic has invoked emergency powers that allowed mandating masks.
“Katie Stuart has stood by and done nothing, while Governor Pritzker has pushed mandate after mandate even after every surrounding state has stopped," Korte stated. "I have always been an advocate for parental rights."
Funding for Stuart's campaign shows the 112th House District is a competitive race.
Since July 1, Stuart has received close to $1.6 million. Most of that - $1.1 million - has come from Democrats for the Illinois House and the Democratic Party of Illinois. The Democrats for the Illinois House infused her campaign with $263,000 just last week.
Stuart's campaign committee started the year with $561,779.44 on hand. She added another $184,294 through June 30.
She has had $2.3 million to spend this election cycle.
Korte's campaign committee raised close to $150,000 through the end of September, including a loan of $15,000 from Korte.
In the last week, her committee has been boosted by close to $94,000 from a variety of sources including the Illinois Republican Party, various conservative PACs and the committees of other elected Republicans.