MILLSTADT – Kevin Schmidt says the State of Illinois has taken too much from Illinois residents which is why he wants to be the voice of working families in the newly drawn 114th District.
“The state is taking too much in taxes and too much of our freedoms,” Schmidt said. “Illinois is one of the highest taxed states in the country. We also were one of the strictest lockdown states during the pandemic and we still have some of the most onerous mask and vaccine mandates in the nation. The policies coming from Springfield are hurting working families. I am running to be the advocate Illinois families need and deserve.”
Kevin Schmidt is a Board-Certified Chiropractor and the owner of Schmidt Chiropractic with locations in Millstadt and Freeburg. Hegrew up in Belleville, IL and graduated from Belleville West High School. He ran for State Representative in the 116th during the 2020 Republican primary.
Schmidt is known for being the $19 chiropractor.
“I decided early on that I wanted to lower overhead by eliminating the voluminous paperwork required for insurance claims and so I simplified things by charging a flat $19 per visit,” Schmidt said. “I did not need a government program to figure out how to lower healthcare costs for my patients. I did it on my own. We tend to complicate issues like healthcare and education and make the cost of government greater than it should be. I intend to take the same common-sense approach I have successfully used in my private practice to state government. We can’t keep ignoring the structural problems facing our state. We need meaningful solutions now.”
Some of Schmidt’s priorities include jobs, crime, and taxes. Schmidt noted that Illinois has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation and according to Kiplinger, a business forecasting and personal-finance publisher, Illinois is the least tax friendly state in the nation.
“As long as the Democrat majority in the House and the Senate continues to ignore these problems, nothing will be done to address them,” Schmidt said. “We have to make our state more attractive to potential employers. We have to stop the exodus from our state, and we have to stop pretending that the bad policies coming from the House and the Senate are nonfactors in the exodus. People are tired of the status quo, and they want real change, and they want it now.”
Schmidt said policies like defunding the police, ending cash bail, ending foot pursuits and other extreme initiatives from the left have made our communities less safe. The latest example is Chicago State Senator Kimberly Lightfoot and her husband getting car jacked.
“I think when a duly elected member of the Illinois Senate is brutally attacked in a shootout, we all should acknowledge that what we are doing is simply not working,” Schmidt said. “People’s lives are at risk as the result of these bad policies. I will push for better funding of law enforcement and policies that will keep criminals off the streets. I am all for second chances but when people are a danger to others, they should not be roaming free on our streets.”
In addition, Schmidt said he will push to enact spending reforms based on what taxpayers can afford and regulatory reforms to bring manufacturing back to Illinois and he will fight to end the war on fossil fuels.
“Last year, far left lawmakers pushed through one of the most radical energy bills in the country,” Schmidt said. “The Illinois version of the ‘Green New Deal’ will lead to the permanent closure of the Prairie State Energy campus, which means instead of getting power from one of the cleanest coal plants in the nation, Illinois residents will have to import power (at a greater cost) from out of state plants that are not subject to Illinois’ nonsensical energy policies. What our leaders did is completely insane and working families are worse off because of it.”
Finally, Schmidt said he will stand up for parental rights.
“What is happening in our schools with remote learning, burdensome mask mandates and radical curriculum is something I as a parent am very concerned about,” Schmidt said. “It is not the role of government to co-parent our kids. I believe in parental rights and will stand up for parents as a member of the Illinois General Assembly.
Below is a map of the new 114th District:
