Rients looking to challenge LaHood in Republican Primary

By Gary Scott on March 13, 2018 at 12:19pm

Congressman Darin LaHood is facing Republican opposition for representing Illinois’ 18th Congressional District in next week’s primary election.

While the Democratic primary for Illinois’ 18th Congressional District is packed with several names such as Brian Deters, Darrel Miller and Junius Rodriguez, Republican Donald Rients is taking on the incumbent and vying for a win in the Republican primaries.

Rients joined WLDS’ “What’s On Your Mind” program last Friday to talk about his candidacy. Rients is not new to the campaign trail, as he also ran against LaHood in 2015. Rients says that as a fiscal conservative, he hopes to bring an end to the spending taking place in Washington D.C.

“The big thing in 2015 was the economy, and it was the deficit spending. I don’t hear hardly anybody, after 2016, talk about the deficit spending, that topic has died. The Republicans and Democrats have both gone out there and, in our new bills that they’ve passed, there’s huge deficit spending, and I disagree with that. We need to stop it and we need to stop it now. We can’t wait ten years to say that we’re going to have a balanced budget. We can’t wait until then to stop spending money,” says Rients.

As for some of his other political stances, Rients explains where he sits on the issue of abortion, and says he will stand up for what he believes in.

“Pro-life. I’m one hundred percent pro-life. We can pass bills and pass laws that limit when you can have an abortion, but you’re still having an abortion. We have a Republican congress, a Republican senate, and a Republican President, and if all of those people say that they’re pro-life, then let’s prove it. Let’s pass a bill that says that the single-cell zygote is a person. You pass that and Roe v Wade goes away is my understanding. I don’t know why we get this happy middle and everyone stops talking about it and everyone can move on, and they didn’t really have to deal with the pressure of standing up for what they believe. That’s what I’m going to do is I’m going to stand up for what I believe and I’m going to push hard on it,” says Rients.

To hear more from Rients, our entire interview with the candidate is available online at WLDS or WEAI.com. The primary elections are less than a week away, as they’re scheduled for next Tuesday, March 20th.