Esther Joy King has now pulled way ahead in the Illinois’s 17th District Republican primary. With 3 percent reporting, she’s at 67 percent. King is the candidate in this two-person race who is less explicitly Trump aligned, something you can see when comparing their two statements on the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. While King used the statement as an opportunity to critique Gov. J.B. Pritzker for (in her words) having policies that are out of step with American opinion, her opponent Charlie Helmick heaped praise on the former president, thanking Trump for appointing the conservative justices who made the decision happen.
