CONTACT:
Allison Janowski
[email protected]
Chicago, IL – Today, Governor Pritzker took a major step in signing first of its kind legislation to prevent book banning in Illinois.
In response to the signing, Democratic Party of Illinois Chair Lisa Hernandez released the following statement:
“I applaud the Illinois General Assembly and Governor Pritzker for taking action to defend our schools and libraries from attacks on access to accurate information and diverse stories, and I’m grateful to Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, our State’s Librarian, who led this effort to defend Illinoisans’ freedom. Removing books from our shelves represents a dangerous backslide into a world where a small but loud minority can silence anyone who looks, loves, or believes differently than they do. As extreme right wing groups attempt to place candidates with their regressive values into local offices across Illinois and the nation, it’s as important as ever that we step up to defend our children, their freedoms, and their futures,” said DPI Chair Lisa Hernandez.
Earlier this year, the Democratic Party of Illinois took action to prevent extreme candidates who supported policies including book banning from taking over school and library boards. DPI successfully prevented 73% of the candidates it communicated against from winning their elections. Throughout this unprecedented program, DPI reached hundreds of thousands of individuals and households in Illinois via digital and mail communications as well as organizing support. This initiative was brought forth as part of the new party building directive under the leadership of Chair Hernandez to provide year round support to Democrats through grassroots organizing and continuous voter engagement. The legislation signed today will act as an additional safeguard against far-right efforts to limit access to diverse ideas and inclusive education.
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