Kathleen Lorenz defended a campaign contribution from the McLean County Republican Party in her 2025 run for mayor of Normal during a marathon hearing Friday at the Illinois State Board of Elections in Chicago.
Lorenz is accused of knowingly accepting $28,000 from a private donor who funneled the money through the McLean County GOP. Lorenz said she only later learned of a donation to the GOP that was intended to benefit her campaign.
A former member of incumbent mayor Chris Koos' campaign, Ben Matthews, made the complaint and questioned Lorenz for more than an hour Friday, using public statements made on social media and to WGLT by phone suggesting private donors used the GOP as a passthrough for Normal landowner Greg Shepard and his wife to give to Lorenz's campaign anonymously. That maneuver would allow the Shepards to send more money to Lorenz than they would've otherwise been allowed to.
Public filings showed Greg and Heather Shepard each made $14,600 contributions to the McLean County Republican Party. Shortly after that, Lorenz received two contributions totaling $28,000. According to GOP financial filings presented during the hearing, that was an unusually large donation. Prior to Lorenz, the party's largest contribution was to Desi Anderson's 2024 campaign as a Republican candidate for state representative, with two contributions totaling $10,000.
In her testimony Friday in Chicago, Lorenz said her statements on social media and to the press were misinterpreted.
"I didn't interpret those as misstatements," Matthews said in an interview. "I interpreted those as a candidate who really wanted to explain to the public that she should not be seen as part of the McLean County Republican Party. And she wanted to make sure they shouldn't see her that way, because that's not really the source of the funds."
During her testimony, Lorenz said she was trying to distance herself from the MAGA movement after graphics of her wearing a red hat surrounded by money bags circulated on social media following media reports she'd accepted money from the GOP.
“That’s not who I am,” she said. She elaborated that she didn’t cast judgment on people who are MAGA, and was aware of factions within the McLean County Republican Party who align with the current president and his political movement.
“But that’s not me,” she said.
Lorenz said she had reached out to WGLT to clarify that endorsements and financial contributions are not the same and the inference that she was associated with the MAGA movement were "dysregulating" and upsetting.
When asked by her attorney why she thought the McLean County Republicans wanted to support her campaign for mayor, she said her voting record as a town councilmember aligned with Republican priorities.
Lorenz declined to comment after Friday's hearing and declined to allow the proceedings to be recorded.
In a sworn affidavit referred to during the hearing, Lorenz cited her background in nonprofit leadership and misunderstanding differences in restricted funds for political campaigns as reasons she publicly stated donations could be directed to a candidate through a proxy party or political action committee. She claimed in her testimony that Dennis Grundler, the head of the McLean County GOP, told her about the Shepards' donations after the fact and that she did not fully understand campaign finance law at the time.
Lorenz said she didn’t recall telling WGLT that an individual donor sought to give to her campaign through the party. Matthews pointed to similarities in statements made on social media by Lorenz.
Lorenz, though, sought to separate her social media statements from those previously made to WGLT, despite saying she didn’t recall which reporter she spoke to or the entirety of her statements.
Responding to questions from her attorney, Ross Secler, Lorenz agreed with his suggestion that questions from a reporter pushing back against her statements were interpreted as siding with the incumbent mayor, causing her to be defensive.
In his closing statement, Secler called the complaint "smoke and mirrors," discrediting social media and press reports as evidence. He urged the board of elections to dismiss the complaint, while pointing to legal precedent that even in the event a violation had occurred, there is no penalty aside from the board saying, "Don't do it again."
"I'm not an attorney, so I interpret it differently than her attorney does," Matthews said in response. "I think there could, potentially, be a penalty for accepting a donation this way.
"I've made it clear up to this point that I didn't file the complaint in hopes there would be a penalty. I filed this complaint for two reasons: one, in hopes there would be accountability for what occurred, and in hopes that others would be discouraged from doing the same kind of thing moving forward."
Lorenz still serves on the Normal Town Council.
A decision is expected at the next meeting of the Illinois State Board of Elections on Feb. 18.
