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GOP Primary Challenge Set For 91st District House Seat

Kelley Minars
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Flickr / CC-by 2.0

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This story was last updated Dec. 3 at 7:55 a.m.

There are officially three Republicans and one Democrat running to replace retiring state Rep. Mike Unes, a Republican from East Peoria.

Credit Facebook / Samuel Goddard for Illinois State Representative, 91st District
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Samuel Goddard for Illinois State Representative, 91st District

Samuel Goddard filed petitions yesterday to run for the 91st District House seat. The 27-year-old started a trucking company in Pekin about five years ago.

“If I am elected, my main focus would be bringing good-paying jobs back to Illinois,” he said. “I would do that by making Illinois more inviting, more friendly to business. As of right now, it’s not such -- our taxes are very high, we have a lot of regulations.”

Goddard, who identifies as conservative, said he wants to see more millennials running for office and turning out at the voting booth.

“I want to encourage other people that are my age to run, as well, and get involved in politics,” he said. “I feel like a lot of my friends and people that are my age do not participate in politics at all.”

Also running as a Republican is Pekin Mayor Mark Luft, who filed his petitions last Monday. Corey Campbell, another Pekin Republican, filed petitions at 5 p.m. yesterday -- the final deadline to run.

Joshua Grys of Pekin is the sole Democrat running.

Candidates have until 5 p.m today to submit the required signatures. Primary elections take place March 17.

Copyright 2021 WCBU. To see more, visit WCBU.

Dana Vollmer is a reporter with WGLT. Dana previously covered the state Capitol for NPR Illinois and Peoria for WCBU.