Kane County republicans gather in Lily Lake for Trump rally

The Kane County Trump rally caravan started in the Lily Lake Grade School parking lot just before 9 a.m. Sunday morning. By 10 a.m. over 60 vehicles were at the event ready to head to the McHenry County Fairgrounds.

Kane County Republican party chairman Andro Lerario led the group.

Lerario said having conversations with people is what is important now. He said conversations between people from opposing parties have become negative in the past four years and he thinks what this country needs is an attitude adjustment.

Lerario said when he talks with voters, the most common question he hears is, “What is Kamala even saying?”

Lerario said the main policy changes he is hoping to see if Trump is elected are ramping up oil drilling in the U.S., pulling back on money printing, no tax on tips and prison reform.

“Policies are going to work themselves out,” Lerario said. “[Trump] is going to work with manufacturing like he did before, he’s going to bring back money from overseas like he did before. He’s going to work on some of the policies he had in place like clean air and clean oceans.”

Lerario also praised Trump’s efforts on helping the United Negro College Fund, which he said was an embarrassment for years until Trump got the finances in place.

“We spend millions and millions of dollars overseas, but we can’t help our people here? It’s a joke,” Lerario said.

Campton Township Republican Party chair Penny Plum was at the event. She said since the Republican National Convention, she thinks the race has definitely tilted in Trump’s favor.

“[The RNC] was victorious and also somber in a way, to realize how fragile our liberty really is,” Plum said.

Plum said this election is an important one, not just at the presidential level, but in the local races as well. She said when she is canvassing, she encourages voters to pay attention to the issues and vote down-ballot for their county officials.

“I think the top priority has to be to close the border,” Plum said. “I think that is the biggest attempt at threatening our democracy– importing illegal voters– and we’re seeing a lot of lessening of the laws to make it far easier to have illegal voters. That’s a huge concern for me, especially in Illinois with the status of the sanctuary state and recent laws that have been put in place that make it almost impossible for county clerks to police who can vote and who cannot. It really has blurred the line.”

Plum said there were different election integrity concerns during the last election, and illegal voter concerns are just the latest iteration.

“The Democrats stole the [2020] election, in my opinion, by 1,000 cuts. This is more like a gash, and it’s so obvious,” Plum said.

St. Charles resident Rowena Zimmers was at the rally with shirts and hats she made for the event which read “I’m Weird” with “Trump” and “Vance” underneath. She said she was inspired to make the merchandise in response to comments from Democrats referring to the Republican Party as weird.

“What’s so weird about being pro-family and faith?” Zimmers said. “What’s so weird about being against men competing in women’s sports? Let’s embrace being weird.”

Zimmer was selling the hats for $20 each.

Zimmer is Filipino and said because of her heritage, people often assume she should be a Democrat. She said her mother came from the Philippines the right way and taught her the values of working hard and pursuing whatever dream you want.

“There’s nothing like coming here legally and becoming a citizen and taking that oath. You become very patriotic because you feel like you’ve been adopted to this country,” Zimmers said. “There’s just something about that when you’ve earned it, and it not just being given to you when you’ve come here illegally, because then it takes away that patriotism.”

Zimmer said the policies important to her are prohibiting abortion and restricting illegal immigration.

Just before 10 a.m., the attendees gathered at the front of the caravan to listen to Lerario give a speech. He thanked everyone for being there despite what he called backlash from the media trying to stop the event from happening.

“We are in a battle against evil,” Lerario said. “There are people that actually hate you guys, so understand that.”

The group joined together in a short prayer, where they prayed for leadership that fights for righteousness and truth.