Retired Rockford judge, Milan farmer to run in GOP primary for the 17th District

A retired Winnebago County circuit court judge and a grain farmer from Milan, both Republicans, are running to replace the freshman Democrat in Illinois’ 17th Congressional District.

Joe McGraw, who announced his plans to run earlier in the year, made it official in a news release Wednesday.

Scott Crowl, who filed his statement of organization with the Federal Elections Commission on Sept. 27, plans a formal announcement next week, he said in a phone call Wednesday, while eyeing the rainy weather that was interfering with his harvest.

Both first-time candidates will face off in the March 19 Republican primary. They are running for the seat held by meteorologist Eric Sorensen of Moline, Illinois’ first openly LGBT Congressional representative.

He succeeded Cheri Bustos, an East Moline Democrat, who announced in April 2021 that she would not seek reelection to the U.S. House after her fifth term in office.

Crowl, 66, who grows corn and soybeans, said Wednesday that he does not like the path the country is on, and that inflation, American’s dependence on foreign energy, and government interference in people’s lives are areas he’d like to tackle.

“We need to take care of the American people first. I see us as in a decline, and I want to stop that decline and get us back to being great again.”

He decried Congress’ role in the current level of inflation.

“I will not be spending money we don’t have,” Crowl said.

He also called Sorensen a climate extremist, and said he disagrees with what he said is Sorensen’s stance on the importance of plant-based foods over meat, citing that as a First Amendment issue.

“I don’t want the government telling us what we can and can’t do,” Crowl said. “They don’t belong in our food chain.”

Sorensen spokesman Thomas Falcigno said, however, that he was not aware of anything Sorensen has said about plant-based foods in an official capacity.

Crowl has a Facebook page in the works: Scott Crowl (Crowl for Congress).

McGraw was appointed a circuit judge in January 2002 and retired July 5 after more than 21 years. He was chief judge from Jan. 1, 2012, to Dec. 31, 2017, and was a prosecutor and private attorney before serving on the bench.

In addition to presiding over a specialized gun offense felony caseload in Winnebago County, McGraw also oversaw PATH Court, a multidisciplinary court response to human trafficking. He was chairman of the Illinois Conference of Chief Judges, an instructor for the Illinois Appellate Prosecutor’s Trial Advocacy Program and an adjunct instructor at Rockford and Judson universities.

“I can no longer sit by and watch our country and our state go in the wrong direction,” he said in Wednesday’s release.

“There’s something wrong when big-city liberals would rather demonize honest cops than crack down on criminals, when politicians in Washington care more about illegal immigrants than the safety and security of our own citizens, and when the exporting of good manufacturing jobs, combined with record inflation, crushes families’ economic viability.

“Eric Sorensen is part of the problem; he votes with Biden’s failed agenda nearly 100% of the time.”

McGraw said he’ll fight “the reckless spending agenda of the Democrats that is driving inflation and crushing family budgets,” will “strive to bring manufacturing jobs home,” and “end the corruption by banning politicians from becoming lobbyists, reining in the bureaucrats who nobody elected and nobody wants, and ensuring Congress balances the budget before they get paid.”

Go to JudgeJoeforCongress.com to learn more.

Rafael “Ray” Estrada, 56, a Republican businessman and philanthropist from Galesburg who announced his candidacy in April, dropped out of the race Oct. 3.

The newly redrawn 17th District, with a population of more than 700,000, leans Democratic, although with around 10,000 family farms, it also has a large rural, traditionally Republican population.

It encompasses all or parts of Carroll, Whiteside, Winnebago, Stephenson, Rock Island, Knox, Mercer, Henry, Peoria, Fulton, Tazewell, McDonough and McNeal counties, running from Galena in the north to Astoria in the south.

Except for the one term served by Colona Republican Bobby Schilling, from 2011 to 2013, the district has been served by a Democrat for 40 years, since 1983.

The National Republican Campaign Committee is targeting Sorensen and at least three dozen other “vulnerable” Democrats in 2024, Politico has reported.

So far, no other challengers have emerged. Potential candidates must file nomination papers between Nov. 27 and Dec. 4 to run in the March 19 primary. The general election is Nov. 12, 2024.