Kendall County Times

Jed Davis, the Republican nominee for Illinois' 75th House district, has criticized Gov. J.B. Pritzker over claims he successfully dealt with the pandemic while also continuing to issue disaster proclamations. 

According to Illinois Policy, Pritzker's latest and 32nd disaster proclamation was issued on July 22. It was a milestone for the governor who has invoked his emergency powers 895 days out of his 1,315 total days in his current position. 

"JB can't have it both ways," Davis said in a July 26 Facebook post. "He can't claim he's managed covid successfully and yet, more than two years later, still claim IL a disaster area. Just look at our neighbors."

Pritzker's latest order was aimed at assisting "the state in facilitating economic recovery for individuals and businesses in an effort to prevent further devastating consequences from the economic instability COVID-19 has caused," the proclamation stated. 

The proclamation came just days after Pritzker claimed the state was "in its strongest fiscal position in a generation" in a July 16 tweet. 

Just one day before issuing the disaster proclamation, Pritzker tweeted "Illinois' economy is the best it's been in generations."

Last month the state's unemployment rate fell to its lowest point since the start of the coronavirus pandemic at 4.5%, which was still higher than the national average of 3.6%, Capitol News Illinois reported. States surrounding Illinois including Indiana, Missouri, Iowa, and Wisconsin all had unemployment rates below 3%. Illinois' unemployment rate reached 17.4% at its peak in April 2020 when "nonessential" businesses shut down.

Davis will face Democrat Heidi Henry in the general election after he defeated incumbent David Welter in the June Republican primary, according to Ballotpedia.