I hope you had a great Thanksgiving with family and friends. I love the turkey, dressing and pumpkin pie with too much whipped cream - but remembering to be thankful is what I enjoy most about Thanksgiving. 

I am so grateful for our wonderful candidates and their families who worked hard running for offices to represent all of us. Our candidates ran on real issues to improve public safety and be accountable to the public to improve public service.

We had many volunteers who worked long hours to build a stronger party to help our candidates run for office. Thank you for your work. We also had strong leaders improving communication, outreach, candidate recruitment and fundraising for our candidates. Thank you for your financial support. 

Beyond supporting our candidates' races, we improved and expanded the County Republican Party. We want to continue growing and making improvements in the future and will be asking for more help. Because as we all know, the election didn’t turnout the way we wanted. We knew it was going to be hard work, but we now have a better idea of what we really face in Champaign County.

During the election we focused intently on election integrity. We increased the number of trained Poll Watchers and Election Judges and improved oversight and accountability in the Clerk's Office. We put that Office on notice that we are, and will be, watching. We know we need to do far more, of course. 

We also added several Precinct Committeemen (PCs) and improved training and support for them. We need to continue filling precincts with additional PCs and adding volunteers to improve outreach and messaging to our voters. 

We need to raise our collective voice and be heard in the fight for better government and public safety for the sake of everyone who lives, shops, and visits our County. It's not enough to vote, need to hold the Democrats responsible for their poor performance in running both our local and state government.

We are not slowing down. We will continue to build our party and grow our organization as we prepare for the upcoming 2023 and 2024 elections. Stay tuned for announcements about volunteer opportunities right after the New Year. I hope you will join us. 

Wishing you a wonderful Holiday Season and a Happy New Year.

Jim McGuire

Chair, Champaign County GOP