Illinois Valley Times

Catalina Lauf wants voters to remember where she comes from and what she’s always striving to represent as she faces U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Rockford) in next year's Republican primary.

“I come from a small town in the northern suburbs known as Woodstock and represent the normal side of Illinois outside of Cook County,” Lauf said in a video posted to YouTube.  “When you think about Cook County you think about all the corruption and you forget that a lot of Illinois is Republican.”

Lauf, a former Trump-appointee to the Department of Commerce, said she can understand the confusion given the way Kinzinger has represented the district.

“When you have someone like Adam Kinzinger – who represents small business, (and) everyday American community – he is not only not pushing back against the far left but actually echoing a lot of what these far leftists are saying; it’s a huge problem,” she said. “This area is very Trump, but yet we have a congressman in Kinzinger who bashes the former president and Republicans.”

Peoria activist Gary McCullough recently called on Kinzinger to step down in the wake of allegations that he had a romantic relationship with a former Russian beauty queen after applying for an internship with his office.

“Kinzinger needs to not only resign but be investigated since he’s compromised himself to that degree,” McCullough told the Peoria Standard. “There needs to be investigation of what he has revealed.”