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A retired Rockford judge says he's ready to represent Western Illinois in Congress.

We talk with Republican candidate Joe McGraw on the city's.

Joe McGraw step down.

After a 20 year career as a presiding criminal court judge, and soon after announced his intentio to run for Congress this fall.

Judge McGraw will face of against Democrat Eric Sorensen for the 17th district, which stretches from Rockford through the Quad Cities in Peoria and down to the Bloomington Normal area.

In announcing his bid for election, judge McGraw said he's running to take on corruption in Washington and return the district to a free, safe and economically prosperous community.

We talk with judge McGraw about his campaign.

Judge, tell me, why is it that you decided that now was the time to run for Congress?

There's a lot of question.

A lot of people ask.

And it's usually, accompanie by, kind of a smirk or a smile.

They want to know why I didn't go to Florida with everybody else who retires in Illinois, but, when I saw my time on the bench, especially the last few years, showed me that our district, and our country was really going the wrong direction.

I got five adult kids, two grandkids, and I wanted to make sure that they could have the same type of, access t the American dream that I had.

So I postponed, climbing on board my Harley Davidson motorcycle and heading west, because there's still work to be done here in the 17th.

Tell me a little bit about yourself, because, as you said, I mean, you spent a lot of years on the bench.

Tell me a little bit about, your history.

Yeah.

So, before all of that, I, I've been a lifelong Illinois, and, my dad was World War two combat vet.

My mother came here from Italy as an immigrant.

And, after, Pearl Harbor she joined the women's Marines, one of the first women to do so.

And so, after they met and started our family, you could say that patriotism and service to country was pretty much in our DNA.

And they taught us, love God, love your family, and love your country.

And so I join my dad making horseshoes.

That's right.

Horseshoes for harness racers and for thoroughbreds and our family business.

so as I grew in age and stature, I did more and more jobs that ultimately make the shoes myself.

And so I learned hard work at an early age and working until the job was done.

I always wonder why somebody runs for Congress first.

Why not school board?

Why not County board?

Why not state assembly?

Well, you know, I, served two terms on the county board up in Winnebago.

I was, served on several committees, public safety zoning.

I was also the chair of the reapportionment committee.

Way back in 2020.

Our party, 22,000.

Gosh, how time flies.

Yeah.

2000.

And we were able to get the county boards, reapportionment redistricte with only, I think, one no vote.

It was a bipartisan effort.

And so we're proud of that.

When I was in, private practice, I represented everyone, fro pretty much every walk of life.

and as a prosecutor, I, handled all the violent crime cases in Rockford.

I tell people I came to Rockford for the crime, and I was never disappointed.

And that's one of the things, one of the pillars that you are running on is, crime, and security in the United States.

For the 17th district.

I mean, the 17th district isn't a large city.

It is a widely rural area with some urban sections.

Is crime reall a problem in western Illinois?

But to find that out, you have to talk to the sheriffs.

Yeah, I've talked to the chiefs of police.

I've done, 12 of the 14 sheriffs i the district have endorsed me.

They see, that there are no but everything's a border community nowadays.

You know, they all see the crime comin from south of the border, crimes being committed by illegals against American citizens.

The thing that shocked me the most was all of the fentanyl deaths.

and even yesterday we were, out not from for non profits town.

And even ther they recovered large amounts of, fentanyl enough to kill the entire city.

So there's no place that's safe.

It's, it's all it is is a question of, degrees, Jim.

And but every community is being touched by this.

I know borders has a lot to do with, fentanyl and the drug smuggling into the United States but also treatment so important.

and you've seen that so muc as a judge, stopping the drugs from coming to the country is important, but stopping the appetite is important as well.

Yeah.

That's true.

yeah.

Really it's not an either or situation.

It's a both 80% of the fentanyl in the United States comes from across the southern border, is manufactured by China, and it's shipped across our open southern border.

So if you could wave a magic wand and cut down on 80% of the fentanyl is coming into the United States, you'd cut down on the corresponding deaths.

Illinois is, fourth i the nation for fentanyl deaths.

And these are things that, you know, we've been fighting the war on drugs for a long time in one form or another.

In our courtroom, we focus on evidenc based practices where we really try and get to the root cause.

And obviously mental health subs you know, there's a hug lack of mental health services in Illinois and a huge lack of substance abuse treatment in Illinois.

And we are doing the best we can with the limited resources we have, Jim.

But there's always room for improvement.

And we saw lives turned around, folks in our court system and some that were tragically cut short because they had a relapse that included a fentanyl adulterated drug and all the progress they've made.

And the bright future they had were, just went up in smoke in one day.

Well, and, you know, you I ask you specifically becaus you've seen these tragic stories time and time again.

And, you know, fentanyl is today methamphetamine, as was before that, although that hasn't been, you know, necessarily gone.

Of course, cocaine, marijuana, all of these things, it just seems like Americans always seem to have an appetite for drugs.

And how do you combat that?

I mean you can go back to Nancy Reagan.

and even before that.

Yeah, well, that's true and that's unfortunate.

But as the family continues to break down as there are less and less side jobs, there are some is able to support a family on, both, parents are working.

They're both working multipl jobs, multiple part time jobs.

They have less and less time to be with their kids, to go to their kids games, go to their kids practices and recitals, and to just interact with them because at the end of the day, they're beat because they're sprinting just to keep up with that inflation rehab.

So all the things you mentioned are true, but this is just an adde super stressor on top of it all.

So what is the role of Congress?

What would be your rol to help diminish this problem?

I think you have to, first off go to the source, shut it down.

The border has got to be secured.

continue building the wall.

But more importantly than that, as we turn to the Remain in Mexico policy, for those that are seeking, status her in the United States to come in and that we had that, the previous administration used its substantial foreign policy influence with Mexico and with the other countries in Central America to require them to cooperate with, this influx of illegals, for example, Mexico, they were convinced to put their own army on their northern border.

Our southern border could protect people from coming across.

And also they had to provide a sanctuary within Mexico for those seeking asylum to have a safe place to, go until the State Department went down there and interviewed the individuals to determine if they were eligible for asylum.

Now, that' been completely done away with.

There's no more remain in Mexico.

Everyone floods across on a so-called, parole status by statute.

Federal statute.

There's supposed to be a, per person, one case at a tim determination, not, swing open the floodgates where it comes across and gets a court date.

6 or 8 years in the futur with little probability of them ever showing up.

And there's they have no identification, so we don't know who they are anyway, let me talk a little bit because you bring it up is jobs because the economy is of course, it has a huge impact on everyone.

I mean everyone.

You can go right back to James Carville talking about it's the economy.

and right now you're seeing some real contraction in the, agriculture implement, industry.

And of course, I' pointing to Deere and company.

You're seeing some widespread layoffs that are really impacting in particular, the Quad Cities.

What concern do you have in that area, and have you been able to do anything at this point as a candidate?

And what would you do as a Congressman?

You point to a really important, aspect of our economy.

Obviously our import exports have got to legislation has got to control, imposing tariffs on bad actors like China.

China is not merely a competitor of ours.

They are an adversary of ours.

And, imposing substantial tariffs on things coming from China can only be good for the U.S. because it makes their goods less affordable, less available.

more things will be made in America by Americans, for Americans, as far as the agricultural, implement contraction that you spoke about, this is just the continuation of trade policies that favor foreign countries to make it more difficult to, manufacture things here and compete with countries that subsidize their workers, subsidize their factories.

Some of them have, child labor, like China.

Some have slave labor, like China.

And so how can, free country compete with that?

So we've got to make sure that our deals with the EU are favorable to the US.

we're the number one soybea producer in the entire country, but also a tremendous amount of sweet corn, and, field of corn for animals, for gas, gas and oil.

And so it's time for us to start structuring our system of tariffs and trade deals to favor Americans, favor American manufacturers, favor American agriculture.

Well, as you know, Deere and Company is, creating this plant in Mexico where a lot of these jobs in Dubuque, as well as in the Quad Cities are and Waterloo are supposedly heading.

I mean, should Deere be penalized in some way or incentivized to, keep the workers here?

That's a complex question.

And Deere, it's very unfortunate.

I've spoken to people who work their whole lives at Deere, caterpillar or some other, mainstay in our, regional economy, and they're all feeling that, you know, others won't have the lives that they had their kids won't have the lives, that they had, won't hav the job security that they had, won't have the retirement available that they've had.

And so Deere gave in to the, economic pressure that make it more advantageous, more cost effective to make something in Mexico that shouldn't be the case.

So incentivizing our American manufacturers to make things here, by making it disadvantageous for them, to make them in other countries is all part of our, you know, regulatory scheme that, shows that we want to keep Americans first, keep American workers first, keep things being built here.

But our current administration is not done that their trade policies that have led to this exodus, changing subjects, as you know, reproductive rights is going to be a major issue in this campaign.

You live in a very blue state, where protection of abortion rights is is being, done all over, from Springfield.

what is your view as far as the states rights issue of reproductive rights?

And what is your vie as far as abortion is concerned?

Well, I think the Supreme Court got it right.

When they overturn Roe, they send it back to the states where it was before a row.

everybody didn't like row for one reason or another because it, it stopped the normal political processes from going forward.

And there are different states right now.

We see there's a big change in attitude towards abortion.

And and, you know, 50 years ago and Rho is passed, ROE was enacted.

So now it's back to the states where it belongs.

The states should be the ones to decide.

Your elected leaders are much closer to the people in the States, and they're more responsive to your, position.

Illinois is, abortion on demand up through the ninth month.

So I don't think abortion or reproductive rights are going to be an issue in this race.

there's literally no limitations on abortion here in Illinois.

It's back to the States wher it should have been all along.

So I think the Supreme Court counter right with the Dobbs decision.

Well, and as you know, I mean, you're in western Illinois.

You're a border.

district.

So you have Iowa, which has a stronger, reproductive restriction, restrictions.

That is in Missouri as well.

I mean, are you are you worried about two things?

One is, people crossin the border to come into Illinois or other states preventin people from crossing the border, for their own reproductive rights.

But that's a what call an incomplete hypothetical.

I don't know of any states that are preventing people from coming to Illinois.

we're happy to have people com to Illinois that are citizens, okay, for whatever reason.

and, you know, sure that that will happen.

That's just part of the political will is played out among the 50 states.

Some states will have more restrictions, some will have less.

And over time, this will continue to evolve.

but that's the way it should, should be.

The people in Iowa, they get to vote for their elected officials and form their own policies.

People in Illinois get to vote.

Their elected officials, their representatives, their senators and their and their governor.

And, they've chosen the the policies that are in effect in Illinois.

That's how it should be.

If you're elected to Congress, you're also going to quickl become, a person who has to be, well versed in international affairs, of course.

And right now we're seeing th powder keg of the Middle East.

what do you see as far as Israel's role in Gaza right now?

And are you worried that this is becoming a much bigger issue when you have, assassinations that take place in Lebanon and in Iran?

Oh, yeah.

This is something that any sober, serious thinking person should be paying close attention to.

you have Iran.

again, everything's connected to everything, Jim.

Iran.

couldn't sell their oil under the previous administration.

They were broke under the Biden administration.

They lifted the sanctions, for Iran selling oil, oil, oils, then sold to China.

China made Iran rich.

Iran now has the money to figh their proxy wars against Israel through Hamas and Hezbolla and others and the Houthis.

So, there are connections to foreign policy decisions we make and the safety and fate of Israel.

Israel.

Keep in mind, was, attacked, thousands of civilians were killed.

And they have to fight through and finish the job.

They started against Hamas and Israel.

But we're all cautious as we see fleets of ships and planes going into the theater right now.

We're all cautione that the potential for regional or more, expansion of this war.

Do you have sympathy, though for the plight of those in Gaza?

I mean, you obviously do, but at what point is enough?

Enough?

I mean, at what point is the suffering not commensurate with the original crime?

I don't think you can, view it, in a ledger fashion.

Like how much suffering, how much how bad was the original crime you got?

You got to take a historical look.

Of course, I'm sympatheti to the people in the Gaza region and, those in Lebanon and, other places that, have, Yeah.

Result lost a lot of lives, as a result of this large, regional war.

But, Israel, since they became a nation in 1947, the day they declared they were a nation, US recognized them on day one as a nation.

And since then, the very first day they've been attacked, o and off by all of the countries surrounding them, who fundamentally have, as one of their core beliefs.

The Israel does not have the right to exist.

That's sort of an incompatible, point of view, of course, with the Israeli point of view.

And Israel, it's a very diverse country that people come from all over the world.

they're a democracy.

they're a loyal ally of the United States that exchange military information.

exchange technical information or trade partners.

no one likes to see one more unnecessary civilian deaths.

But when Hamas chooses to hide among the people, they are the ones that are bringing an increasing death toll upon the civilians.

How important is it for the U.S. to continue its backing of Ukraine, an ongoing war against Russia?

Yeah, that's, another example of, weak leadership, from President Biden, my vice president Harris, you know, you got to remember that during the previous administration, we were his Donald Trum would say, drill, baby, drill.

We are exporting oil and natural gas all over the world and including liquefied natural gas o or shipping to Europe, the EU, because Russia had a market cornered, Russia could only sell weapons and energy.

And we took one of their mainstays of their economy away from them by, selling our liquefied natural gas and petroleum in Europe, at a price they couldn't compete with.

So they didn't have any money to be aggressive.

Then Joe Biden comes in.

So it was, those are, he puts the clamp on energy production, energy distribution, pipelines permitting, all in, under the guise of you know, favoring green energy.

Green energy?

Well, in Illinois, I should say, in the district, on any given day, solar and wind never account for more than about 17% of the total energy draw.

You have nuclear, you have hydroelectric, you have fossil fuel, you have natural gas.

And so they don't see the connection.

But the connection is plain.

Now Russia is able to sell its, energy at a profit.

In Europe.

They cornered the market once again.

Now they're bucks up.

They have the money.

and to attack Ukraine, they've attacked Ukraine.

and it's also been in the face of dithering, weak leadership by the Democratic administration.

So I have a backing for Ukraine should continue.

What would you like to see?

I'd like to see the wa come to a negotiated settlement.

I don't know that either side will ever be abl to declare total victory here.

I think it's more of a standoff, but it has to be a negotiated settlement.

You cannot have Russia, quote unquote, win the war and conquer Ukraine, because that will just continue to destabilize NATO, continue to destabilize the, all of the Eastern European countries in that area who Ukraine is a large country.

They're smaller.

And if it can be done t Ukraine, it can be done to them.

And so there's an important, issue at stake here to stop Russian aggression.

But we have to have accountability for the money.

It's going there.

We have to make sure it's being properly spent.

We don't have those assurances now.

We have to make sure that their military is is working effectively.

But, we don't have those assurances now.

So I think the bottom line is it never should have happened.

It wouldn't have happened.

But for weakness now that is here, we have t come to a negotiated settlement that restores a measure of peace and equilibrium in Europe.

I hav very little time left with you.

I thank you for your time.

But just one quick last question is, as you know, it's more of a Democratic leaning district for 17.

So where do you fall on the political spectrum?

Well, running as a Republican, as you know, but, as I've told people, whe I decided to run for Congress, I wasn't trying to earn my letter jersey, you know, from the Republicans.

Okay?

I'm not going there is, diehard Republican or anti Democrat person.

As a judge, you learn how to listen carefully, take information in from all sides, be open minded, be fully present.

Really.

Listen, considering the possible the answer might exist outside your experience, outside your knowledge.

And I'm going to Washington duties.

I don't need a job.

I don't need a title.

I'm going there because I want to be the adult in the room that listens to both sides and is able to sort things out, wor for everybody in the district, because the border economy these are not partizan issues.

These are, kitchen table issues that affect everybody.

Our thanks to 17t Illinois Congressional District.

Joe McGraw, a Republican from Rockford, Murray Lee, is a singer, songwriter and acoustic guitarist who heads the band Murray Lee and the Sons of Hades.

He's been part of a number of area bands, plus a number o different instruments he plays.

We invited him to take the stage and the black Box Theater in Molin to perform one of his original.

So here's Murray Lee with claustrophobic.

I was flipping through the news article about, grains, their sizing, their shape, genetic.

what in, for trick?

And I was reading chapters in, People's history of the United States.

what an awful place to be.

And I'm too poor to live.

And I was reading in a science journal about Mother Earth.

Her fevers get worse.

Oh, I'm stuck in a hearse.

And I was trying to understand a Brian Green book about space time and how, strings are attached to air.

Oh, I feel so claustrophobic.

Murray Lee with claustrophobic performing Molinos black box theater on the air, on the radio, on the web, on your mobile device and streaming on your computer.

Thanks for taking some time to join us.

As we talk about the issues on the series.

At VCU we've always been here for you.

You are and always will be our top priority.

We care about your financial health and we are here.

I am VCU is a proud supporter of Wqpt the future.

That's where our minds ar at Western Illinois University, Quad Cities.

We are innovators searching for something new outside of the textbooks dog loving, leadership driven, world changing.

Whether you choose to study on campus or online, your future is designed on your terms.

Start your future at wiU.

Do you see Public Affairs programing on Wqpt is brought to yo by the Singh Group at Merrill, serving the wealth management needs of client in the region for over 35 years.