Assessor Fritz Kaegi sounds alarm on increasingly troubling pool of donors for Hynes campaign

CHICAGO — Today, Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi called on Pat Hynes to return $25,000 he received from far-right MAGA donor Robert Loquercio, co-owner of Bob Loquercio Auto Group. Loquercio is a major GOP donor who’s given at least $372,000 to Republican candidates, including a $100,000 donation to Donald Trump and additional donations to Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell, and Marco Rubio. Loquercio is one of the largest donors to Hynes’s campaign.

The Loquercio family celebrated the murder of Alex Pretti, a Veteran’ Affairs ICU nurse and American citizen who was murdered by ICE agents while protecting his neighbors in Minneapolis. Tony Loquercio, who is President of  the family’s car dealership business, celebrated the murder of Alex Pretti on social media, saying “This is EXACTLY what I voted for,” referring to a neighbor as a “libtardian POS,” and telling Chicago to “enjoy MAGA for the next 10 years.”  

“This is a new low, even for Pat Hynes. Democrats shouldn’t be taking money from MAGA donors or people who celebrate ICE murdering an American citizen,” said Assessor Fritz Kaegi. “Maybe Pat Hynes is running in the wrong party’s primary. He’s taken money from Trump’s property tax appeal lawyers, MAGA donors like the Loquercio family, and all sorts of other special interests. Pat should return this donation immediately.” 

Last week, Assessor Fritz Kaegi joined community advocates to call out Pat Hynes for taking donations from property tax attorneys, including attorneys at the firm that helped lower Trump Tower’s tax bill. Pat Hynes has also taken money from other major Republican donors, including Robert Buford, the mega-landlord who sits on the Board of the Heartland Institute, a radical rightwing organization that denies the science of climate change.

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