Keith Pekau
Keith Pekau (Republican Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Illinois' 6th Congressional District. He lost in the general election on November 8, 2022.
Elections
2022
See also: Illinois' 6th Congressional District election, 2022
General election
General election for U.S. House Illinois District 6
Incumbent Sean Casten defeated Keith Pekau and Arthur Jones in the general election for U.S. House Illinois District 6 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Sean Casten (D) | 54.4 | 150,496 |
 | Keith Pekau (R) | 45.6 | 126,351 | |
 | Arthur Jones (Independent) (Write-in) | 0.0 | 12 | |
| Total votes: 276,859 | |||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for U.S. House Illinois District 6
Incumbent Sean Casten defeated incumbent Marie Newman and Charles Hughes in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Illinois District 6 on June 28, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Sean Casten | 67.7 | 45,654 |
 | Marie Newman | 29.2 | 19,726 | |
 | Charles Hughes | 3.1 | 2,085 | |
| Total votes: 67,465 | |||
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Republican primary election
Republican primary for U.S. House Illinois District 6
The following candidates ran in the Republican primary for U.S. House Illinois District 6 on June 28, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Keith Pekau | 38.7 | 20,178 |
 | Gary Grasso | 27.2 | 14,150 | |
 | Niki Conforti | 11.4 | 5,947 | |
 | Catherine A. O'Shea | 10.1 | 5,243 | |
 | Scott Kaspar | 6.9 | 3,573 | |
 | Rob Cruz | 5.8 | 3,003 | |
| Total votes: 52,094 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- John Ostman (R)
Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Keith Pekau did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign website
Pekau's campaign website stated the following:
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I will fight to keep families safe and our neighborhoods secure. With record crime levels in the US and Chicago and Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx letting violent criminals run free, suburban families are seeing frightening increases of crime in our once-peaceful communities. Americans shouldn’t have to live in fear. I didn’t put my life on the line to defend our country in the Air Force, including three tours in Iraq, so families would feel unsafe in their homes. In Orland Park, we’re fighting back by holding criminals accountable for their actions. We’ve reduced crime to the lowest rate in 27 years. With the lowest violent crime rate of cities over 50,000 in Illinois, Orland Park was rated the safest city in Illinois in 2020—despite being mostly in Cook County. I will bring this same common sense approach to Washington. I will grow the economy to create good-paying middle-class jobs. Our national economy is struggling, with supply shortages and wages not keeping up with the cost of living. Workers are especially hurting in Illinois, where unemployment remains among the highest in the nation. I will fight to bring economic growth and prosperity back to our country, especially right here in the 6th District. We’ll do this by creating an environment in which businesses can thrive so they can create good-paying jobs. We will become energy independent and bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States. And we will hold other countries accountable, especially China, that try to push global economic policies that hurt American businesses and workers. As a successful small businessman, I was able to grow our economy in Orland Park. We diversified our economy by re-imagining the village’s downtown, protecting Orland Square Mall, and helping local businesses survive during the pandemic. Major businesses, small businesses, manufacturers, and restaurants are responding positively, with over 600 businesses opening in the village so far during my tenure. I will fight inflation and bring fiscal responsibility to Washington. With reckless spending by Democrats leading to the highest inflation since 1980, working families are struggling to keep up. Everything is more expensive, including groceries, gas, utilities, and even eating at restaurants. This has a real impact on people’s lives. We need to stop spending more than we bring in, lower taxes, and address the national debt. I’ve led by example as Mayor of Orland Park—I cut spending, balanced the budget, paid down debt, and lowered taxes. In just one term, I cut operating expenses by 14%, paid down over $50 million in debt, and lowered property tax rates by 30%, all while more than doubling investments in the village’s infrastructure. This is the fiscally responsible leadership I will bring to Congress. While the other Republican candidates talk about solving challenges like crime, inflation, and the economy, I’ve actually done it. Unlike them, I have a track record of identifying and fixing problems to make people’s lives better. This is the common sense leadership we need to take on the failed far-left politics of Marie Newman and Sean Casten and put people over politics.
Crime has risen to record levels in the US and Chicago, and suburban families are experiencing frightening increases of crime in our once-peaceful communities. American families shouldn’t have to live in fear. Yet that’s what’s happening. People aren’t going downtown to see their favorite sports team play or eat at a restaurant. Suburban drivers are forced to seek out busy and well-lit gas stations so their vehicle isn’t stolen while they’re pumping gas. Parents aren’t letting their children ride their bikes through the neighborhood. Crime has become a part of our daily lives. Why is this happening? Because politicians like Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx are letting violent criminals run free. Through progressive policies like defunding the police and no cash bail, they’re more interested in protecting criminals than victims and law-abiding citizens. 85% of the criminals we arrest in Orland Park are previous felons and/or are out on bail, and nearly every single one of them comes from Cook County. You ask the average person what will happen if you let a career criminal with a long history of violent crime back onto the streets, they’ll tell you it’s obvious—they’ll commit another violent crime. This isn’t rocket science. In Orland Park, we’re fighting back so we can keep our families safe and neighborhoods secure. We’ve reduced crime to the lowest rate in 27 years. With the lowest violent crime rate of cities over 50,000 in Illinois, Orland Park was rated the safest city in Illinois in 2020 and the 8th safest small city in the United States in 2021—despite being mostly in Cook County. We’ve achieved this through a common sense approach that holds criminals accountable for their actions. We work collaboratively as a community, with residents and businesses working directly with our outstanding police department. We hire the best of the best, then hold them accountable by taking every complaint seriously and always striving to be better. We invest heavily in investigations so we produce so much evidence the state’s attorney has no choice but to prosecute criminals, and when needed we take cases to the feds to get violent criminals off the streets. We utilize modern technology and fund programs that have been proven to work. We actively work to rehabilitate non-violent criminals and we hired mental health professionals to assist the mentally ill, which has decreased committals by 35% and saved lives. Criminals know if they commit a crime in Orland Park, they will be caught and they will face consequences. Our police recently hauled in a group of armed robbers who were smugly laughing because they assumed they’d get a free pass. Their tune immediately changed once they realized they committed the crime in Orland Park on the Will County side. Just a few months ago, the FBI and US Attorney’s office thanked Orland Park for our help in putting a violent felon and drug trafficker behind bars that Kim Foxx had refused to charge. This work is personal for me. When I served in the Air Force, including three tours in Iraq, I didn’t put my life on the line to defend our country so families would feel unsafe in their homes. It’s time to do away with the political agendas and focus on keeping Americans safe.
Our national economy is struggling, with supply shortages and wages not keeping up with the cost of living. Workers are especially hurting in Illinois, where unemployment remains among the highest in the nation. There is no excuse for this. Especially not in the Chicagoland region, where we are the transportation hub of America. I will fight to bring economic growth and prosperity back to our country, especially right here in the 6th District. I will work in Congress to create an environment in which businesses can succeed and thrive so they can grow and create good-paying jobs for American workers. And I will hold other countries accountable, especially China, that try to push global economic policies that hurt American businesses and working families. A key part of my plan is to make us energy independent and bring manufacturing back. Right now, we are relying on countries for our energy and manufacturing that may not be our friends, today or in the future. We should be a global leader in energy production, including renewable sources, allowing us to be an energy exporter. This inexpensive and reliable energy, along with the best labor force in the world, will bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States. As a successful businessman and small business owner, I have seen firsthand the challenges businesses face. I advised businesses in every industry to help them grow. In my own business, I lived the challenges of making payroll, managing cashflows, and trying to keep up with government regulations. This experience helped me succeed in growing our economy in Orland Park. I tackled the problems ignored and sometimes even created by my predecessor, because I focused on solving problems rather than playing politics. We worked together to diversify our economy by re-imagining the village’s downtown, protecting Orland Square Mall which is now one of the safest in the country, and helping local businesses survive during the pandemic. Major businesses, small businesses, manufacturers, and restaurants are responding positively, with over 600 businesses opening in the village so far during my tenure. Growing the economy has a real world impact on that person looking for a job. It could be the difference between keeping their home and being homeless. I remember when I was working to put myself through college by delivering pizzas, my car got a flat tire. I had to go without food waiting for my weekly paycheck in order to fix my car. These are real decisions being made by people on a daily basis right now. If we can help people get that job that gives them fulfillment, allows them to provide for their family, and creates an opportunity for them to pursue their American Dream, we’ve done something real that makes a difference for people.
With reckless spending by Democrats leading to the highest inflation since 1980, working families are struggling to keep up. Everything is more expensive, including groceries, gas, utilities, and even eating at restaurants. This has a real impact on people’s lives. The only people surprised by this inflation are Washington politicians. You cannot keep spending and printing money like drunken sailors without negative consequences. You can’t close businesses and disrupt the supply chain without causing a significant jump in prices. Paying people to stay home instead of working increases labor costs for businesses, which leads to price increases for everyone. Someone is paying for this out-of-control spending and bad government policy—and that someone is you. We need to bring common sense to Congress and stop spending more than we bring in. We must lower taxes for hard-working Americans. And it is critical we get our national debt under control. We can do all this without negatively impacting services by holding spending flat and becoming better and more efficient in everything government does. I’ve led by example as Mayor of Orland Park. I cut spending, balanced the budget, paid down debt, and lowered taxes. In just one term, I cut operating expenses by 14%, paid down over $50 million in debt, and lowered property tax rates by 22%, all while more than doubling investments in the village’s infrastructure. Think of what this would mean for the country if this was how Congress operated. We could lower taxes for over-burdened Americans, which history has shown improves the economy and increases tax revenues for government. Working families would be able to keep more of their hard-earned money to put towards their kids’ education, paying bills, or even taking a vacation. Businesses could grow and hire more employees. With inflation under control, everything would cost less. This is the fiscally responsible leadership I will bring to Congress.[1] |
” |
| —Keith Pekau's campaign website (2022)[2] | ||
See also
2022 Elections
External links
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Candidate U.S. House Illinois District 6 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Keith Pekau, “People Over Politics,” accessed August 28, 2022
