Darin LaHood totally backs The Big Beautiful Bill of Donald Trump. He has to, FBI agents are being given lie detector tests to find out if they have ever said anything critical of Trump. If Darin would veer off the straight and narrow Trump path, he would be primaried. So, like Trump, he must charge on ahead, full steam.

I know Darin and I know his father. Years ago, I was running the Steamboat Classic and Darin was about the same pace (even though I am about 30 years older). He was a candidate for Peoria County State’s Attorney. He had just come back from Nevada as a federal prosecutor. Was he fired? (What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas). During Steamboat, he was shaking hands with as many cops and firefighters as he could recognize. Well, he lost that election — Peoria County.

He went on to get appointed to the Illinois Senate in a Republican district, then won an election in Aaron Schock’s gerrymandered district. He has never won an election in a district that was not gerrymandered.

Now he says he wants to run for U.S. Senator. But Illinois is a state, not a district carved out in Springfield. That is why I say, “Let’s Go Darin!”

— Burt Raabe, Peoria Heights