[1] SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (BP)–U.S. Rep. Glenn Poshard of Carterville, Ill., defeated three other Democratic candidates in the Illinois primary election March 17, securing his party’s nomination for Illinois governor.
Poshard, a member of Carterville’s First Baptist Church, earned about 37 percent of the votes, compared to 30 percent for Roland Burris, 25 percent for John Schmidt and 6 percent for Jim Burns.
Secretary of State George Ryan easily defeated Chad Koppie to earn the Republican nomination and will face Poshard in the November election.
“I will openly and honestly debate every single issue before the people of Illinois with my opponent George Ryan,” Poshard said at his campaign headquarters in Marion, as reported by Springfield’s State Journal-Register. “I am proud to be the standard bearer of this party. I want to tell you I am ready for the battle. I am ready to begin and we are going to win this race.”
In 1996, Poshard and other pro-life Democrats in Congress lobbied the Democratic National Committee for a more lenient stance in the party’s abortion platform.
“God is unconditional love, and we are created as objects of that love,” Poshard told the Illinois Baptist in 1996. “That child at the moment of conception is created by God as an object of his great love” and is “to be protected at all costs. I feel very strongly about that. We have to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves.”