Metro East Sun

Dwight Kay is convinced he has a message every voter in November's general election can relate to.

“A big part of what we’ll be talking about will be pocketbook issues,” Kay told the Metro East Sun just hours after garnering approximately 58 percent of the vote to defeat Wendy Erhart in the Republican primary in the 112th District. “We’ll be talking about putting people’s wallets back in their pockets and stopping all the fleecing.”

While Kay said he’ll be looking to broaden his message, one thing he vows not to engage in is negative politicking.

Springfield, Illinois | By Éovart Caçeir at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10535377

“We won't run a smear campaign,” he said regarding his bid to unseat Rep. Katie Stuart (D-Edwardsville) in November. “That’s not who we are, and besides the people in this district are too smart for that. They know the issues and problems of the community, and they’re looking to hear what kind of answers the candidates have. People want and know we need change.”

During the primary, Kay said he made it a point of reminding everyone that Illinois is worth fighting for and he often sees plenty of people doing just that.

“A lot of them are fighting, but it’s a personal battle,” he said. “We want to bring people together behind common causes.”

Kay said one such issue is the ongoing dilemma of rising property taxes.

“I get endless questions about property taxes and why they’re so high,” he told the Metro East Sun. “And then there’s the income tax hike we recently had enacted. The bottom-line is we won’t get or keep business in the state with all these taxes on the books.”

Kay said he’ll be a different candidate from the one that ran and lost against Stuart in 2016. Kay served in the House from 2010 to 2016.

“Last time around, I didn’t run my own race, and we didn’t have control of things,” he said. “That won’t happen again. We know this district better than anyone in Washington, New York and Chicago, and they won’t be running our race this time around.”

The 112th District includes Glen Carbon and parts of Maryville, Edwardsville, Collinsville, Granite City and O'Fallon.