Politics
Whitfield Harrington Jr. on His US Senate Run, Polarizing Politics and Free Community College
Illinois voters will see more than Juliana Stratton and Don Tracy on the ballot for U.S. Senate.
Third-party candidate Whitfield Harrington Jr. is running as the nominee for the American Center Party, which he calls a middle ground for Illinoisans who are unsatisfied with polarizing politics.
Harrington is a pastor and former financial services professional with a campaign centered on affordability, healthcare access and government reform. He joined “Chicago Tonight” to discuss his campaign, immigration enforcement and free community college.
On why he wants to be a U.S. senator:
“I don’t have political experience as a politician, but I do have public service experience. And also, I grew up in the South where the Civil Rights Movement (was). My father was so instrumental in the Civil Rights Movement as a Civil Rights leader. He was chairman of the NAACP in the county that I grew up in during the actual Civil Rights Movement. So those were some of the things that I experienced in my youth, growing up under my father. And then also being involved in other campaigns, as well as most people who start out in politics.”
On the American Center Party:
“One of the things we wanna focus on in the American Center Party is making certain that we prioritize the struggles and the challenges that Americans have. Right now, both the Democratic and the Republican parties, they used to present a vision to the American people and how they wanted to move the nation forward. And you don’t see that anymore. What you see is just division — arguing and bickering. And I’m pretty sure it’s on full display all across the country.”
On how he would make life more affordable for Illinoisans:
“First thing that I would do is I would send a message to the president of the United States. You need to end the war in Iran, respectfully and probably as quickly as possible. And No. 2, we need to get the prices of oil down. And the way that we do that is … by banning speculation from individuals who are in the oil markets who have no legitimate reason to actually take possession of the oil that they’re purchasing. If we can get those individuals out of the oil market, we will see an instant decline in the price of oil and everybody will feel the ripple effects of bringing down the price of oil in our economy.”
On President Donald Trump:
“His desire is to make America great again. That is his motive. But one of the things I think he has to question about are his methods. And some of the things that I think people are sort of pushing back from are the methods in which he’s using. And I think as a senator, you have to be willing to work with whoever’s the president. The president is gonna be the president for the next two years. So we can’t go to Washington and hold our breath for two years in hopes someone from our party gets elected as the president, but we have to work with who’s there, whether it’s the president, the governor or any other elected official.”
On making the first year of community college free:
“We need to reevaluate the Department of Education. And the first thing I think that we need to do is we need to make certain that the people who benefit from the Department of Education are the students and the teachers. Everybody else should get in line behind those. And I think this is one of the ways that we can take just a portion of the revenues that have been given to the Department of Education and find a way to make the first year of two-year colleges, not four-year, but two-years (free).”
