GABRIEL NEELY-STREIT The Southern   Aug 30, 2019

CARBONDALE — Makanda Democrat Raymond Lenzi will be filing as a candidate to challenge U.S. Rep. Mike Bost in Illinois’ 12th District in the 2020 election, he announced Thursday.

“This is going to be a bold campaign and it’s going to be a campaign on the issues,” Lenzi told The Southern. “This is a tough district to win. We’re going to have to start early and work harder.”

Like Bost, Lenzi has deep Southern Illinois ties.

He comes from a multi-generational coal mining family, and put himself through Southern Illinois University Carbondale working in the mines, he said.

Lenzi holds multiple degrees from SIUC, and filled several roles at the university, including associate chancellor for economic development and CEO of the SIU Research Park.

“We did millions of dollars in development plans in deep Southern Illinois every year, so I know about financing and tax credits, and I have clear, specific ideas about economic development in the 12th District,” he said. “I want to build the ‘city-county coalition,’ where St. Clair, Madison and Monroe counties stand with Union, Franklin and Williamson. We need bold action so people can share in the good things of the great American economy.”

Lenzi sees Bost, a three-term incumbent, as a yes-man for President Donald Trump, whose administration he called “an egotistical farce.”

“I think (Bost) has been complicit in everything that’s happened in this administration,” Lenzi said. “He’s been silent about disastrous immigration policies, silent about a tax cut that is only benefiting the rich, silent throughout the climate crisis. He was even silent when Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner was starving our university.”

Lenzi hopes to appeal to Republicans on the issues, he said, from justice for coal miners, to stable economic policies and fair taxation.

“I ask them, ‘Do you really stand with this chaos in Washington?’” he said.