Aurora mayor Richard Irvin kept order during the George Floyd riots. Now he wants to bring that approach to the governor’s mansion.
When rioters overtook cities across America for months in 2020, the Republican mayor of Aurora, Ill., remained tough on crime and quickly restored peace to his city.
After “opportunists” descended on the city in June 2020 and caused an estimated $3 million in damage, Mayor Richard Irvin called in the National Guard, shut down roads, and supported the city’s police force.
“Aurora will be ready for you, if you come to our community and attempt to cause destruction. We will not put up with this BS and foolishness. We will not put up with outsiders coming in and causing havoc. We will prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law, and we already have for those who were identified last night,” Irvin said at the time.
Now Irvin, who has been mayor of Aurora, his hometown, for five years, is running for governor of Illinois. He hopes to oust the incumbent, J. B. Pritzker, with the support of billionaire hedge-fund owner Kenneth Griffin, who has vowed to use his wealth to defeat the Democrat.
Irvin will face off in the June 28 primary against seven other Republican candidates, including venture capitalist Jesse Sullivan, state senator Darren Bailey, businessman Gary Rabine, and former state senator Paul Schimpf.
Irvin’s fundraising, including a $20 million investment from Griffin, far exceeds that of his Republican competition, with Sullivan having the second-largest campaign account at more than $9 million.
Irvin, a black man who is pro–”all lives matter” and anti–”defund the police,” is campaigning as Illinois is besieged by crime after more than three years under the leadership of Pritzker.
Chicago saw its deadliest year in 25 years in 2021, recording more murders than any other city nationwide. Cook County surpassed 1,000 murders. Additionally, more than 1,800 carjackings were reported in Chicago last year, a 20-year record and the most of any large city, according to CNN.
As crime surged across the state’s urban centers, Pritzker signed legislation that would end cash bail in 2023, allow anonymous complaints against police officers, and curtail felony murder prosecutions.
Meanwhile, Aurora was named the sixth-largest safe city in America by WalletHub in 2021. Irvin attributes the city’s safety to his efforts to support police with additional funding and moral support.
“We’ve let people know that we are a law-and-order city,” Irvin said in a recent interview with National Review. “And as governor, I will let everyone know we are a law-and-order state.”
While crime was on the rise elsewhere in Illinois, murders in Aurora decreased 45 percent from 2020 to 2021, dropping from eleven to six. The city also saw a 32 percent decrease in shootings, from 154 in 2020 to 105 in 2021. Motor vehicle thefts fell from 78 to 59 in 2021, a 10 percent decrease.
“That’s because we recognize the value of our men and women that wear that badge every single day, and we increased their budget,” Irvin said. “And we didn’t stop there. It’s not just about the dollars and cents, it’s letting these men and women wear that badge and let them know that their leader, their mayor, and their governor — when I become governor — has their back.”
He added that as governor he would give law enforcement the resources they need to “get the job done and reduce crime and make a community safe.”
“All a state is is a number of cities, just like the city of Aurora,” he said. “So if we can do it here, we can do it everywhere throughout the state and improve the entire state and make the whole state safe.”
Irvin has been passionate about creating a safe environment and a place of opportunity in Aurora, where he was raised by a single mother in the projects, surrounded by gang life.
He says what saved him and set him on a path of public service was the decision to enlist in the U.S. military, following in the footsteps of his grandfather, who was a World War II veteran.
Irvin enlisted at 18 and served in the Gulf War, during Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
One night while serving in Saudi Arabia, at just 19 years old, Irvin was waiting for a transport van to carry out his mission to transport American tankers and soldiers to the frontline in Kuwait when a loud siren burst out of the night air.
As he lay on the ground, not knowing what was to come next, Irvin says he remembers hearing his own voice wondering if that day was going to be his last.
“I wasn’t much more than a teenager and I’m lying on the ground, just cold desert floor, wondering if I’m going to see my mom again, if I’m going to see my brother and family again,” he said. “And as I laid there, I began to have a conversation with myself and a conversation with God.”
“I said, ‘If I don’t die today, I’m going to spend the rest of my life in service giving back to others,’” he said, adding that he wanted to return home and give back to his community.
He watched as a Patriot missile took out a Scud missile coming toward his unit. Once the coast was clear, Irvin set about figuring out how to fulfill his promise to himself and God.
He later returned to the States and used the GI Bill to attend college at Robert Morris University and later earned his law degree from Northern Illinois University School of Law.
He graduated from law school and worked his way up from a traffic lawyer to a prosecutor in Cook and Kane counties from 1998 until 2003. In his final years as an assistant state attorney, he worked as a community-based prosecutor, shoulder to shoulder with police. He would go on raids with police and stand by the side of law enforcement as they arrested gang members and drug dealers and shut down drug houses.
He later worked as a criminal defense attorney and made two unsuccessful bids to become mayor of Aurora in 2003 and 2008. He made history in 2007 as the first African-American man to be elected to the Aurora City Council as alderman at large. He served on the city council for ten years before becoming the first African-American mayor of Aurora in 2017.
Illinois house Republican leader Jim Durkin, who knocked on doors for Irvin’s first mayoral campaign, told National Review in a recent interview that Irvin’s early losses are evidence of his dedication to public service.
“He didn’t give up [when] he lost his first race and this is a guy who just didn’t walk away and just become complacent, he kept going back and he was not going to let this job, this race, fail him,” Durkin said. “And that’s what I appreciate about him, is that he does not stop . . . He has incredible drive and will not give up on any major issue.”
Durkin added that Irvin’s journey from the projects to the mayor’s office represents the “great American dream story.”
“This is in contrast with someone who inherited $4 billion,” Durkin said, referring to Pritzker, who is an heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune and has a net worth of $3.6 billion, according to Forbes.
He added that Pritzker likely doesn’t understand “what it’s like to grow up in a household where you’re not quite sure where your next meal is coming from or how the rent is going to be paid.”
“But [Irvin] does and that reflects a lot of people in the state, the middle class, people who have to work hard every day,” he said, adding that Irvin has compassion and an understanding of what challenges middle-class and low-income residents face.
Irvin said he has worked as mayor to support police and drive down taxes, “making sure we have a safe community with good education and jobs,” he said.
“I think what’s most important about any community is that it’s safe and I’ve always supported the police as mayor and made sure that they knew that I had their back,” he said.
Irvin said the “defund the police” Democrats spend too much time focusing on giving breaks to criminals and not enough on the victim and the police. He blasted the Reimagine Public Safety Act that Pritzker signed, saying it may as well be called the “I Hate the Police Act.”
He said it “focuses more on defunding the police and taking away their authority to do their job and giving more consideration to criminals than it does to the victims of the crime and the police that go out there and keep us safe every day.”
Irvin told National Review that Democrats don’t realize that the key to addressing crime at a root level lies in what he calls the three C’s: children, cops, and community. He said his plan for addressing crime includes focusing on education and youth programs to get young people off the streets and out of mischief, as well as deploying community-oriented police officers who focus on “being proactive in a community instead of reactive.”
“Not simply being a paramilitary force that rides around in their police cars waiting for a call but actually in the community making a difference and identifying problems before they become problems,” he said.
The final C involves engaging the community directly, making sure that residents take pride in their community.
Durkin said that he is an “outspoken and enthusiastic supporter” of Irvin, adding that as someone who has served as a prosecutor in Chicago and comes from a family of prosecutors and Chicago police officers, he finds Irvin’s background “incredibly important” for someone who is going to serve as governor, “particularly at a time where crime is the single biggest issue that we have to deal with.”
The state representative said Pritzker and state Democrats have “failed miserably” on crime and have vilified police and dismissed the concerns of victims.
“I can’t accept that,” Durkin said. “I know that Richard, based on his background, is a person that is going to put victims and law enforcement at the top.”
Irvin said he believes “all lives absolutely do matter.”
“Whether you’re black, white, Latino, Indian, or Asian, you are a resident of the state of Illinois, a resident of my city, second-largest city in the state of Illinois, and your life matters,” he said.
“So recognize anyone that focuses on defunding the police doesn’t recognize the value of the police to a community,” he said.