Congressional campaign suspension announcement

As of Noon EST, the Mitch Davilo congressional campaign for IL-1 has been suspended. Below is the official statement by Davilo:

“It is with great regret that I suspend the 2 plus year campaign. Ever since the 2016 Presidential election, I have held great interest in politics and looked to put myself in the middle of the game as soon as I legally could. Naturally, I believed that to be a federal position at age 25 in the House of Representatives.

Unfortunately, I decided to pursue other ventures which mandatorily tied up my time during the months of April, May and June: essential months to spend collecting signatures. While the requirement of 5,000 is significantly lower than typically required (it is usually in the 10,000s), it was still an astronomical number to overcome compared to the 500 signatures that major parties need.

So what happens now? Starting 2023, the push to add candidates locally and at the state level will be ramped up. While change at the federal level is an essential fight to fight, it has become clear that we can make this fight more manageable should be fight our roadblocks at the source. One of the biggest stated goals moving forward for the Illinois Pirate Party will be fixing ballot access laws in Illinois and working to make us a multi-party state in a country suffering from the two-party duopoly.

What about for 2022? While the ILPP would love to run candidates this year and will be happy to endorse aligned candidates seeking endorsement, the 2022 objective shall be working to help the Ethan Osborne campaign for KY-4, the only other United States Pirate Party candidate (although Ethan shall appear as an Independent).

The ILPP will be fighting for Illinois based issues moving forward, but the campaign of Ethan Osborne shall take precedent. The lack of candidates here now allow us to try our damnedest for the first Pirate to be elected federally. With Kentucky being a bordering state of Illinois, we hope to establish a better working relationship with the Kentucky Pirate Party and all their members. To start, helping Ethan’s campaign is the best way to help.

I look forward to fighting with Ethan this year, and fighting even harder for the state of Illinois next year and every year after. Don’t hesitate to reach out to illinoispirateparty@gmail.com if you wish to volunteer, run for office yourself, state a local chapter, or anything you think you can do to help.

Thank you,

Mitch Davilo”