Regan Deering Calls Herself an Outsider, Then Funds Campaign with Establishment Swamp 

“If there is one thing that Regan has done consistently, it’s lie to people in Central and Southern Illinois throughout the duration of this campaign – this is no different.”

Springfield, IL – Regan Deering is fond of calling herself a political outsider, but her recent FEC filing tells a different story. While she talks about sending a “new kind of representative” to Washington, she seems to be taking money from the people she claims to be different from. Deering is clearly telling one story to voters in the 13th district and another to national Republicans that she would be completely beholden to as a member of Congress. 

In her latest finance report, Deering reported taking money from national Republicans like: 

  • $10,000 from the PAC for Elise Stefanik, who supports stolen election claims, and whom Deering has “enjoyed following
  • $8,700 from Todd Ricketts, the former finance chair of the RNC and his wife, Sylvie Legere.
  • $5,800 from Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, Republican mega-donors who funded a group connected to the January 6th riots.
  • $5,000 from Kevin McCarthy’s PAC, who has promised to rollback Medicare drug price negotiation if made Speaker
  • $5,000 from the PAC for Mike Huckabee, the two-time failed presidential candidate and far-right Republican
  • $1,000 from Citizens United, the group which fights to preserve dark money campaign contributions 

Josh Roesch, campaign manager for Nikki for Congress, made the following statement: “If there is one thing that Regan has done consistently, it’s lie to people in Central and Southern Illinois throughout the duration of this campaign – this is no different.”

“Regan likes to call herself a political outsider yet comes from a family that raised money for Richard Nixon and other Republicans and is funding her campaign from some of the biggest national donors in the country.”

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Nikki Budzinski is a labor activist, former Chief of Staff at the Office of Management and Budget in the Biden Administration and Senior Advisor to Governor JB Pritzker. Born in Peoria, Illinois, she’s the granddaughter of a union painter and public-school teachers.  Nikki has over ten years’ experience in the labor movement, working for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union and International Association of Fire Fighters.