By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – Women from the South Side of Chicago say President Donald Trump was sending a love note when he mentioned Black women in the city wearing MAGA hats.

The President said Monday that Black women with Make America Great Again hats in Chicago want the National Guard to come in and just want to be safe.

Longtime South Shore resident Jessica Jackson responded Tuesday at a Chicago Flips Red press conference inside Chicago City Hall.

“You sent me, you sent [Chicago Flips Red founder] Zoe Leigh and you sent Danielle Carter a love note, because you saw the work that we were doing in City Hall. You saw us saying that we wanted you to come into Chicago to deal with the Democratic machine,” Jackson said.

Chicago Flips Red Vice President Danielle Carter-Walters said there are many more like her who love Trump.

“It shows up when we get emails. It shows up when we get them saying when we’re walking down the street, ‘Hey guys, I’m with you all. I love what you’re doing, I’m just not going to say nothing,’” Carter-Walters told The Center Square. “It’s thousands of us here in Chicago who love Trump, and you are going to see come Election Day when Chicago and Illinois flips red.”

Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have said repeatedly that crime is down. Pritzker said Monday that President Trump had “decided to declare war on a great American city that has the lowest homicide rate in 60 years.”

David Sheppard, Republican candidate for the Illinois House in the state’s 36th District, previously worked in the Cook County Sheriff’s Department and as the police chief for Robbins, Illinois.

Sheppard said state and local leaders are lying.

“You continuously get on TV and tell us that ‘I walked on the lakefront at 6:30 in the morning and I didn’t see any crime.’ No, that’s because it was on 79th and Halsted that night, or maybe over in K-Town or maybe over in Roseland. That’s where the crime was. You need to come out at night and maybe you’ll find it,” Sheppard said.

Sheppard said federal help is needed because Illinois is down thousands of police officers.

“That’s not because you don’t have the money to pay for them. It’s because people won’t apply for the job anymore, because you installed the SAFE-T Act and you installed no cash bond here, and the police ran. They went to retirement. No one wants to take the job,” Sheppard said.

Sheppard said state and city leadership invited gang members from other countries.

“How do you sleep at night knowing that another man died because you refuse to let someone come in and help us? Enough is enough,” Sheppard said.

Sheppard is running for the seat currently held by state Rep. Rick Ryan, D-Evergreen Park.

Illinois Senate candidate Christine McGovern joined Sheppard and Chicago Flips Red at Tuesday’s press conference. McGovern said that if crime in Chicago is not addressed, it would soon spread to the suburbs.

McGovern is running for the 18th District Senate seat currently held by Sen. Bill Cunningham, D-Chicago, who announced recently that he would not seek another term.