Our voice, our vote
On Saturday, August 22, The VALUE collective hosted a Community Candidate Forum at Southern Mission Missionary Baptist Church. With the Illinois primaries coming up, we felt it was important that create space for the candidates to meet residents, hear from the youth in the community and address the public. We had been planning this since Spring, making sure participants would be informed and submit substantial questions for the two men who plan to represent District 114.
Only one showed up.
(LEFT) Illinois State House Representative 114 Candidate George McClellan greeting participants at the Community Candidate Forum on Saturday, August, 22, 2026 at Southern Mission Missionary Baptist Church in East St. Louis, IL.
Both Kevin Schmidt and George McClellan were invited to the forum and given the questions ahead of time. Although we were informed on Thursday evening that Schmidt would not be in attendance due to a prior engagement, we decided to proceed with the forum to respect McClellan’s time and the time of all those involved in planning this event, especially the youth of L.O.V.E who were leading the event.
Leaving Our Voices Everywhere (L.O.V.E) is a youth leadership initiative lead by East Side Aligned.
Nearly 80 community residents showed up to engage with the candidates.
Our curated questions were grouped into the following categories: Economy, Public Safety, Healthcare, Education, and Accountability. We also accepted questions from the audience during the event. McClellan took his time and truly answered the questions with care and clarity when needed.
“For every position that I’ve ever held for the last 30 years, I’ve been doing the work as servant. And so that’s straight down to who I am. Making sure that what’s best for this area and having somebody to fight for that.”
While we were disappointed that Schmidt could not attend this community forum, we are confident that residents left with a better understanding of the responsibilities of the position and McClellan’s platform. They were each given a resource guide to take home to share with friends and family.
Our overall goal is to equip voters with the knowledge needed to make informed decisions at the polls in November. If you’d like to join our efforts, you should attend UCM’s next IVE task force meeting on Monday, September 14, 2026 via zoom.
The VALUE Collective represents local organizations- East Side Aligned, L.O.V.E, NAACP- East St. Louis, COFI and UCM - with a shared interest in transforming our communities for the better.
