UPDATE 2/3/2018: IL GOP State Chairman Tim Schneider shamed Rep. Jeanne Ives' campaign for the above ad, demanding it be pulled down immediately:
"There is no place in the Illinois Republican Party for rhetoric that attacks our fellow Illinoisans based on their race, gender or humanity. Representative Ives' campaign ad does not reflect who we are as the Party of Lincoln and as proud residents of our great and diverse state. She should pull down the ad and immediately apologize to the Illinoisans who were negatively portrayed in a cowardly attempt to stoke political division."
Update 2/3/2018: The Ives campaign spokesperson Kathleen Murphy just told Illinois Review the ad is paid for by the Ives Campaign as is the BenedictRauner.com website. The ad has this notice:
Update 2/3/2018: Illinois Family Institute's opinion writer Laurie Higgins posted the following support for Ives' ad:
People, in the immortal words of Cher, “SNAP OUT OF IT!” This is a gunfight, “progressives” are bringing artillery, and conservatives are not even bringing rubber knives.
As West Point grad, former ROTC instructor, and Army Vet Ives walks onto the battlefield armed with a video that makes the utterly commonsense observation that crossdressing men don’t belong in girls’ restrooms, that citizens shouldn’t have to pay for the “choice” of women to have their babies dismembered, and that the rule of law matters even when it comes to immigration, “progressives” release a volley of invective, and conservatives go weak in the knees. Jeanne Ives is exactly the kind of candidate Illinois needs.
As Higgins' column says, Democrat gubernatorial candidates, the ACLU and homosexual rights org "Equality Illinois" have all come out strongly criticizing the Ives' campaign.