North Egypt News

Samantha Gasca, the Republican candidate for the Illinois State Senate District 19 seat, expressed concerns about government control in a Facebook post this week. This came after she learned of a meat production company opening in Glenview. Gasca is set to compete against incumbent Democrat Michael Hastings in the general election in November.

"Seriously," said Gasca, according to Facebook. "Who is going to take a big serving of what the government is feeding us? Government-controlled food source— another way of government stretching their tentacles in our lives and bodies—"

In her post, Gasca said, "Idea: control the food source (while going "around" farmers/ranchers, etc., who would never agree with democratic policies), control the energy source (electric, not gas), control prescriptions (get them all vaccinated with propaganda—COVID vaccines are nonsense; Pritzker wants to put an almost $11 tax on each prescription even though prescription prices are already soaring through the roof), control their homes (through property exorbitant property taxes), control the price of homes (30-year fixed mortgage at around 7.2%), control their children (by putting LGBTQ+ in CHILDREN’s libraries— manipulate the minds of children through propaganda), control guns (so we can’t defend themselves against the government), control a free source of votes to stay in power (illegal immigration), take power away from the police (they literally can’t do their job because they are unsupported and giving their lives for what?), control the military (by making it weak with gender ideology at the forefront)…control EVERYTHING."

Screenshot of Samantha Gasca's March 25 Facebook post | Samantha Gasca for IL Senate Facebook page

Gasca's post also included a link to a post on the Troy Township Republicans Facebook page, which contained a link to an article on Patch.com. The Troy Township Republicans' post was written by Dawn Damiani and discussed cultivated meat while quoting from the Patch.com article. Damiani wrote, "Meat" company opening in Glenview. Chicken will have first honors in this process. In my opinion cultivated meat is FAKE meat."

The referenced Patch.com article was posted on Sept. 14, 2023, and highlighted UPSIDE Foods as the first company to receive Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for its cultivated meat product. The California-based company was investing at least $141 million to establish its first commercial-scale cultivated meat production plant in Glenview, Illinois.

According to Ballotpedia, Gasca faced two challengers in the Republican primary: Hillary Mattsey Kurzawa and Max Solomon. Gasca received 37% of the vote, equivalent to 3,578 votes. Kurzawa secured 33.7% of the vote, or 3,256 votes, while Solomon received 29.3% of the votes, translating to 2,830 votes.