New attack ad targets Jim Oberweis’ past immigration comments in CD 19 Republican Primary

Jim Oberweis ran for office nine times in Illinois. A new attack ad wants Southwest Florida voters to know what he said about immigration while he was doing it.

Southwest Florida First, a political action committee that has spent this cycle going after out-of-state candidates in the race to succeed U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, is airing a new spot on cable and digital platforms. The ad accuses the Bonita Springs Republican of once supporting citizenship and work permits for undocumented immigrants.

“Liberal Jim Oberweis ran nine times for office in Illinois, supporting amnesty and even citizenship for illegal immigrants,” a narrator says, before playing audio of Oberweis saying, “We ought to allow a clear path to citizenship.”

The closing line: “Don’t let him Illinois our Florida.”

A release accompanying the ad points to a 2020 candidate survey Oberweis filled out for Patch while running in Illinois’ 14th Congressional District.

In it, Oberweis called himself “a strong proponent of immigration and a fierce opponent of illegal immigration” and wrote, “I believe there must be a reasonable path for citizenship for children of illegal immigrants who have grown up in the United States, but I would not provide a path to citizenship for the parents who broke the law.”

Those parents, he wrote, “could be granted a non-immigrant visa which would allow them to stay and work but not provide a path to citizenship.”

He called a deal pairing “a compromise for dreamers” with border security and an end to birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants “a reasonable compromise.”

Oberweis is campaigning in Florida as an immigration hardliner. In an April interview with The Floridian’s Grayson Bakich, he ripped a legalization bill from Miami Republican U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar, saying, “Amnesty called by another name is still amnesty.” He added that he is “adamantly opposed to amnesty — de facto or otherwise — being part of any negotiation.”

The release quotes that line back at him: “We agree. That makes him a liar and a liberal.”

Oberweis, the longtime Chair of Oberweis Dairy, represented a suburban Chicago district in the Illinois Senate from 2013 to 2021. His two state Senate wins were his only victories in nine tries.

The losses: U.S. Senate bids in 2002, 2004 and 2014, a run for Governor in 2006, and congressional campaigns in 2008 and 2020, the last of which he dropped to Democratic U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood by less than 2 percentage points.

Oberweis and his wife owned property in Southwest Florida for decades before moving to Bonita Springs full time. He was the first Republican to file for the seat Donalds left open to run for Governor.

He is also the race’s biggest spender. Oberweis has loaned his campaign $4.9 million of the nearly $5.3 million it has raised, and reported about $2.6 million cash on hand as of June 30, according to federal filings.

Southwest Florida First describes itself as “a grassroots political action committee backing conservative candidates who answer to Southwest Florida — not political insiders or out-of-state interests.”

In February, the committee ran an ad calling former New York U.S. Rep. Chris Collins “a disgraced New York Congressman” running alongside “a bunch of other carpetbaggers trying to buy our seat in Congress,” as The Floridian’s Javier Manjarres reported. Those ads aired on outlets owned by Jim Schwartzel, a rival candidate whose Fort Myers-based holdings include Sun Broadcasting and print publications such as Gulfshore Life and The Naples Press.

The 10-candidate Republican field gives the committee plenty of out-of-state material. It includes former North Carolina U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn, who moved to Cape Coral in 2022, and Collins, an early Donald Trump endorser the President pardoned in 2020. Former Trump administration official Catalina Lauf, who is also running in CD 19, lost the 2020 Republican Primary in Illinois’ 14th Congressional District to Oberweis.

A June survey from Victory Insights of 350 likely Republican Primary voters found Schwartzel at 12.8% and Oberweis at 11.9%, with no other candidate above 6% and more than half of voters undecided. Oberweis led the field in name recognition.

The Primary is Aug. 18. The deep-red CD 19 covers most of Lee County and part of coastal Collier County.

___

Ed. note: This story was drafted with assistance from AI. Editorial judgment, sourcing, and final review were performed by Peter Schorsch and the Florida Politics editorial team.