The National Guard may or may not ever hit Chicago’s streets, but if they ever do, they’re likely not all going to be in lockstep — politically.
A Chicago Sun-Times analysis of federal campaign contributions shows members and employees of the National Guard in Illinois and across the country are, like the rest of the U.S. population, divided in terms of partisan politics.
More than 1,200 women and men whose employer is listed as the National Guard collectively made 8,700 donations totaling more than $525,000 since 2023 to federal campaigns and candidates for federal office, including those running for president and Congress, the Sun-Times found through Federal Election Commission records.
Roughly two-thirds of that total went to Republican campaigns and candidates, including those benefiting President Donald Trump. About one-third went to Democrats, including his 2024 opponent Kamala Harris.
Arizona had the highest total at around $177,000 given by members and employees of the Guard, whose soldiers and airmen are generally part-time military who can be activated into full-time service by their local governors or the president to deal with natural disasters and civil unrest, or during wartime.
The lowest total, Wyoming, involved $445 in donations.
Illinois was in the middle of the pack, with 139 contributions totaling $4,441 given over the past two years by 23 people. At least nine of them had addresses in the Chicago region, and two reported belonging to out-of-state Guard units.
Of that total, $2,980 went to Democrats and $1,461 went to Republicans or Robert Kennedy, Jr., who ran for president as a Democrat, then as an independent, then dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump.
Top states for Guard member campaign giving
The Sun-Times analysis is not a comprehensive look; it rests on those who have self-reported ties to the National Guard. For many members, it’s their part-time job, and so it might not be listed in campaign donations.
What’s more, the Arizona numbers are high because of a single $150,000 contribution from Travis Grantham, a lieutenant colonel in the Arizona Air National Guard, to his own campaign fund as he runs as a Republican for a congressional seat.
Just about half the states and territories saw more Republican donations, while the other half saw more money going to Democrats.
Trump initially said out-of-control crime is leading him to possibly put Guard troops in Chicago — even though crime rates appear to be improving. Critics portray any deployment as a publicity stunt, especially if troops are dispatched downtown rather than to the South and West sides where crime is the most prevalent.
More recently, Trump appears to be backing off, or delaying, a deployment to Chicago.
One of the Democratic contributors from Illinois, who asked to remain anonymous, does not think a Guard deployment to Chicago is a good idea, at least as anticipated.
“I think if the needs of the people aren’t being taken into account, then the president is not really for the people,” the contributor said. Chicago needs “other things” to help with its problems, “and we haven’t received those things.”
That sentiment was echoed by another Illinois contributor, Jeff Courter, who’s listed as a member of the Guard by the recipient campaign committees but says he retired as a master sergeant after serving in Afghanistan and, more recently, as a recruiter.
“If you want to solve violence there are ways to do it,” said Courter, who raised his family in Flossmoor but now lives in Queens, New York, where he’s a Presbyterian minister.
He mentioned providing better funding for schools and backing violence prevention initiatives like CeaseFire.
“Putting people in uniforms in front of tourist areas isn’t going to do it.”
Courter made a dozen campaign contributions to a Democratic congressional fund totaling $180 over the last two years.
Asked about the political diversity of soldiers in the Illinois National Guard during the more than a decade he was part of it, Courter joked, “I was the token liberal.”
“It’s not like they’re all a bunch of Trump supporters, but here’s the thing: Recruiting will always reflect the times that the recruiting is done in,” said Courter. “We’ve had 10 years of Trump” in the public sphere,“ and he’s going to have an out-sized influence on recruiting.”
Grantham, the congressional candidate, says he’d tend to agree the Guard, at least in his part of the country, skews more Republican. That being said, “Once the uniform is on it doesn’t matter, and we don’t talk about it, or if we do, it’s very lighthearted … we do not let it interfere with doing our job.”
As for deployment to Chicago, Grantham said of the Guard: “We support any and all situations … the Guard has been put in these roles as long as it’s existed.”
If a deployment to Chicago or anywhere else “saves lives and makes our communities safer, I’m supportive of it.”
Among the National Guard campaign donors were those identified in records as aircraft mechanics, pilots, military police, lawyers, cybersecurity specialists and infantrymen.
Six people with Illinois addresses and National Guard ties donated to Trump’s campaign funds since 2023, totaling nearly $700 altogether.
Three others collectively contributed just over $1,000 to Harris.
Members of the Guard are allowed to participate in politics just like anyone else but are supposed to limit politicking to private time and not in uniform, according to the Illinois National Guard, which includes roughly 10,000 in the Army Guard and 3,000 in the Air Guard.
The Texas National Guard has been mentioned as a possibility for deployment to Chicago, and records show 60 of its members and employees made more than 300 contributions over the last two years totaling nearly $24,000.
About $11,000 of that went to Republicans and about $13,000 went to Democrats, including five $1,000 contributions to Harris, whose former running mate, Tim Walz, once served in the Guard.
U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat, spent part of her career as a helicopter pilot with the Illinois National Guard. A Republican member of Congress, William Timmons, currently serves in the South Carolina Guard.
A person who works for an organization advocating on behalf of current and former Guard members said: “We have people completely apolitical” as well as members “who wear their politics on their sleeves.”
“It’s a cross-section, as it should be.”