After state Rep. Delia Ramirez launched her congressional bid, a photo of her in front of a US flag with an ‘X’ scrawled over it was posted on social media
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After state Rep. Delia Ramirez of Chicago announced her candidacy for Congress earlier this month, a photo was posted on the private Instagram account of a past supporter showing the candidate standing in front of a U.S. flag as she addressed her audience at Revolution Brewing.
The picture from the Dec. 7 event had “@DELIA4CONGRESS” imprinted on it, with an arrow drawn in purple pointing to the candidate. A large “X” was scrawled in purple over the flag in the background.
The Ramirez campaign called the posting the work of “a private individual” using a personal account and beyond the control of the campaign.
But the image, sent to the Tribune by a source, was on the private Instagram account of a person well known to Ramirez and her campaign staff.
The Instagram account, labeled “chibread,” belongs to Ryan Kelleher, elections director for United Working Families, a politically active progressive group that is backing Ramirez’s congressional bid.
The organization’s website notes Kelleher’s history with Ramirez, which includes “going on to recruit” Ramirez to run for state representative in 2018 and acting as co-chair of that campaign. Kelleher was paid $16,412 for her campaign staff role, state campaign finance reports show.
“I led the effort to #DraftDelia and went on to raise over $100,000 for the campaign from small dollar giving,” Kelleher is quoted as saying on the UWF website. “We won with over 48% of the vote in a four-way race. It was a collective victory that was the result of the work that our members and allies had been doing for years.”
“Now that we know how to elect grassroots candidates, it is our job to figure out how to keep them with us by holding them accountable and setting them up to be successful,” Kelleher is quoted as saying on the group’s website.
The group’s website also shows Kelleher standing at a podium in front of a Delia Ramirez legislative campaign poster.
Kelleher did not respond to a request for comment on her Instagram post. United Working Families also did not respond to a request for comment.
Erin Connelly, a spokeswoman for the Ramirez congressional campaign, said Kelleher was not employed by the campaign and that the flag image “was not shared by the campaign or campaign staff.”
“This is not a campaign statement,” Connelly said. “It’s not something the campaign condones. We cannot control what private individuals post on social media.”
Ramirez, an assistant Democratic leader in the Illinois House, is an ally of U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, and her congressional bid has drawn support from more progressive members of the Illinois legislature and City Council.
The only other announced Democratic candidate for the race is Chicago Ald. Gilbert Villegas, 36th, a Marine Corps veteran, chair of the City Council’s Latino Caucus and a founding member of the council’s Veterans Caucus.
The new, sprawling 3rd Congressional District was created by legislative Democrats to give the state’s growing Latino population an opportunity to send a second Latino to Washington along with Garcia. But Latinos are not a majority voting-age group in the new district, which stretches from Chicago’s Northwest Side westward to include Latino communities in Bensenville, Addison and West Chicago.
