Kane County Reporter

Republican, and former Congressional candidate James Marter says businesses leaving Illinois is a result of "woke" policies.

"This is exactly what Democratic, Socialist, overtaxing, woke policies do to a state. It's ruining the great state of Illinois. Pritzker, Madigan all of them this is what they’ve done to Illinois. We need to wipe them out or it's going to do more of the same," Marter said in an interview.

Marter came in second in the Republican primary behind Scott Gryder in the race for the 14th U.S. House seat. Gryder will run against incumbent Rep. Lauren Underwood (D) in November. The district includes Batavia, McHenry and Antioch.

Billionaire Ken Griffin, formerly the wealthiest Illinois resident, announced that he has moved to Florida, and he's taking hedge fund giant Citadel and Citadel Securities with him, Market Watch reported. "Chicago will continue to be important to the future of Citadel, as many of our colleagues have deep ties to Illinois," Griffin wrote in a letter to employees. "Over the past year, however, many of our Chicago teams have asked to relocate to Miami, New York and our other offices around the world." 

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Griffin is among the top 50 wealthiest people in the world. 

Marter was asked about the main factors responsible for driving out these companies. 

"High taxes, high regulations. Even if you look at all the restrictions over the last two years, Illinois had some of most draconian practices," Marter said. "Everywhere you turn, Illinois lawmakers are driving people away from the state and you’re seeing the escalation of that now with these companies being run out of Illinois because of these policies."

Caterpillar announced on June 14 that it is going to shift its headquarters from Deerfield, Illinois, to Irving, Texas, according to a press release. "We believe it's in the best strategic interest of the company to make this move, which supports Caterpillar's strategy for profitable growth as we help our customers build a better, more sustainable world," said Chairman and CEO Jim Umpleby. 

Boeing announced in May that it is transferring its headquarters from Chicago to a suburb of Washington, DC, NBC 5 reported. "We are excited to build on our foundation here in Northern Virginia," Boeing President and Chief Executive Officer Dave Calhoun said in a statement. "The region makes strategic sense for our global headquarters given its proximity to our customers and stakeholders, and its access to world-class engineering and technical talent."

Chief Executive magazine conducted a survey of around 700 business owners from every state and ranked Illinois 48th overall, meaning it is the third-worst state in the country for business, The Center Square reported. The only two other states that have ranked worse than Illinois are New York and California. Texas, Florida, and Tennessee were ranked as the top states for doing business. "We're too corrupt. Our taxes are way too high. We have way too many regulations and we have massive debts, and that is plenty of reason enough for companies to not want to locate in Illinois, not to mention the state is shrinking in population so it's not a growth state to put your business in," said Wirepoints president Ted Dabrowski.