Orland Park native Joseph “Joey” Ruzevich is running for office and running in marathons.
Ruzevich, 27, announced on Oct. 10 that he was running against Sean Casten for the congressman’s seat in the 6th District in the March 17 Democratic Primary. Two days later, he ran the Chicago Marathon in 4 hours, 29 minutes and 16 seconds.
Now that one marathon is out of the way, Ruzevich is ready for an election marathon the next five months, which concludes March 17 and he hopes it will extend even longer to the November general election.
Ruzevich, who currently lives in Chicago’s Mount Greenwood community, made the official announcement at a campaign kickoff party Oct. 10 at the Barraco’s Pizza Banquet Hall in Chicago, which included a speech of support from former congresswoman Marie Newman.
Despite the fact that he has never run for office before and Casten has never lost an election, Ruzevich is thinking big.
“I’ve always been somebody who takes big swings,” he said.
He pointed out that after playing basketball for Sandburg and Brother Rice and not receiving a four-year college offer, he was taking big swings. After stints with Moraine Valley and Loyola-New Orleans, he played professional basketball in Germany for two years.
Basketball helped him get an education and he is now a software engineer but he has been involved in politics since 2015, when he worked as a volunteer on Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign.
“As an engineer, I like to understand how things work,” he said. “Growing older, I realize that politics controls every aspect of our lives so I needed to learn about it. I started studying and reading books and listening to lectures.
“I became more and more disgusted with the level of corruption and the history of how we used our military. I wanted to get involved.”
Some old-timers may prefer their congress reps to be seasoned veterans with some experience but Ruzevich thinks that he has the chops to address some issues that are “coming down the pike” including the overwhelming rampant use of Artificial Intelligence.
“AI controls so many aspects of our life,” he said. “We need to address this now and we need somebody who has worked with this technology and understands it intimately in order to regulate it effectively.”
Ruzevich said his love and dream was to become a comedian and did some open-mic standup at local clubs. Some of his routines involved politics.
There are some parallels with performing standup and making political speeches, he said. The bottom line, he said, is that you can’t be a phony in either platform.
“The fact that I have so much time on the mic in front of a crowd definitely helps the comfort level of going up there,” Ruzevich said. “The great thing about comedy is, and you figure this out very quickly, the audience can tell if you are BS-ing them.
“If someone is not genuine, they see right through you. It’s better to just go up there and be yourself. It’s the same with politics. When you are up in front of people speaking, it has to be genuine and from the heart and things that you care about. If it’s not, they are going to see right through you.”
On his joey4congress.com website, Ruzevich has a laundry list of issues that he attacks, including breaking up monopolies and supporting small businesses, the tech oligarchy, AI regulation, Gaza, ending endless wars and wasteful Pentagon spending, supporting veterans, the housing crisis, universal health care and many others.
Ruzevich said his family, consisting of his father, mother and four sisters, doesn’t always share the same views with him, but they are behind him on this campaign.
“They are cautious and worried about me being in the public eye with slander and threats,” Ruzevich said. “They don’t want to see that coming my way.
“There is a general concern but unconditional support.”
The 6th District covers all or parts of a variety of south and west suburbs, including several in the Southwest Regional Publishing area – Burbank, Chicago, Evergreen Park, Oak Lawn, Orland Park and Western Springs, Bridgeview, Palos Hills, La Grange, Hickory Hills, Chicago Ridge, Justice, Palos Heights, Summit, Burr Ridge, Worth, Countryside, Willow Springs, Palos Park and Indian Head Park.
I hear there is a young Republican running, challenging the current candidate. Has there been any articles about them? The people need to know all the new challengers.