U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Willie Wilson and his campaign spokesman have tested positive for coronavirus, his campaign confirmed Thursday.
Wilson and spokesman Scott Winslow both tested positive and the rest of his campaign is now being tested, Winslow said Thursday morning.
In a statement, Wilson said he was experiencing mild symptoms but is "confident that we will beat COVID-19."
"Like so many fellow Americans, I am not immune from COVID-19," Wilson said in a statement. "This is a disease that does not discriminate."
He added that he has started a 10-day quarantine and "will bounce back from this stronger than before."
"I am suspending all in person campaigning for the United States Senate the next 10 days while I quarantine," he said. "I thank God for great doctors and first responders that care for all of us."
Wilson is running under the "Willie Wilson Party" against incumbent U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, a Democrat, and four other candidates.
Chicago Politics
He previously ran for Chicago mayor in 2015, president in 2016 and then Chicago mayor again in 2019. Wilson is a millionaire businessman who owned several McDonald’s franchises and founded a medical supply company, in recent years using his personal wealth to fund his political campaigns.
Wilson has previously handed out masks in Chicago and surrounding suburbs and donated them to first responders. Earlier in the pandemic, he criticized stay-at-home orders that prevented religious gatherings in churches, even offering to pay fines for churches found in violation of Illinois' stay-at-home order in May.
“I have asked the federal government to step in and prevent religious intimidation tactics being deployed by Mayor Lightfoot and Governor Pritzker,” Wilson said at the time. “Clearly they have used the stay-at-home order due to COVID-19 to shred the constitution and treat churches as non-essential, while treating liquor stores, marijuana dispensaries and big box stores as essential.”
