ROCHELLE —  The Ogle County Republican Party recently hosted their Annual Draw Down at Kennay Farms Distillery in Rochelle. 

“We packed them in on Thursday night, March 20 to the first floor of Kennay Farms Distilling for our annual Ogle County GOP Draw Down, and it was a ton of fun, as always,” Mike Koolidge, chairman of the Ogle County Republican Central Committee, said. “We couldn't ask for better hosts than Rick & Doris Kennay, who've been huge supporters of Ogle County Republicans for years. In all, we gave away a total of over $5,000 in winnings to raffle ticket purchasers, including the grand prize $2,000 winner, Sylvia Garza of Rochelle."

It was a fun and fast-moving event which occurred over an Italian-themed dinner of delicious pizza, caesar salad and dough nuggets. The tables were decorated, as was the venue with Republican paraphernalia, Trump signs, and Ogle GOP-themed cookies. As was expected, all the Draw Down tickets sold out well in advance of the event.

“We sold out of draw down tickets again, as we always do, and it was overwhelmingly a group effort,” Koolidge said. “Our executive board, consisting of Kaleb Kennay - vice chairman, Kevin Colbert - treasurer, George Wilhelmsen - secretary, Karl Hanson - events coordinator, Tricia Goodwin - PC recruitment, and Joseph Simms - PC recruitment all put in countless hours both selling tickets in the weeks prior and putting the night together. I could not ask for a better team.”

"This is our first big public event since Donald Trump has returned to the White House, and we've never seen such grassroots passion and enthusiasm from all the incredible things our new administration has been able to accomplish in such a short time. Trump's early successes have definitely been a huge reason why we have so many new faces joining our party,” Koolidge said. “We've doubled our number of precinct committeemen in just one year, but we still have some vacancies. I'd encourage anyone wanting to get involved to reach out to us right away if they want to keep Ogle County red and be a part of the statewide mission to turn Illinois into a swing state...and eventually red as well!”

In addition to Koolidge, other speakers in attendance were State Senators Li Arellano and Andrew Chesney, and candidate for Rock Valley Board of Trustees Jermarrion Simmons.

The Ogle County Republicans meet the last Tuesday of every month in Memorial Hall on the third floor of Ogle County Courthouse in Oregon. 

Organized in 1989, The organization’s website can be found at https://www.oglecountygop.org/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/OgleCountyRepublicans.