Republican Tommy Hanson, left, is challenging U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley for Illinois’ 5th Congressional District seat.
The wife of a Republican congressional candidate seeking to represent a large swath of the Northwest suburbs accepted help from white supremacists when she ran for mayor last year.
Gabrielle Hanson, who’s married to 5th Congressional District hopeful Tommy Hanson of Chicago but lives in Tennessee, refused to denounce the far-right extremists who escorted her and her husband into an October candidate forum and supported her at the event.
“If they want to support me, that is their right,” Hanson — then a Franklin alderman who ultimately lost the mayoral race — said during a subsequent city board meeting. “We don’t discriminate in this community against anyone.”
Tommy Hanson is seeking to unseat Democratic U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley of Chicago in the Nov. 5 election. Quigley defeated Hanson in 2018, 2020 and 2022.
In a prepared statement released Monday night, Tommy Hanson said his wife hired people to protect their family last year after receiving threats from what he called “leftist activists.”
That seemingly contradicts statements Gabrielle Hanson made last year. During a Tennessee political podcast days before the Franklin mayoral election, she denied hiring the extremists or asking them to provide security at the forum.
Also in his statement, Hanson said he and his wife “have never knowingly associated in any way with white supremacists or Nazis and would never associate with white supremacists or Nazis.”
But Gabrielle Hanson publicly acknowledged one of the extremists — a man with a logo of the far-right group the Proud Boys tattooed on his face and who has been photographed making Nazi salutes near Nazi and Confederate flags — was one of her real estate clients.
Tommy Hanson declined to comment beyond the prepared statement.
When asked to comment on the Hansons’ ties to extremists in Tennessee, Quigley said through a campaign spokeswoman: “Certain actions speak for themselves. Associating with Nazis is one of them.”
Aaron Del Mar, the Illinois Republican Party state central committee representative for the 5th District, said he and the party vigorously denounce any hate group “and anyone who has any association with them.”
“Anybody that shares those same sets of beliefs has no business running in the 5th Congressional District or for any other office whatsoever,” Del Mar said.
Support from ‘an actual literal Nazi’
Gabrielle Hanson was elected to the Franklin board in 2021 and challenged incumbent Ken Moore for mayor last year.
During the mayoral candidate forum at Franklin City Hall, Gabrielle Hanson was publicly supported by men including Brad Lewis, who has called himself “an actual literal Nazi,” has the Proud Boys tattoo on his face and said he was a friend of Hanson’s. A different supporter at the forum previously had been filmed giving a Nazi salute during a protest outside a Tennessee drag show.
The extremists walked with the Hansons into the forum, stood outside and inside the building during the event and said they were there to support her, according to media reports. Lewis walked to the building with Tommy Hanson.
Gabrielle Hanson, wife of GOP congressional candidate Tommy Hanson of Chicago
Courtesy of Franklin
During a podcast interview after the forum, Lewis said he’d been asked by Hanson to provide security at the event.
Gabrielle Hanson denied ever being associated with any white supremacy or Nazi-affiliated group. But at a city council meeting the week after the forum, Hanson acknowledged Lewis was her client.
During a subsequent podcast appearance, Hanson said she didn’t see Lewis as a white supremacist or a Nazi. She called him “an absolutely great person” and a “cool guy (who) just doesn’t care what people think.”
Moore defeated Hanson by a wide margin to remain mayor. Hanson resigned from the board the following month.
The GOP’s Del Mar said he spoke with Tommy Hanson this week by phone about the white supremacists’ involvement in the Franklin mayoral forum and the Hansons’ apparent acceptance of their assistance.
That should disqualify Tommy and Gabrielle Hanson from ever running for office, Del Mar said.
“Tommy Hanson should give long thought to running as a Republican in the 5th Congressional District,” Del Mar said. “He’s not getting help (from the party) in this race.”
Hanson remains the GOP candidate, however. He was the only Republican who sought the nomination — and when that happens, Del Mar said, “this is what you get.”
Other controversies
The white supremacists’ appearance at the mayoral forum wasn’t Gabrielle Hanson’s only controversy while in office.
She also drew attention for comments about a 2023 school shooting in nearby Nashville and for criticizing Nashville International Airport’s sponsorship of a Juneteenth event, as well as when Tennessee media revealed she’d been arrested and charged with promoting prostitution and other crimes in the 1990s in Texas.
Hanson unsuccessfully fought to block a Pride festival from being held at a public park in Franklin, too — more than a decade after her husband attended the 2008 Chicago Pride Parade wearing only a skimpy, patriotically colored swimsuit and sandals.
The issues — and Tommy Hanson’s choice of parade wear — garnered national media coverage last fall, including from comedian John Oliver and his “Last Week Tonight” TV show.
Franklin officials were planning to censure Hanson for her behavior and controversial comments, but she resigned before the board could vote on the reprimand.
Del Mar said Gabrielle Hanson doesn’t represent “the integrity, morals and character” of the Illinois Republican Party.
“We’re glad she’s in Tennessee and not in Illinois,” he said.
The 5th Congressional District cuts diagonally through Cook and Lake counties between Chicago’s North Side and the Barrington area. Aside from two years in the 1990s, Democrats have represented the district for more than a century.
· Daily Herald wire services contributed to this report.
Republican congressional candidate Tommy Hanson of Chicago and his wife, Gabrielle Hanson of Tennessee.