Democratic candidate for governor Chris Kennedy's newly announced running mate says he wants to address the "senseless violence" that plagues Illinois and took his son's life earlier this summer.
Kennedy on Thursday introduced Chicago political activist Ra Joy as his lieutenant governor candidate in the 2018 campaign.
The 44-year-old Joy is the executive director of CHANGE Illinois, an organization that helped get automatic voter registration signed into law this year. Kennedy called that measure "the greatest single piece of good-government legislation in a decade" in Illinois.
Joy's son, 23-year-old teacher Xavier Joy, was shot and killed in June, apparently by someone trying to steal his cellphone.
Joy shares personal tragedy with Kennedy, whose father, Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated.
“He was on my list because his family endured the loss of a loved one to violence,” he said.
Kennedy is among more than a half dozen Democrats running in the March primary for a chance to unseat Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner.
