An anti-Gotion candidate knocked off a local trustee in the mayoral race in the Kankakee County, Ill., village of Manteno, which has been describe as effectively a referendum on the U.S. subsidiary of a Chinese company with ties to the Communist Party of China.
Manteno Freedom Party mayoral candidate Annette LaMore picked up 1,536 to defeat Manteno Choice Party candidate and village trustee Joel Gesky, who received 1,231 votes. Gesky, chairman of the village’s Finance Committee, was first elected as a trustee in 2005.
“I’m happy. I’m very happy,” LaMore told Shaw Local News Network. “It feels good to have so many people that believe in me, but now I have to make sure I do what I’m supposed to do. I’ve got to live up to what they think I can do.”
LaMore continued: “So there will be challenges for me, but I’m an honest person, and when I don’t know the answers, I’ll talk to people who are smarter than me, and I’ll put together with the board and we will work it out.”
In September 2023, Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Gotion announced the company decided to locate a $2 billion electric vehicle lithium battery manufacturing plant in Manteno.
According to Crain’s Chicago Business, Gotion is set to start producing batteries at the Manteno plant and is ramping up hiring.
“Gotion has, the coming of Gotion has divided our community a little bit,” Gesky told Shaw Local News Network for a podcast last month, according to a transcript.
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“And there are people who have not been in favor of it. And there’s people who are in tremendous favor of it,” Gesky added. “Well, the decision’s been made and Gotion’s here and they’re about to begin building. We need to reunite our community, put our arms around each other, become good neighbors again.”
The company received a $530 million “tax incentive package,” The Center Square previously reported. Officials touted that the project would create 2,600 “new good-paying jobs in Manteno.”
Outgoing Manteno Mayor Timothy O. Nugent said in a release at the time, “This announcement is a huge win for Manteno, Kankakee County, and the State of Illinois, and will only enhance and strengthen our robust manufacturing sector,”
This week, residents proved him wrong with their actions at the ballot box.
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Since the announcement in 2023, residents opposed to Gotion’s plans have mobilized and launched the non-profit group Concerned Citizens of Manteno/No Gotion Illinois.
“I don’t like the secrecy of this project, the threat it poses, and especially the involvement of foreign entities linked to the Communist Party,” LaMore told the Kankakee Times last month. “It’s reckless. I’m taking a stand, and I hope we can stop this.”
In Michigan, Gotion announced plans to build an electric vehicle battery component plant in Green Charter Township near Big Rapids in Mecosta County.
In 2023, voters turned on the Green Township Board that had previously approved a Gotion battery component plant by electing an entirely new board that opposed locating the plant outside Big Rapids.
Gotion’s Michigan plans have caught the attention of federal lawmakers. Legislation to block the company from collecting federal tax credits for a planned electric vehicle battery component plant in Michigan is now pending in both chambers of Congress. President Donald Trump also weighed in prior to last November’s election by say he opposed the plant 100%.
In February, U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Florida, led an effort to introduce the No Official Giveaways Of Taxpayers’ Income to Oppressive Nations (NO GOTION) Act. U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Michigan, has introduced legislation in the U.S. House.
Additionally, Moolenaar is urging Gotion to scrap its taxpayer-subsidized plant after reports that its Mecosta County plan is officially on hold.
In June 2024, the U.S. House Select Committee on the CCP investigations uncovered Gotion’s close ties to the CCP, including its reliance on “forced labor” in China’s Xinjiang Province.