Dem candidate for Congress busted for lies about being a nurse
By Thomas Lifson
Lauren Underwood, the Democrats’ candidate hoping to flip the 14th Congressional District of Illinois from incumbent Republican Randy Hultgren, has presented herself to voters as a practicing nurse, whose values are infused with the wisdom of a caregiver. But it’s a lie, a big fat one, because although she studied nursing in college at the University of Michigan, she has never once spent a single day in practice as a professional nurse.
Underwood’s fraud was busted by a local newspaper, The Kane County Reporter, which would probably get a Pulitzer of the fraud had been on the part of a Republican. We will watch and wait to see if this outstanding work of a local paper gets any such recognition. The entire article should be read to take in the depth of the phoniness. It’s clear from the lede paragraph onward that Underwood put aside the actual practice nursing in favor of left wing politics:
In college, congressional candidate Lauren Underwood studied to be a nurse.
Not that she ever aspired to work with actual patients.
Her University of Michigan classmates spent their summers working at hospitals, assisting doctors and learning on the job. But Underwood headed to Washington, D.C., instead, to intern for then-U.S. Senator Barack Obama.
“ICU (intensive care unit) or mother-baby, like that just wasn’t my interest,” she told former Obama campaign staffer turned podcaster Ravi Gupta on his show, “The Arena,” back in April. “I always knew that this policy space was where I would land.”
That honest self-assessment was put aside in campaigning, as voters were repeatedly presented with images of Underwood as a medical caregiver:
Screen grab from Underwood TV Commercial (via Kane County Reporter)
From the “Issues” page header showing her pretending to be a medical practitioner.
Underwood chose politics rather than caregiving right out of college:
According to her Linkedin page, Underwood’s first job out of school in 2010 was with the Obama Administration working on Obamacare’s roll-out. She says she was “preparing memos and briefing materials” for Kathleen Sebelius, the then-U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Underwood worked six years for President Obama, her salary rising from $67,114 to $98,289, before quitting after he left office, in Jan. 2017.
That was pretty damn good money for someone six years out of college. But when the political job ran out, rather than taking up the profession for which she was trained, she preferred to collect unemployment money from taxpayers:
She moved back to Naperville to live with her parents, collecting nine weeks worth of unemployment benefits— approximately $4,000 from the District of Columbia, according to her personal financial disclosure statement—before deciding to run for Congress.
The bespeaks a commitment to not caring for people. Taking unemployment insurance instead of taking a job as a nurse, for whom there are no shortages of opportunities.
But the lies were pounded over and over in her TV commercials:
In her television advertisements, she has been regularly portrayed in “hands-on” nursing situations— ones her own biography also makes clear she has never experienced.
In her first commercial, Underwood strolls out into what looks like a doctor’s waiting room, a stethoscope around her neck and clipboard in her hand.
Underwood introduces herself.
“As a registered nurse, treating patients…”
The spot was actually shot in a Naperville dentist’s office, White Eagle Dentistry, a few blocks from her parents home in the White Eagle Golf Club subdivision.
A February casting call, advertised on Facebook, asked for “a few volunteers to join us for a photoshoot tomorrow (2/8) midday. Looking for friendly faces of all ages, genders, backgrounds. Please let us know by emailing sarah@underwoodforcongress.com.
In the last election, the 14th District narrowly voted for Trump, 49 to 45 percent, and re-elected Hultgren with 59% of the vote, so flipping the district may have been difficult even without Underwood’s exposure as a fraudster.
But keep in mind that Democrats say they “care for you” they may be lying and masking pure political ambition.