Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner has weighed in for the first time on a new entrant to the governor’s race – Sen. Sam McCann, R-Plainview, a member of Rauner’s own party but who has been a thorn in his side for years.

“McCann is being used as a pawn by Pritzker and Madigan,” Rauner said Thursday, at a press conference upon his return from an overseas trade mission. “And we’re going to win in November.”

Rauner was overseas April 19 when McCann announced his candidacy for governor via a YouTube video in which he said “they have failed us – Rauner and Chicago Democrats have led our state down the wrong path.”

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