Greater Godfrey Democrats Group to Host Two Candidates at Monthly Meeting
GODFREY - The Greater Godfrey Democrats will host a special meeting with the opportunity to meet two local candidates.
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At 6 p.m. on Monday, July 14, 2025, community members are invited to IBEW Local 649 in Godfrey for the regular Greater Godfrey Democrats meeting, followed by presentations by Randy Raley and Lexy Dona. Raley, a former KSHE DJ, hopes to run against Congresswoman Mary Miller in Illinois’s 15th District. Lexy Dona intends to run for the Madison County Board.
“What has been interesting is I’m 56 years old, and I never really understood how to get involved in politics. How do you get involved in the process? I’ve always kind of been interested but never really knew how to participate,” said Craig Rathgeb, the organization's chair. “There are avenues for folks to participate, and my goal as chairman is to teach and pass along the information that I’ve learned and how to participate in the political process and share your views, share your voice across the party and across your neighbors. We can have actual conversations in a meeting about what we think is important.”
Rathgeb explained that he and a few friends of his wanted to learn more about the political process in the Democratic party. Starting last September, they began attending precinct committee meetings in Alton.
As interest grew, they decided to create their own Greater Godfrey Democrats group. They now have roughly 100 members. The group meets on the second Monday of every month and welcomes people from a variety of political backgrounds.
“It’s been really inspiring to watch the growth and the motivation of a lot of folks,” Rathgeb said. “It’s not just Democrats, to be honest. We have a few folks who identify as Republicans who are participating with us, which is also exciting. We have some heated discussions at times, but they’re polite and we share our views and things are going well. It’s really been exciting.”
Rathgeb is looking forward to welcoming Raley and Dona to the July meeting. He emphasized that the group has not endorsed either candidate, but they’re eager to give the candidates an opportunity to share their views with community members.
He added that one goal of the Greater Godfrey Democrats is to increase voter turnout. The organization believes that voting is an important way to be involved with the political process.
“We’ve got to get people interested. We’ve got to get people involved. They have to vote,” Rathgeb said. “When you have a really critical election and when you’re happy with a 30% voting rate, that’s not the American way, right? That’s not a democracy. We want to have 100% of the voting age people voting in their elections, and so this is one way where we intend to do that. We get out and walk our precincts. You pass information out and say, ‘Hey, look, this is how you can get involved in what’s important to you. You can get involved in politics, in the decisions that are made. That’s how we are governed.’ It’s been inspiring.”
Rathgeb added that the meetings are open to the public, and everyone is invited to attend to learn more about the Greater Godfrey Democrats group, the local political scene, and the two candidates who are going to be speaking on July 14. He said they are expecting a big turnout and look forward to it.
“Godfrey is well-known for being a fairly Republican area, but there are more Democrats than you think,” he added. “We want to be constructive. That is one of the ground rules of the meeting. We want constructive discussion. We do not want angry, envious folks yelling and screaming in the room. That’s not the purpose, and that’s not democracy.”
For more information about the Greater Godfrey Democrats July 14 meeting, check out the official Facebook event page.
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