Congressional Candidate's Message In 'Provocative' Video Misfires

CHICAGO—A congressional candidate’s International Women’s Day video focusing attention on the U.S. missile attack on an all-girls elementary school in southern Iran by comparing it to a neighborhood all-girls Catholic high school claims his message may have been misconstrued.

On March 8, Joseph “Joey” Ruzevich stood in front of Mother McAuley Liberal Arts High School and suggested that the school be blown up to put a face on the young girls who died in a girls' elementary school in Iran. Ruzevich, who resides in Beverly, is challenging incumbent Sean Casten for the Democratic nomination to represent Illinois’s 6th Congressional District in Tuesday’s primary.

“Happy International Women’s Day, everybody. I’m outside Mother McAuley High School, an all-women’s high school. What if we killed all the girls who go to this school with a missile explosion?” Ruzevich said in the first 30 seconds of his campaign video, which he has since removed from YouTube. “What if we did that? Wouldn't that be so liberating?”

Ruzevich continued by asking what would happen if Russia exploded a missile in an attempt to liberate the McAuley students “from an oppressive Catholic ideology underneath the oppressive Trump regime.”

Screenshot of Joey Ruzevich's provocative video, since removed from YouTube.

“Of course not, right? That's ridiculous, but that’s exactly what the United States and Israel did to the little girls at the school in Iran, [who] were the first casualties of this war,” Ruzevich said. “We murdered them for nothing. And it's very often that women are the first casualties of war.”

Eschewing corporate and PAC money, Ruzevich has raised $115,000 for his campaign, mostly from grassroots donors. He’s relied on YouTube to get his message across to voters.

“I want to end this insanity. I want to stop the United States going to war,” Ruzevich said. “In order to do that we need representatives who are willing to stand up against the military-industrial complex.”

It's not the first time that remarks Ruzevich made in the past have come back to haunt him in his campaign. As a guest on a "TorgyTalk" podcast episode in November 2024, where Ruzevich was alleged to have criticized overweight people and appeared to make light of Nazi Germany. He is also said to have retweeted a racial slur that used the "N" word in January 2025.

Ruzevich defended his re-sharing of the tweet, saying the original tweet was written by a Black person. He cast its resurfacing during his campaign as a "poor attempt" by his opponent's campaign to distract from ICE raids, people's rights being violated and rising prices.

"I was asked to go on a comedian's podcast as a guest. Taking comments seriously when deliberately said in the context of a comedy podcast or a rec league basketball game is beyond disingenuous, it's grasping at straws," he told Elmhurst Patch.

Ruzevich's provocative International Women's Day video drew a rebuke from the high school. In an email to parents dated March 10 shared with Patch, McAuley president Carey Templeton Harrington said Ruzevich’s video was filmed without the school’s knowledge or permission, alleging that he encroached on campus property in an “unauthorized entry.”

“We have chosen not to engage publicly with the candidate [Ruzevich] to avoid giving this stunt the attention it was designed to seek.”

Harrington also stated in her email that the private high school has consulted its legal counsel.

Ruzevich who grew up in Orland Park and graduated from Brother Rice High School, released a statement apologizing “to anyone who felt frightened or distressed by these thoughts.”

“I attended Brother Rice High School, an all-boys Catholic school, and Mother McAuley was our all-girls ‘sister school.’ I grew up with four sisters, so when I heard about the all-girls school in Iran being destroyed, it hit home for me. I was also appalled when I saw little to no outrage from our elected officials and the dehumanizing language that some used to dismiss the death of these innocent girls. My first thought was, ‘What if that had happened here?’”

He stated that as a Catholic, he was “taught that every human life is sacred and the suffering of others should never be ignored simply because it happens far from us.”

“Cardinal Blase Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, issued a strong condemnation of the White House reaction to the bombing of the girls’ school as a ‘profound moral failure,’” Ruzevich continued. “My Catholic faith is what guides me to speak about the loss of innocent life in Iran in what is clearly a war of choice.

“We should look at every child as our neighbor and every grieving parent as part of our family. If imagining this tragedy happening close to home stirred something in our hearts, perhaps that same compassion can guide us to care just as deeply for families whose children are lost to war elsewhere in the world.”

Ruzevich maintained that his International Women’s Day video was not about “political stunts.”

“It is about the serious responsibility of those who seek to serve in Congress and carry the responsibility to speak honestly about the human consequences of war,” Ruzevich stated.

His campaign told Patch that they have not been contacted by McAuley’s legal counsel nor the 22nd District Chicago Police. Asked where he had been standing when he made his video – campus property or in the public way – Ruzevich said he was instructed by his attorney not to discuss the video any further.

McAuley officials also said they would not be making any further comments.