Suburban Hopeful Reposts Racial Slur, Criticizes Overweight People

ELMHURST, IL – A Democratic candidate running for a suburban Chicago congressional seat has reposted a racial slur, criticized overweight people and appeared to make light of Nazi Germany

Orland Park native Joey Ruzevich, who is in his late 20s, is running against U.S. Rep. Sean Casten of Downers Grove. They are in the March 17 Democratic primary for the 6th Congressional District.

The district includes all or parts of suburbs such as Elmhurst, Darien, Hinsdale, La Grange, Western Springs, Burr Ridge, Palos Hills, Oak Lawn, Glen Ellyn, Lisle and Evergreen Park.

Some of the comments came on a "TorgyTalk" podcast episode in November 2024 that has since been deleted. Another was during a basketball game.

Ruzevich blamed the resurfacing of his previous comments on a "poor attempt" by his opponent's campaign to distract from ICE raids, people's rights being violated and rising prices.

"The clips taken from this podcast happened when I was a private citizen who was performing stand-up comedy at the time," Ruzevich said in an email to Patch on Wednesday. "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."

In January 2025, Ruzevich retweeted a post that stated, "N----s be 300 pounds talking about homosexuality being a sin, so is gluttony u fat f---."

Ruzevich said the original tweet was written by a Black person.

"Sometimes black creators use the n-word in posts and white people should still be able to amplify black voices in these cases, especially if the tweet contains a salient point," the candidate said in the email. "This was a very pro-gay, anti-homophobic retweet where I was trying to show my support for the LGBTQ+ community. It was calling out the hypocrisy of some overtly religious homophobes who are always looking to tell others they are not following the faith correctly, while failing to look at themselves."

In the November 2024 podcast, Ruzevich and two other men were talking about an overweight death row inmate when one of them said that overweight people don't get a particular right.

"We're very anti-fat," Ruzevich joked.

The other man said he questioned why overweight people get rights.

"No extra plane seat for you," Ruzevich added.

In a 2023 TikTok video, Ruzevich was playing in a basketball game in which an overweight referee said, "Ball don't lie." Another player said Ruzevich told the ref, "Scale don't lie."

The video was labeled "Most savage line to a ref ever."

In his email, Ruzevich said a ref who abuses his power can ruin it for everyone.

"The last comment by the ref when the situation was obviously settled after me saying 'yes, sir' was an unnecessary agitation of an already settled back and forth," Ruzevich said. "This comment initiates what was just settled. Unlike the current Democratic leadership, I don't allow bullies to walk all over me or my fellow teammates. All this indicates is that we were engaging in back-and-forth comments as people often do when they play sports. I'm surprised someone was even trying to make an issue of this post."

Last summer, Ruzevich tweeted that he had been in Europe for the past week, saying, "These mf'ers fat as hell too."

Ruzevich said he made the comment on his comedy Twitter account and that no derogatory language was used toward overweight people.

"It simply highlights the hypocrisy of Europe always caricaturing America as only containing obese individuals while they themselves struggle with an obesity epidemic," he said.

During the 2024 podcast, Ruzevich was asked where he would go if he could go anywhere and do standup comedy.

He chose 1942 Germany, saying he would bring "some levity" to the camps and "keep everybody enjoying themselves."

In his email this week, Ruzevich said he didn't seriously think the best place to perform comedy was in 1940s Germany, noting he was speaking on a comedy podcast.

"Saying that as the answer clearly shows my understanding that this would have been a completely joyless scenario where no amount of great writing would make people laugh," he said.

A common comedy tactic, he said, was to say the hyperbolized opposite of a real answer. On a serious podcast, the real answer would have been the Chicago Theatre or Zanies Comedy Nightclub, he said.

"On this comedy podcast, however, the comedian who was running the show set up a scenario where he was talking about performing comedy at a funeral, so in this scenario, I thought we were meant to say things we didn’t mean," Ruzevich said.

He did not answer why the podcast episode was removed.

Overall, Ruzevich said some of his statements were "stupid and ill-advised." But he said the comments are trivial compared with the country's problems, which he said Casten has done little to address.

Ruzevich accused Casten of making insulting statements to Palestinian Americans in the district.

"I promise to stand up for all the voters in my district and address the concerns that he has been ignoring," Ruzevich said.

Last year, former U.S. Rep. Marie Newman endorsed Ruzevich. Casten defeated Newman in the 2022 Democratic primary.