Of course, Illinois is infamous for corruption. Not that corruption is only exclusive to one party or anything. At the end of the day your friends sounds like someone drinking the kool-aid.
They tried to primary him and failed. Paula Jean Swearengin, far left loonie and Bernie Braw, ran.
She likes to talk about how she's a coal miners daughter, but she's a forty something accountant.
She wound up losing the primary in 2018, as apparently not even West Virginia Democrats are crazy/stupid enough to toss Senator Manchin. Still, it's terrifying she won a third of them.
She ran and got the nomination again in 2020, where she was able to test her allegation that a True Progressive
TM could totally do better than a dinosaur!
She lost to Republican Shelly Capito 70-27...
She's since left the Democratic Party this year for some far leftist political party. Which may actually hurt Democrats if she's on the ballot and bleeds support from them.