State Sen. Sam McCann announced his intention Thursday to run for governor as a Conservative Party candidate, garnering a quick — and scathing — response from the incumbent governor.

When he ran for the state Senate in 2009, McCann said he was driven by a call to serve. It is this same call, he said, that brought him to throw his hat into the ring to face off against Republican incumbent Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democratic candidate J.B. Pritzker.

“I realized after the primary that a huge part of the state feels like they don’t have a candidate to choose,” McCann said. “Both dominant party candidates on the social issues align with each other perfectly, they’re mirror images. On the fiscal side, again, I think there’s a large group of people downstate that feel there’s no choice. There’s a significant group of people who feel these extreme approaches of the Chicago Democrats and the extreme approaches of Rauner have only made things worse.”

His statement of intent does not guarantee that McCann’s name will be on the ballot. He still needs 25,000 signatures for that, though McCann believes he’ll be able to get double that by the June 25 deadline.

In a video released alongside his announcement, McCann spoke critically of Rauner, saying he’s assisting Chicago Democrats in controlling the state.

He accused Rauner and “his brand of Republicans” of waging war with the middle class. During Rauner’s tenure, McCann’s votes have diverged from the governor’s on several topics, including Senate Bill 1229, which would have called for arbitration during the negotiations between the state and its largest unions.

McCann later told the State-Journal Register that Rauner actually had threatened him and his family if he voted in favor of the bill, an action the governor denied.

Rauner and the Illinois Republican Party quickly responded to McCann’s announcement.

The state GOP said McCann’s entry in the race was “using politics for profit.” It said his record is “shady” and that he is “the perfect crook to cut a deal with Pritzker and Madigan.”

Rauner’s camp shared similar sentiments. “Sam McCann is the worst kind of political opportunist who is only running for governor to line his own pockets,” Rauner spokesman Will Allison said in a release.

“McCann’s unethical record speaks for itself: He failed to pay his taxes, racked up massive debts, lied about serving in the Marine Corps, and used his campaign account as a personal piggy bank, even buying himself an SUV.”

McCann’s military service claims were questioned in 2016, when a Greene Prairie Press report quoted him as saying “the courage I learned in the Marine Corps,” when McCann himself had said that he only applied for the service but was injured before going to boot camp.

McCann told reporters at the State Journal-Register that he wasn’t sure of the context at the time but that he was referring to a booklet or paper that he had been given in his testing and processing that described courage as “no matter how afraid you are, you still do your duty.”

Rauner’s response also refers to a tax lien against the senator’s two construction companies with which McCann wrestled in 2015 for more than $185,000. Despite the tone of the response to his announcement, McCann seemed unsurprised by the accusation that he simply is entering the election to act as a spoiler for Rauner’s campaign.

“I think it just goes to show that he’s been governor for 3 1/2 years and, instead of talking about the issues, all he does is slander other candidates,” McCann said. “You can definitely see who’s running the most scared and I think the reason for that is he knows he can’t win. I’m not the spoiler in this election, that would be Rauner. He can’t win. He’s under water. He’s 2:1 with his disapproval-to-approval rating. If you don’t plan on voting for Pritzker, vote for me. I’m your best chance.”

Polling numbers in 2017 showed Rauner with just a 30 percent approval rating. Pritzker welcomed McCann to the race, noting that he believes Illinois is ready for a change.

“I welcome another voice to the race for governor at this critical time for our state,” Pritzker said. When it comes to facing off against Pritzker, McCann said he does not know the candidate well, having met him only briefly on two occasions, but looks forward to getting to know both him and Rauner more as the race continues.

Accompanying McCann on the campaign trail will be his running mate, Aaron Merreighn of Riverton, a veterans’ rights activist who worked with the senator in the past on projects to benefit Quincy Veterans Home.

“We worked together on a project to benefit homeless veterans here in Illinois and we became friends, we became co-workers on those issues, and it was apparent to me that there was no one more qualified for the job,” McCann said. “On Day 1 of my administration, Aaron’s No. 1 priority would be to rebuild Quincy’s veterans home and get it done ASAP … Aaron will have no idle time.”

McCann knows he’s entering the field with two candidates who have unprecedented levels of funding, but he believes voters will see the merits of his grassroots campaign, he said.

Some publications have projected that more than $300 million will be spent on the gubernatorial race, an amount that would beat national records for gubernatorial-race spending.

“Both of them have an infinite supply of money,” McCann said of Rauner and Pritzker. “No matter how much I raise, they can always easily raise double that. We’re going to rely on a strong grassroots campaign and raise as much money as possible and count on the people to deliver our victory.”

Nick Draper can be reached at 217-245-6121, ext. 1223, or on Twitter @nick_draper.

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