By PETER HANCOCK
Capitol News Illinois
SPRINGFIELD – Republican voters in Illinois have once again chosen former state Sen. Darren Bailey as their candidate for governor, giving him a second chance to unseat incumbent Democrat JB Pritzker in November.
Bailey, a farmer from southern Illinois and the party’s 2022 nominee, claimed victory Tuesday night in a four-way primary for the GOP nomination, defeating Ted Dabrowski, former head of the conservative policy website Wirepoints.
According to unofficial returns compiled by the Associated Press, Bailey had carried about 50% of the vote as of 8:35 p.m. when the race was called. Dabrowski garnered about 32%.
DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick and businessman Rick Heidner, who spent more than $1 million of his own money on the campaign, each had under 10% when the race was called.
Four years ago, Bailey won the nomination with 57% of the vote in a crowded race that also featured Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin and venture capitalist Jesse Sullivan.
In that campaign, Bailey had the endorsement of then-former President Donald Trump. But many observers noted he also had backhanded help from the Pritzker campaign, which viewed him as a weaker candidate than the better-financed Irvin.
Pritzker funded ads that, on the surface, appeared to criticize Bailey but which subtly targeted the GOP’s conservative base by asserting that Bailey was “too conservative” for Illinois.
Bailey went on to lose the general election, 55% to 42%, after Pritzker swept Cook County and most of the collar counties
Two years later, he tried unsuccessfully to unseat fellow Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Bost in the 12th District, narrowly losing that primary by less than 3,000 votes.
Bailey announced his plan to run for governor again in September, vowing to run a different campaign that would focus more on Chicago and its suburbs. That started with choosing Cook County Republican Party Chairman Aaron Del Mar as his running mate.
Dabrowski, meanwhile, campaigned on the idea that he was the more electable candidate, arguing that Bailey’s poor performance in the suburbs four years ago was an omen that he could never win a statewide general election.
“Victory runs through the suburbs,” Dabrowski said in his final TV ad of the primary campaign. “Darren Bailey is a disaster in the suburbs. It’s why Pritzker wanted to run against him four years ago and does again.”
Pritzker will run for a third term in November.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.