Darren Bailey, a former state legislator aligned with President Trump, won the Republican nomination for governor of Illinois on Tuesday, The Associated Press said.
His victory over several lesser-known Republicans sets up a rematch of the 2022 election in which Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, defeated Mr. Bailey by nearly 13 percentage points. Mr. Pritzker, who is widely thought to be weighing a run for president, is seeking a third term as governor and was the only candidate in the Democratic primary.
Illinois is a solidly Democratic state, and Mr. Pritzker is a billionaire with the ability to spend heavily on his campaign. That leaves Mr. Bailey, a farmer from Southern Illinois who previously served in the State Senate, with an uphill fight to make the general election competitive.
Mr. Bailey took a bombastic approach on the campaign trail four years ago, referring to the state’s largest city, Chicago, as a “hellhole.” He has softened his rhetoric this time around, observers have noted, even objecting when the national Republican Party made a social media post making fun of Mr. Pritzker’s weight.
On the campaign trail, Mr. Bailey has taken issue with Mr. Pritzker’s fiscal stewardship of the state. He has posted in recent weeks about crime in Chicago and low test scores at some Chicago schools. And he has called for creating a state department of government efficiency, modeled after the federal one that Elon Musk led early in Mr. Trump’s term.
An upset victory in the general election, Mr. Bailey has told supporters, could also end Mr. Pritzker’s political career.
“When we win in November, we don’t just beat JB for governor — we end a presidential campaign before it starts,” Mr. Bailey wrote on Facebook.
Though Republicans have won statewide races in Illinois before, including the 2014 governor’s race and a 2010 U.S. Senate election, the party has struggled in the state during the Trump era. Growing Democratic strength in the Chicago suburbs has offset Republican gains in rural areas and downstate cities, where Mr. Trump and Mr. Bailey have deep support.
Mr. Pritzker has pushed the state to the left in recent years, signing laws that restricted guns, expanded abortion access and sought to restrict immigration enforcement. The state’s credit rating has improved, though fiscal challenges remain.
Mr. Pritzker and Illinois have been frequent targets of the Trump administration, which has sought to withhold funding from the state. The Justice Department unsuccessfully sued Illinois over laws that limit cooperation with immigration agents.
The governor has railed against Mr. Trump, referring to him as a “wannabe dictator” and warning that democratic principles and basic rights are under federal attack.
Those tensions came to a head last year when the administration sent hundreds of immigration agents to the Chicago area, where they made hundreds of arrests and clashed with protesters. During that campaign, Mr. Trump federalized members of the Illinois National Guard over the governor’s objection, though the courts blocked the troops from being deployed onto Chicago streets. The president also called for Mr. Pritzker to be jailed.
Mr. Pritzker was one of four Midwestern Democrats who flipped Republican-held governorships at the midway point of Mr. Trump’s first term, along with Tony Evers of Wisconsin, Laura Kelly of Kansas and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. All four of those governors won re-election in 2022. Only Mr. Pritzker is seeking a third term.
Mitch Smith is a Chicago-based national correspondent for The Times, covering the Midwest and Great Plains.
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