The front-runner in the Republican primary for governor of Illinois was finishing his speech at a senior center when a voice asked if they could pray for him.
Bailey was happy to agree. The speaker put his right hand on his left shoulder while he closed his eyes and held out his hands.
She asked that you raise up the righteous and destroy the wicked in this election.
You can sign up for The Morning newsletter.
Moderates from Chicago are trying to keep control of the Illinois Republican Party. Bailey is unlike any other nominee the party has put forward for governor.
As many past leading GOP candidates have done to try to appeal to conservatives, a 56-year-old farmer from Southern Illinois wears his hair in a crew cut, speaks with a thick drawl, and doesn't sand down his conservative credentials. Mr. Bailey received an endorsement from former President Donald Trump.
Legislation was introduced to kick Chicago out of the state. He was removed from a state legislative session because he refused to wear a mask. His campaign bus is adorned with a Bible verse that calls for followers to wear God's armor in battle.
He is the favored candidate of the state's anti-abortion groups. He doesn't like the practice of rape and incest.
Bailey has upended carefully laid $50 million plans by Illinois Republican leaders to nominate a moderate suburbanite with an inspiring personal story who they believed could win back the governor's mansion in Springfield in what is widely forecast to be a winning year for Republicans.
Bailey has been aided by an unprecedented intervention from Pritzker and the Democratic Governors Association, which have spent nearly $35 million attacking the other. No candidate for any office has ever spent more money in a primary than they have in a general election.
The Illinois governor's race is on course to become the most expensive campaign in American history.
According to public and private polling, Bailey has a 15 percentage point lead over the other candidates. His strength shows the shift in Republican politics away from urban power brokers and towards a rural base that demands fealty to a far-right agenda aligned with Trump.
Bailey's proposal to excise Chicago, which he called "a hellhole" during a televised debate last month, illustrates the grievances long felt across rural central and southern Illinois.
Bailey said that the rest of the land mass was not happy about how 10% of the land mass was directing things. A lot of people don't have a voice, and that's a problem
Bailey compared Irvin to Satan during a Facebook Live monologue in February, but that pitch has resonated with the conservative voters flocking to him.
Pam Page is a security analyst at State Farm Insurance and she came to see Bailey in Lincoln. Downstate doesn't seem to get any of the perks.
The mayor of Aurora, whose campaign was conceived of and funded by the same team of Republicans who helped elect Mark Kirk to the Senate in 2010 and Bruce Rauner as governor in 2014, has been frustrated by the onslaught of Democratic television advertising. Moderate candidates who can win over voters in Chicago's suburbs are their recipe.
He was born to a single mother and served in the Army before becoming the first black mayor of the second most populous city in the state.
A Chicago billionaire hedge fund founder who is the main benefactor for Illinois Republicans gave $50 million for the primary alone and promised to spend more for him in the general election. According to his spokesman, the richest man in the state will not support any other Republicans in the race. The hedge fund and trading firm would be moving to Miami.
Although he has voted in a number of recent Democratic primaries in Illinois and expected an expensive dogfight in the general election, he is frustrated by the primary season intervention from Pritzker, a billionaire who is America's wealthiest elected official.
"This is the first time in the history of our nation that a Democrat would spend a lot of money to stop someone from becoming the nominee of the Republican Party," he said. Six Republicans are in the primary. You can't see me when you watch the television.
J.B. Pritzker doesn't want to face Richard Irvin in the election.
He said that the DGA spent tens of millions of dollars trying to fool Republican voters.
The same message will be used in the general election by the candidate. He said he wasn't afraid of running against him or of the millions of dollars that would be spent on his campaign.
Pritzker said in an interview that it was a mess. All of them are against choice. There's a list of things that I think matter to people in the state. They are all awful. I'll beat them if I take any of them.
The primary race has attracted $100 million in television advertising. This year, Pritzker has spent more money on TV ads than any other candidate. Ad Impact says that Irvin is second.
Bailey's primary financial benefactor is Richard Uihlein, a billionaire who has donated $9 million of the $11.6 million that Bailey has raised and sent another $8 million to a political action committee that has attacked Irvin as insufficiently.
Both parties have presidential politics on their minds.
In the interview, he wouldn't say who he voted for in the two presidential elections, and wouldn't say if he would support Trump if he ran for president. He said that former Vice President Mike Pence had fulfilled his constitutional duty on January 6, 2021.
Bailey wouldn't say if the election was fair or if it was the right decision.
It is possible that the motivation to help Bailey in the primary is due to the fact that he may one day run for the White House himself. He spoke to a group of Democrats in New Hampshire last weekend in the middle of his reelection campaign.
Establishment Republicans in the state are worried about the possibility of Bailey dragging down the entire GOP ticket in the general election.
The congressman predicted an overwhelming victory for Bailey in the primary, but warned that he would be a problem for the general election.
Bailey is not going to play in the suburbs according to LaHood. He has a southern accent. He should be running in Missouri.
The only Illinois governor from outside the Chicago area since World War II said that Bailey's rise showed that party leaders "don't have the grasp or control of their constituents like they did back in the ’80s and the '90s."
Bailey is fighting for the soul of the Republican Party. Winning the primary is more important than triumphing in the general election to them.
Thomas De Vore is running for attorney general with Bailey. He wears untucked golf shirts on the campaign trail that show his tattoos on his forearms.
If we can at least get control within our own party, we have an opportunity to be successful, DeVore said.
The GOP race was about excising the party's moderate elements, according to David Smith, executive director of the Illinois Family Institute.
The Republican Party needs to purge themselves of self-serving snollygosters.
The New York Times Company is owned by The New York Times.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
