So Far, Bailey's General Election Strategy Looks Familiar
Former Sen. Darren Bailey speaks after winning the GOP primary for Governor last month. (Photo: Chicago Tribune)
Three weeks post-primary, Republican gubernatorial nominee Darren Bailey’s pivot to a general election message doesn’t appear to be much different than his primary message.
Bailey promised a general election campaign different from his 2022 effort to unseat Gov. JB Pritzker, where he lost by around 13 points and half-a-million votes.
“I will be an 80-20 Governor,” Bailey declared on election night, referring to the political theory of lopsided support for policy issues. “I’m not coming to Springfield to divide people or chase every cultural fight. I’m coming to focus on the things most Illinoisans agree on.”
But Bailey’s campaign since March 17 has looked very much like his primary campaign, which focused on “red meat” conservative issues that appealed mostly to his downstate base.
Bailey has sat for an interview on FOX News with Lara Trump, the President’s daughter-in law, focused on crime and the SAFE-T Act, messaging his campaign and his supporters leaned on in 2022, and reiterated their support for a state version of Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE.
“This isn’t a pivot, this is doubling down on getting crushed in November,” said one longtime GOP operative not tied to Bailey’s camp. “Running a social media campaign is bad enough, but trying to appeal to voters in the suburbs with things like DOGE is a non-starter.”
Multiple sources on both sides of the aisle say the Trump/Musk DOGE polled extremely poorly in Illinois, especially among suburban voters.
Bailey’s campaign did not respond to an inquiry from The Illinoize Monday.
Republicans around the state are taking notice.
“If this was used to win the primary, using the term DOGE, maybe he needs to turn and use ‘I’m going to reform our spending, we’re going to root out fraud, there’s so much fraud and abuse in the Medicaid system,” Rep. Bill Hauter (R-Morton), told me on the radio yesterday. Hauter supported Ted Dabrowski in the GOP primary and is supporting Bailey in the fall. “Turn from that. Don’t call it DOGE, call it [reform] and trying to reduce fraud and abuse to help part of our affordability crisis.”
Other Republican insiders remain frustrated with the way Bailey has rolled out his general election campaign.
“Apparently being a tourist in Chicago hasn’t helped him figure out that going hard right in the general isn’t going to work,” a GOP operative said in reference to Bailey’s string of Chicago-centric photo ops. “The Bailey campaign is DOGE. Lots of rhetoric, no results.”
Pritzker’s campaign jumped Bailey’s messaging, as well.
“He saw chaos at the federal level and wants to bring that same dysfunction to Illinois,” said Pritzker campaign spokesman Alex Gough. “Bailey has no clue how to govern. He has a plan to break things and no idea for what comes after. It’s the same failed Republican fantasy that’s left their party irrelevant in Illinois for years. Maybe Bailey and the Republicans will finally learn that lesson when the voters reject them in November again.”
Republicans are also concerned about Bailey’s fundraising. Full finance reports from the first quarter won’t be released until next week, but Bailey’s large donations, which have to be reported to the State Board of Elections, have yet to significantly pick up post-primary.
So far, Bailey has reported about $21,000 in large donations since the primary. Pritzker, a billionaire, put $25 million into his campaign last fall.
