Del Mar Accuses Illinois GOP of Withholding Funding from Bailey
Republican Lt. Governor candidate Aaron Del Mar and GOP gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey campaign in southern Illinois in September of 2025. (Photo: Chicago Tribune)
Republican candidate for Lt. Governor Aaron Del Mar unloaded on the Illinois Republican Party infrastructure Monday, accusing the GOP of “abandoning” statewide GOP candidates.
In a nearly 90 minute livestream with 2022 GOP Attorney General candidate Tom DeVore, who has been a frequent critic of “establishment” Republicans, Del Mar recounted asking the Illinois GOP State Central Committee for financial support for the Darren Bailey gubernatorial campaign
Del Mar also sits on the Illinois GOP State Central Committee.
The latest internal bickering comes following a vote at a State Central Committee the morning of Republican Day at the Illinois State Fair.
Sources say Del Mar asked the state party to provide a cash infusion to Darren Bailey and Del Mar’s gubernatorial campaign and other statewide GOP candidates. There was no dollar figure originally included on the ask, but eventually settled on $150,000.
Committeemen balked at the idea, sources say, as the conversation was in executive session, at Del Mar’s request because the ask came with no plan for how the money would be used or how it would be split among the five statewide campaigns.
“It was a knee jerk reaction,” one central committee member told The Illinoize. “And there was no plan.”
“This is what really pisses me off,” Del Mar said on the livestream. “I don’t care what the number is, just give me any number. “I know we didn’t have a plan. We can come back to [creating a plan.] I was heartbroken and frustrated by the fact that we didn’t get it done.”
Central committee members eventually voted down the idea with a weighted vote result of around 65%-35%, we’re told.
“I was upset. Time over time again, we’ve been asked to donate to the party. What are we doing all this for? The whole point of the party, the whole point of working together as an organization is to try to win elections and to try to get our people out to vote,” Del Mar said on DeVore’s livestream. “We don’t always get the success we’re looking for, but every single time we should be giving it 100% effort. Based on how much we have in reserves, knowing how much time we have before we have any major expenditures, there should be an allotted specific amount of money that we should designate to go into all candidates statewide.”
The Illinois GOP filed with $225,000 in the bank at the end of June. Its Federal PAC has around $250,000 on hand at the end of August.
Bailey and the other GOP statewide candidates have all struggled to raise money in the current election cycle, and Bailey’s campaign was dwarfed by billionaire Governor JB Pritzker’s $65 million dollar influx of personal cash the week before the State Fair.
DeVore launched into multiple personal attacks, including against former House GOP Leader Jim Durkin and new Illinois GOP Chair Bob Grogan.
“The Party sucks,” DeVore said. “I’m not going to work with Bob Grogan. He’s useless.”
DeVore also claimed Grogan wanted Bailey to lose in November as he supported a different candidate in the primary.
“I would like to think that’s not true,” Del Mar responded. “I have my concerns.”
The Illinois GOP did not respond to a request for comment Monday.
“This is why people call the Illinois GOP the state’s most effective circular firing squad,” one top Republican not affiliated with the Bailey camp said Monday. “Airing party grievances like this only hurts Republicans around the state. I wish these guys were interested in uniting the party, not dividing it.”
“I’m not here to throw rocks at the party,” Del Mar said in the livestream. “I’m here to win elections.”
