Facing Headwinds, Senate Candidate Tracy Sticks With Trump
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Don Tracy speaks to reporters on Republican Day at the Illinois State Fair. (Photo: Chicago Tribune)
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Don Tracy admits he is a heavy underdog in his race against Lt. Governor and Democratic senate nominee Juliana Stratton.
In a state where Republicans haven’t won statewide in 12 years and the President of his party has an approval rating underwater by at least 20 points, one would think Tracy would move to the center and throw the GOP’s least popular policies under the bus.
But Tracy, the former Illinois Republican Party Chairman, is doing his best to avoid talking about Trump directly, and he’s reinforcing his support for some of Trump’s least popular actions, even while going out of his way at times not to say Trump’s name out loud.
“You know, you’re talking about the national environment, and, of course, the Democrats always wanna make these elections [and the] election for a US senator from Illinois national,” Tracy said. “But I’m running in Illinois and the Illinois environment, I believe, is different than the national environment because we’re in a one party state. Illinois has got unique problems that I don’t think you can blame, reasonably, on the national situation.”
National support for the military conflict in Iran has cratered, but Tracy remained on board.
“Our foreign policy, regardless of whether we had a Democrat administration or a Republican administration, our foreign policy with Iran was that Iran cannot be allowed to have a nuclear bomb because Iran is a rogue terrorist state. We’ve seen, they started war after war. It would be a huge disaster for the world, for Iran to have a nuclear bomb and start a nuclear war,” Tracy said. “They were a threat to world peace and to the United States in particular. So if through this military conflict, we have already neutralized Iran as a nuclear threat, then I think it has been a worthwhile war.”
Tracy also defended the actions of ICE and Customs and Border Protection in “Operation Midway Blitz” that controversially rounded up immigrants and clashed with the public in the city of Chicago and suburbs last year, but did admit the Trump administration didn’t handle resistance to the actions well.
“Federal law enforcement of immigration law has actually gone very, very well throughout most of the country, including Memphis. There was a surge like Chicago in Memphis. Memphis accepted it,” he said. “In Chicago, because it’s a sanctuary city, and there are armies of immigration advocates here who are open borders people. And we have the local authorities opposed to federal law and immigration enforcement in Illinois and Chicago. We had massive resistance. The administration did not recognize the difference in enforcing in a cooperative area like Memphis in an adverse environment like Chicago, and did not do the best job they could have. And it was ugly at times. Immigration law enforcement has to be different in sanctuary cities, and I think they’ve learned that lesson, and they’re doing it now in a better way.”
Tracy attempted to tie Stratton to Democratic Socialist candidates around the country and the far-left Chicago Teachers Union, but much of his message hasn’t broken through in the mainstream media.
Here’s Tracy’s appearance on this week’s The Illinoize Podcast:
