Republicans Reflect After Election Day Wipeout
Sen. Seth Lewis (R-Bartlett) and Rep. Brandun Schweizer (R-Danville) were both swept up in last week’s Democratic wave.
Two Republicans swept out of office in last Tuesday’s Democratic wave think voters rejected them because of their party identification and not for their politics or voting records.
Republicans circled the wagon to help save Sen. Seth Lewis (R-Bartlett), who vastly outspent self-avowed Democratic Socialist Ben McAdams. Senate Democrats put few resources into McAdams’ campaign, and he beat Lewis by around nine points anyway.
“I woke up Tuesday morning thinking we’ve got a real good shot. We were getting great response,” Lewis said. “I thought my track record, my bipartisanship, my willingness to listen and work with anyone, our constituent services, which were second to none, would carry me locally through this. And all indications were that it would. There wasn’t a poll that had me, personally, down. There was generic ballot that had us down seven or eight points, but I beat that in 2022. I beat that in 2020. I was very surprised at the first poll releases at 8:15, 8:20, approximately, in DuPage County, and I’m down 9,000 votes.”
Rep. Brandun Schweizer (R-Danville) was appointed to the chamber in 2023 and won his race in the Champaign-Danville area seat by just 269 votes in 2024. He conceded the race to Democrat Mary Catherine Roberson, who leads by around 1,100 votes.
“I knew it was gonna be another dog fight. And, obviously, with [Democrats] having an endless supply of money, the midterms with the current administration party’s in charge, that side usually doesn’t do as well,” he said. “So obviously it was always in the back of my mind that it could happen.”
Schweizer said the environment gave Republicans too much to overcome.
“I personally don’t think it had anything to do with me, personally. I think it was 100% the letter that is behind my name,” he said. “One of the biggest things that I’m taking away is, realistically, a lot of it doesn’t have much to do with you, it’s all about, what people think of an individual party overall.”
Lewis says he fears seeing more Republicans swept out of Springfield will make it harder to pass good legislation.
“The majority party does not need another member to pass legislation. They’re already at 40. Now they go to 45,” he said. “When you only need 30 in the chamber, what you’re really looking is, ‘can we sell it to the public or will the public know that this is actually good legislation and how do we do that by having bipartisan support?’ I was more valuable as a moderate Republican to the Democrats than I was as them getting another seat.”
Both agree Republicans need to change their campaign strategy.
“The suburbs require a different message. Erica Harriss, Darby Hills, Craig Wilcox, Seth Lewis, all reside in the suburbs. And you can be as conservative-minded as you want, but that’s not what the voters want in these areas,” Lewis said. “As [Republicans] move farther right, I’ve heard those comments that, we don’t have true Republicans [in the suburbs]. Well, if, if you believe that, okay, then you may not ever have a Republican in office here again.”
Schweizer said the GOP needs to end its internal divisions.
“I think the party is pretty fractured. You have people talking bad about other people in the party and it’s all grievances aired out in the public,” he said. “I think somewhere along the line, we need to come together as a party and try to figure out the best way forward to win races.”
Both were complimentary of the GOP caucus organizations and believed they had the resources to win. Neither ruled out running for office again in the future, though Lewis said he didn’t “see any opportunities in the near future.”
