The Endorsement Nobody Asked For
Then-Sen. Darren Bailey speaks in front of Donald Trump at a rally near Quincy in 2022. Trump endorsed Bailey Sunday. (Photo: Chicago Tribune)
Typically, if a President of the United States endorses the nominee of his party for Governor, the candidate would welcome that endorsement with open arms.
Not so much in Illinois in 2026.
In a media scrum in Shannon, Ireland Sunday after attending a professional golf tournament at one of his resorts, President Donald Trump was asked if he planned to meet with Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey when he is in Illinois later this month.
Trump praised Bailey as a “good man” and commented how he overcame the tragedy of losing his son, daughter-in-law, and two of his grandchildren in a helicopter crash last year.
“I’ve already endorsed him,” Trump said. “I’m all for Bailey.”
The Bailey campaign has been trying to distance itself from Trump for months in an attempt to soften his image with suburban voters.
Sources say the Bailey team was “none too happy” about Trump’s comments.
Democrats, meanwhile, pounced on the news. Governor JB Pritzker criticized Bailey for his connection to Trump in an interview with WGN-TV Monday.
“Darren Bailey wants to deny that he’s associated with Donald Trump because he knows Donald Trump’s policies and Donald Trump himself are terribly unpopular in the state of Illinois. You can’t run away from something you’ve said just this year, he’s endorsed policies of Donald Trump and just a couple of years ago, begged him for his endorsement. Got his endorsement twice, because he ran for Congress in between the last time he ran for Governor. He’s a Trump acolyte, he’s a MAGA Republican, he’s trying to run away from it because he’s hoping people will forget. They’re not gonna forget.”
[Editor’s note: Trump endorsed Congressman Mike Bost in the 2024 primary against Bailey.]
In a statement, Bailey tried to deflect the endorsement to a criticism of Pritzker.
“I appreciate President Trump’s endorsement of my campaign for Governor, but that’s not what this is race is about. It’s about the endless ways JB Pritzker has failed Illinois families over the last eight years,” he said. “From endless tax hikes to the highest property taxes in the nation, preferential treatment for career criminals while our officers are underpaid and under appreciated, all while businesses shutter their doors and everyone from workers to the Chicago Bears vote with their feet, our state is worse off today under JB Pritzker’s leadership. Change will only happen when Illinois voters step into the voting booth and vote for it.”
Though, Bailey struck a bit of a different tone Monday night, telling WLS-TV in Chicago “I welcome the endorsement.”
Interestingly, a Bailey supporter was the media member who asked Trump about Bailey in the Ireland scrum.
Beni Harmony, a Springfield area native that worked at WICS-TV in Springfield until an acrimonious split last after she aired a tribute to assassinated activist Charlie Kirk on a non-political show she hosted, spoke at Bailey’s campaign announcement last fall and currently works as “White House Correspondent” for Real America’s Voice, a far-right cable network. It is available in about 8 million homes. CNN is available in about 80 million U.S. homes.
