Uihlein Jumps Back in for Bailey
Conservative megadonor Richard Uihlein.
Conservative donor Richard Uihlein appears to have made amends with the Darren Bailey campaign after previously pulling his support from Bailey’s effort.
Uihlein, the paper products magnate, gave Bailey’s campaign around $10 million during the primary but had yet to contribute after Bailey won the GOP nomination in late June.
Uihlein came through with an additional $1 million contribution reported Monday.
It could be a sign Uihlein is willing to invest heavily into Bailey’s campaign, but Bailey continues to trail incumbent JB Pritzker’s campaign war chest by more than $50 million. Bailey had not received a contribution larger than $50,000 since winning the nomination.
More from the Chicago Tribune:
While Uihlein hadn’t contributed to Bailey in the general election campaign until Monday, Uihlein had contributed $20 million to an independent expenditure political action committee that is aligned with Bailey. But by law, Bailey’s campaign cannot coordinate campaign activities with the People Who Play By The Rules PAC, which is run by right-wing radio talk show host Dan Proft of Naples, Florida. Ahead of the primary election, Uihlein had also given $8.1 million to the PAC.
Bailey’s primary victory was aided by the endorsement of former President Donald Trump, who traveled to Illinois in the final weekend of the primary campaign to publicly back U.S. Rep. Mary Miller and Bailey.
Uihlein has also been one of Trump’s biggest funders, and he also was a major financial backer of the Jan. 6 pro-Trump “March to Save America” rally that preceded the deadly Capitol Hill insurrection.
Leading up to the primary, Pritzker contributed $24 million to the Democratic Governors Association, which in turn ran TV ads that backhandedly encouraged Republicans to vote for Bailey by calling him conservative and “too extreme” for Illinois.
Bailey has yet to buy any general election TV ads.
