Well the state of the GOP in Illinois is discussed in this column by Rich Miller. Illinois has a history of electing liberal Republicans from the late Jim Thompson to Jim Edgar to George Ryan and to perhaps a lesser extent Bruce Rauner.
With that said I've always thought it strange that in a state that seems to not like conservative Republicans, if you're not that conservative you're a RINO. And we're seeing that play out in the Republican primary which will be held at the end of June.
Richard Irvin could be described as more moderate he might be closer to Thompson, Edgar, and even Ryan. He wants to paint himself as a conservative and unfortunately he's had some downstate Republicans paint him into a different corner. It shows his closest opponent is Darren Bailey a downstate farmer most well known in this state for opposing Gov. Pritzker's pandemic mandates.
The last debate I saw Richard Irvin - mayor of Illinois' second largest city of Aurora - there were references to Irvin being a closet Democrat. There were references to Irvin who has pulled a lot of his TV attacked Bailey - a sitting state senator - as a Biden supporter were more or less dividing this state's GOP. It seems from a strong rollout there was enough time for the tide to turn.
To be honest, I was somewhat excited about voting for someone who could be the Republican nominee for Governor who happened to be a Black man and hopefully that person defeating J.B. Pritzker handing him a re-election loss. Perhaps it's saying something, now I'm not so sure.
Those millions given to Irvin's campaign by this state's wealthiest resident a man by the name of Ken Griffin - he has his name on the Museum of Science and Industry. Seems to have not done much good, and worse still Griffin himself will likely be outspent.
My final comment to this is, it seems difficult to be a Republican in this state. You can't be too conservative and that's true for the Chicago area which is where most of the voters in this state are. At the same time you can't be seen as a "RINO". And now we can add, you can't allow yourself to be seen as selling your soul to a billionaire.
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