Illinois governor’s race shifts to Texas

Illinois voters can begin casting ballots in just two weeks, but the governor’s race has assumed a temporary battlefront in Texas this week on the sidelines of the Republicans’ rare midterm convention.

Both Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker and Republican nominee Darren Bailey traveled to Dallas to court supporters in and around the Republican National Convention. But each showed up with very different agendas with, Pritzker using the event to widen his campaign against President Donald Trump and Bailey seeking his own exposure for policy ideas and money.

The governor was peppered with multiple questions about any national ambitions he has, which he continued to artfully downplay, telling reporters there he was focused on his campaign in Illinois and broadly supporting Democrats across the country.

“I absolutely could be in Illinois right now,” Pritzker said. “But here’s what I think: What’s good for the people of Illinois is if Democrats win across the country, and the Congress becomes a Democratic Congress.”

Separately, Bailey’s running mate, Aaron Del Mar, told Capitol News Illinois that their campaign was meeting with Republican delegations from other states to pick their brains on initiatives they could push in Illinois.

“All of these different hot button issues Illinois is facing right now, we’re over here talking and getting some of the best and brightest across the nation best practices what’s worked well in their state and see if we can manicure that to apply it here in Illinois,” Del Mar said.

Growing national profile

Pritzker’s appearance in Dallas came just a day after he launched a $20 million national political action committee that will financially support Democrats in congressional races against incumbent Republicans in districts Trump also won.

The governor heaped praise on Texas state Reps. Gina Hinojosa, who is running for governor, and James Talarico, who is running for U.S. Senate. Pritzker formed a close relationship with Texas legislative Democrats last year after many fled to Illinois in an unsuccessful attempt to block Republicans from gerrymandering the state’s congressional maps ahead of the midterm.

“These are people who are, as I often say, if there’s a divide in the country, it’s between ‘Team Fight’ and ‘Team Cave,’ and these are folks are on Team Fight, and so are Texas Democrats,” Pritzker said, avoiding answering the reporter’s question about whether his interest in Texas races signals a 2028 White House bid.

“The fight” has been the primary theme of Pritzker 2026 bid for a third term, and he named his PAC “Ready for the Fight,” which plays off a question he has asked supporters at the end of each campaign rally since launching his first gubernatorial bid in 2017: “Are you ready for the fight?”

He took more direct shots at Trump and his allies in the spirit of continuing that fight, branding the two-day primetime event a “clown show.”

Pritzker also delivered an ominous warning about why he believes Democrats will have success appealing to voters in this year’s midterm election after some sat out the 2024 presidential race.

“We’re actually giving people an impetus to show up because in this election, if Democrats don’t win, if they don’t win in this election, we may not have other elections,” Pritzker said. “Or certainly we’re going to have future elections, every single one of which will be rigged.”

Bailey’s goal

Though Bailey and Del Mar also took time away from the Illinois battlefront to attend the RNC, Del Mar argued Pritzker’s presence in Texas shows he already has one foot out of Illinois.

“The fact that he’s concentrating on the next job versus the one in front of him and putting $20 million in to attack congressional candidates in other states shows his lack of concentration on Illinois,” Del Mar said.

Del Mar said their campaign’s trip to Dallas will benefit Illinois voters. He said they’ve been in various meetings with other state Republican delegations talking about property tax restrictions, data center regulations and utility policies that have worked in other states.

Del Mar said they’re also spending a lot of time networking and hoping to attract additional donors. He said they are making a case that Republicans should invest more resources in trying to flip Illinois red.

“I think that it’s good to have events like this where we can talk with other people not just on the policy side but on campaign issues and donor bases,” Del Mar said. “Illinois currently is not one of the targeted states that Republicans are looking at but I think that it really should be and could be if we have people advocating for it.”

Balancing act

But Bailey’s trip also forces his campaign to answer more questions about whether there is any distance between him and Trump, who has voiced support for Bailey at various times over the last four years. Trump is deeply unpopular in Illinois, especially in the Chicago area where Bailey desperately needs to improve his standing with voters after a poor performance in 2022.

Del Mar said the convention’s goal is to boost turnout with Trump voters who might be considering sitting out the midterms because Trump himself isn’t on the ballot. Bailey’s campaign has also fixated on those voters this summer, believing that if enough show up, he has a chance to beat Pritzker.

“A lot of the hard reds are here, and a lot of the purples are here because they need to get their base up,” Del Mar said. “If you’re in more of a bluer district, you probably took a back seat to this one.”

Trump himself acknowledged as much during his more than 90-minute monologue on Wednesday night, saying: “When I’m on the ticket, Republicans always do very well.”

“I’m asking you to pretend that I’m on the ballot,” Trump said. “Just one more time, because if we lose, you’re going to lose your border, you’re going to lose your tax cuts, you’re going to lose your safety and security, you’re going to lose your wealth. Our country is going through hell.”

As Bailey also tries to court anti-Trump voters who will be key to any hopes of ousting Pritzker, Del Mar said he hopes the president will turn down the rhetoric and focus more on achievements such as tax cuts that appeal to more voters.

“I would like to see a more humble President Trump that is trying to engage with voters and not just the base for those of us that live in blue and purple states because I think if they want to control Congress, if they want to be able to give opportunities for success to guys like Darren Bailey and myself, I think those things resonate,” Del Mar said.

He said that voters are looking for solutions to their problems and thinks many will be tired of Pritzker’s constant attacks on Trump throughout this campaign.

“What we’re trying to do is filter out the rhetoric that JB Pritzker is putting out, you know, ‘Trump, Trump, Trump,’ because he’s diverting concentration away from his record,” Del Mar said. “And that’s probably the cornerstone of our campaign.”

The Democratic Party of Illinois bashed Bailey for attending “Trump-a-Palooza,” saying “this so-called convention only puts a glaring spotlight on just how out of touch Trump and Republicans like Darren Bailey are with people throughout Illinois.”

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.