SPRINGFIELD — State Sen. Darren Bailey saw Donald Trump’s endorsement as key to winning the Republican nomination for governor, traveling to the former president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach in April to make his case.
Bailey received Trump’s endorsement just days before the primary. But on Tuesday, Bailey declined to talk about Trump. Asked about his opinion on the legitimacy of the Jan. 6 select committee in the US House of Representatives, which is looking into Trump’s role in fomenting the riot in the US Capitol, Bailey declined to answer.
Asked if his reticence to talk about Trump was part of a calculated effort by the far-right conservative to make himself more palatable to the general election crowd in his race against Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker, Bailey said he was focused on Illinois and not applied for a federal post.
Bailey’s attempts to avoid talking about Trump are a departure from his approach before the primaries, when he said there was literally “no distance” between his views and those of the former president.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey speaks to constituents at the home of supporter Pam Carr Hagerman in West Dundee on July 22, 2022. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)
Trump was the focus of committee hearings on Jan. 6, where testimony showed that his actions encouraged riots at the Capitol that threatened the lives of Vice President Mike Pence and members of Congress. As panel members push for criminal charges against the former president, Trump-backed candidates face questions about whether the panel’s findings have caused them to reconsider whether to accept his endorsement.
Bailey answered just four questions during Tuesday’s brief news conference in Springfield. He appeared outraged when asked if he agreed with a group of ultraconservative downstate allies who called the House committee hearings a “sham” and called on the state GOP to censure one of its members, U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Channahon.
Bailey called the question “completely irrelevant” because he said the press had been subpoenaed to talk about what he saw as shortcomings of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services under Pritzker.
Asked specifically whether Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on the House Select Committee, should face censure from the Illinois Republican Party, Bailey did not answer, but took the opportunity to hit out at the Republican congressman.
“I handled Adam Kinzinger by myself. I have made my statements. I don’t agree with anything Adam Kinzinger defends. And I made a statement, so there you have it,” Bailey said.
Bailey earlier this year called for the rioters who stormed the Capitol to be “tried or must be punished,” but on Tuesday he denied that his evasiveness on the subject was intended to make himself more amenable to mainstream Republicans.
“Illinois has real problems. I’m not running for Congress. I am running for governor of the great state of Illinois. And I’m running to represent everyone in this state and I’m laser-focused on the issues we have here in Illinois so that we can keep businesses and families here and protect the businesses and families that are here,” Bailey said .
Christopher Mooney, a political scientist at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said Bailey’s refrain from talking about Trump may be a political strategy for Nov. 8, but it doesn’t make much sense given his extensive efforts to cultivate support for the former president.
He also noted that it was comparable to the strategy used by one of Bailey’s primary GOP rivals, Aurora Mayor Richard Irwin, who ducked or refused to answer questions about voting for or supporting Trump or Trump’s agenda. .
“It’s up to him,” Mooney said of Bailey’s support for Trump. “He touched the man. He begged for his approval. You must dance with the one who brought you. You are applying for a state position. You know these questions are coming.
The call to censure Kinzinger on Monday came from the five-member ultraconservative Illinois Freedom Caucus, a group of state lawmakers supporting Bailey in the General Assembly.
Bailey is not part of that group, but is a member of what’s informally known as the “Eastern Bloc” of Republican state lawmakers who have encouraged Chicago’s secession from the rest of the state and opposed Pritzker’s orders for a COVID-19 vaccine. 19 and other pandemic mitigation mandates.
Bailey’s press conference came as his biggest donor, ultraconservative megadonor Richard Wyline, who owns the office supplies and packaging company Uline, gave $15 million to an independent political action committee that supports the Republican candidate.
It was Uihlein’s second spending spree on Bailey’s behalf in the general election, following a $5 million check to the People Playing By The Rules PAC on July 6.
Before the primary campaign, Uihlein gave $8.1 million to the PAC, which is run by right-wing radio talk show host Dan Proft of Naples, Florida. Uihlein separately gave Bailey $9 million for the primary.
Uihlein was one of Trump’s top financiers and was also a major financial backer of the January 6 pro-Trump March to Save America rally that preceded the deadly uprising on Capitol Hill.
Since 2016, Uihlein has given $7.8 million to the Tea Party Patriots group, which helped organize the Jan. 6 rally, the Financial Times previously reported.
The report also showed Uihlein as the largest donor behind Women Speak Out, a political action committee affiliated with the Susan B. Anthony List that seeks to ban abortion at the federal level. He has also poured millions into the Restoration PAC, which lists as its guiding principles that “every marriage is for one man and one woman for life,” the Financial Times reported.
jgorner@chicagotribune.com
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