* Darren Bailey’s running-mate Aaron Del Mar speaking at yesterday’s Republican Day event…
You know, I had a young man come up to me and say, Mr. Del Mar, ‘I’m excited to be able to vote for you, but I can’t because I’m only 15 years old. I got three more years.’ And I said, ‘Go ahead and vote. Nobody’s checking IDs anyways. You can vote a couple times. We’re here in Illinois. We don’t believe in election integrity.’
* Some background from a JB Pritzker campaign website targeting Darren Bailey…
Darren Bailey founded a school that teaches a curriculum that says evolution isn’t real and that slave owners were kind to their slaves.
He also supported local officials banning books in schools.
The school Bailey founded uses a curriculum that teaches dinosaurs and humans walked the earth at the same time.
An excerpt from BJU’s life and science book published in 2007 said, “The biblical account of creation says that God made the land and animals on the sixth day, the same day that he made Adam and Eve. Therefore, dinosaurs and men must have lived together.”
* We told you yesterday that the Pritzker campaign sent some inflatable dinosaurs to crash Republican Day at the State Fair…
Oh boy. Democrats sent these folks to crash Republican Day at the State Fair. pic.twitter.com/8tI2Cxmfpa
Bailey defended curricula used at the Full Armor Christian Academy, which he founded, that teaches children that dinosaurs and humans walked the earth at the same time. According to scientists, it wasn’t until more than 65 million years after the dinosaurs’ extinction that the earliest humans walked the earth. Bailey was asked about evolution in response to a campaign stunt in which Pritzker’s campaign had inflatable dinosaurs holding “dinosaurs against Darren Bailey” signs.
Appearing on WGN-TV’s “The Point,” Bailey was asked by the show’s host, Tahman Bradley, if he believed humans and dinosaurs coexisted. He never directly answered.
“Were you there?” Bailey responded.
“I wasn’t there,” Bradley said.
“I wasn’t either. I don’t know,” Bailey said.
The GOP gubernatorial candidate also said, “I think every day we’re learning wonderful things about history and the past.”
* Bailey was given another chance to answer during a press gaggle…
Reporter: Could you comment on what they’re saying on their website, that you believe that dinosaurs and man walked the earth at the same time?
Bailey: Ask Fred Flintstone. It’s a shame that he’s doing this when Illinois is suffering. It’s absolute nonsense.
Reporter: So do you believe it though?
Bailey: It’s absolute nonsense. So Illinois is suffering with high expenses, with our safety. Our schools are failing and he’s focused on everything else besides that because he’s focused on running for president. Illinois, I hope wakes up and understands that and realizes we need something different.
Reporter: Darren there are voters who opinions will be swayed on whether people believe dinosaurs lived at the same time as humans. Do you believe it or not.
Bailey: I don’t belive anyone’s going to be swayed by that. I said it once. I’ll say it again, go ask Fred Flintstone and let him explain it because he needs to be focused and spending money on getting the message out on how he is going to make Illinois more affordable, safer and fix our schools and he’s refusing to do that.
And here I thought that Bailey was gonna drop the personal insults.
“We’re not perfect, but the other side is crazy,” said Don Tracy, candidate for U.S. Senate in Illinois. “If elected, I’ll represent you — not special interests.”
Over the past decade, the party has cycled through four different chairmen, each tasked with building back a fundraising apparatus and desperately trying to encourage supporters skeptical of vote-by-mail to bank their votes. They’ve also had to mend intraparty feuds.
Illinois Republican Party Chairman Bob Grogan, who defeated incumbent Kathy Salvi for the statewide party post earlier this year, joked to reporters that he “probably has the second-hardest job in the world” after Trump. […]
But Grogan said he sees an opening to win over new voters due to Democratic policies he cast as extreme. Or, to put it another way: “It’s common sense versus communism,” he said.
“We won the Cold War, but we lost the war in the universities, where communism was kept in a petri dish just to be regrown here in some of the youth,” Grogan said.
Bailey responded to questions of his campaign’s donor-vetting process after reports that his campaign took contributions from a sex offender both in 2026 and 2022, according to campaign filings and offender records.
Bailey’s running mate, Aaron Del Mar, brushed off any connection between the campaign and donor.
“Right now anybody can go to Bailey for Illinois and donate to our campaign, it’s an automated system. So we don’t check every single person that comes through, as much as J.B. Pritzker is going through and trying to check at every donor that we have,” Del Mar said.
Bailey noted the funds would be donated to charity, and would not be used by his campaign.
He also vehemently denied claims from Pritzker’s campaign that he ever met with the donor and attended a church the man reportedly pastors.
“I’ve never met the man, that’s the lie that J.B. Pritzker put out. I did not go there and I do not recall ever meeting him. And I have researched, the man’s not even a pastor, so absolutely not. I don’t know the person,” Bailey said.
* Not exactly packed…
We're covering the Republicans' Day at the fair today, which is starting with a candidate forum kicked off by GOP Governor candidate @DarrenBaileyIL. "We are stronger together and we must put these small, petty differences aside and that will make us stronger," he says of the… pic.twitter.com/D2AYEF5kU6
Republicans have been in the superminority in the House since 2018, but they’ve since held ground, preserving 40 of 118 seats. It’s been worse on the Senate side, where the party has been in the superminority since 2012 and currently holds 19 of 59 seats. […]
That same northwest suburban area is also the site of a tough Senate race between incumbent Sen. Darby Hills, R-Barrington Hills, and Rep. Nabeela Syed, D-Inverness.
Curran also has other seats his caucus currently holds that he is trying to defend, but said he’s also hoping Frank Lesko will oust Sen. Doris Turner, D-Springfield, Brad Beekman will defeat Sen. Mike Halpin, D-Rock Island, and Daniel Rhyne will send Sen. Christopher Belt, D-Swansea, packing.
McCombie declined to say how many seats she’s aiming to pick up, but said the 112th District represented by Rep. Katie Stuart, D-Edwardsville, 76th District represented by Rep. Amy “Murri” Briel, D-La Salle, and 97th District represented by Rep. Jessica Dixon Heitman, D-Plainfield, are among her targets. Stuart is facing Jimmy Ford and Briel is up against Liz Bishop for a second time.
