* After listening to Sen. Darren Bailey’s Labor Day message on Facebook, I reached out to the Pritzker campaign to see what else the candidate might have said in the past…

BAILEY SHARED AN INSENSITIVE LABOR DAY MEME FEATURING PRISONERS IN SHACKLES

2019: Bailey Shared A Meme With Prisoners In Shackles With Caption “Labor Day In Illinois … Property Tax … Income Tax … Gas Tax” Compared To “Labor Day In A Free State” With Folks On The Beach. “I couldn’t resist….. thank you Valinda for sharing! Too much truth here! Happy Labor Day! The future is before us!” [Facebook, Darren Bailey for Governor, 9/2/19]

BAILEY ATTACKED UNIONS, SAID HE DID NOT WANT TO TALK TO THE “UNION BOSSES”

October 2021: Bailey Said He Does Not Want To Talk To “Union Bosses” Or “Political Leaders” About The Pension System. “Part of his proposed solution is to converse with the people that matter to him — the public. He wants to hear what people have to say about the problems being faced. ‘I don’t want to talk to the union bosses, and I don’t want to talk to the political leaders,’ Bailey said. ‘I want to talk to the people and offer solutions and see what’s good with them and what’s not. See what ideas they have. We have to come up with a final fix for the pension problem.” [Pontiac Daily Leader, 10/12/21]

BAILEY REPEATEDLY QUESTIONED MINIMUM WAGE, VOTED AGAINST RAISING IT TO $15/HR IN IL

Bailey Questioned Minimum Wage Increase. “Bailey also questions Pritzker’s initiatives to increase the state minimum wage to $15/hour. While the Representative is a proponent of competitive wages and fair business policies, he wonders where the state will find the money for these increases. He is concerned that the lofty minimum wage increase could result in small local businesses having to close their doors.” [Olney Daily Mail, 1/18/19]

Bailey Voted Against Increasing Minimum Wage To $15 An Hour. [SB 1, 2019]

* 1.4 Million Workers Got A Raise From Minimum Wage Increase. “A $15 minimum wage would directly affect more than 1.4 million adult workers in Illinois. Of these individuals, 57 percent are women, 44 percent are African American workers and Latino and Latina workers, 89 percent are U.S. citizens, and 56 percent are workers age 30 or older.” [The Regional Impacts Of A $15 Minimum Wage In Illinois, Illinois Economic Policy Institute, 2/5/19]

Bailey: “Simply Put, Minimum Wage Needs To Be Set Federally. State Has No Reason Of Setting Minimum Wage. … We Need To Stick With That Federal Mandate Of Setting A Minimum Wage. [Bailey Event, 2/19/18 (VIDEO)]

March 2020: Bailey Was Opposed To Pritzker’s Minimum Wage Increases And Said That Illinois’s Businesses Could Not Afford Minimum Wage Increases. According to the Effingham Daily News, “The four candidates also agreed that the mass exodus of people the state is currently facing is because of high taxes and the minimum wage increase implemented by Pritzker. Bailey said in order to end the exodus, the state should look at modeling its government on a neighboring state.‘I see modeling our government maybe after Indiana would be a start where we spread the wealth. We spread business across the state. We have a two-year budget,’ Bailey said.‘Businesses are suffering because we simply cannot afford this minimum wage. I’m telling you, it’s happening as well in Chicago, so I see the day of reckoning coming.’” [Effingham Daily News, 3/15/20]

Bailey Urged Voters To Vote No On Increasing The Minimum Wage To $15. “We’ll be voting on that in November of 2020. We will be educating you on that. So you’ll understand that thoroughly and the importance of why you will need to vote. No, for that, we increase the minimum wage to $15. That’s a that’ll slowly rise, uh, to ’til the year 20, 25. Hopefully we can put a stop to that.” [Darren Bailey for Governor, Facebook, 2020 (VIDEO)]