Illinois Republicans rally around President Donald Trump, but internal infighting continues

Yahoo

17 hours ago

SPRINGFIELD — Illinois Republicans used their day at the State Fair on Thursday to pledge their allegiance to President Donald Trump and the Trump-backed plan to redistrict Texas' congressional boundaries to gain GOP seats that led to that state's House Democrats fleeing to Illinois to try to block it.
But as state GOP leaders sought to promote a Republican 'renaissance' that could turn Illinois from a blue state to red based on the state's 2024 presidential results that showed Trump getting 43.5% of the vote, serious problems remain for a political party still trying to elevate itself from the brink of irrelevance.
The Illinois GOP remains plagued by infighting that for years has come at the expense of winning campaigns. The state Republicans have routinely witnessed battles between far-right insurgents who in recent years have complained the party isn't Trumpy enough and the financial institutional wing that has long been the GOP establishment and funded the party for decades.
With the circulation of candidacy petitions well underway, the party has yet to formally field a full slate of candidates against Democrats who hold all statewide offices. Some candidates running for governor to challenge two-term billionaire Gov. JB Pritzker or seeking other statewide offices lack big-name status or credibility to mount a serious campaign.
Big money Republicans who had helped fund candidates in the past have either left the state, such as wealthy venture capitalist and former one-term Gov. Bruce Rauner and billionaire investor and hedge fund manager Ken Griffin, or have stopped giving because of a lack of return on their investment. Only national conservative billionaire megadonor Richard Uihlein remains, though his track record for backing candidates has not often led to success.
And while the state GOP tried to use the Texas standoff to promote Illinois Democratic hypocrisy over its heavily gerrymandered congressional map, none of the three Republican congressmen in the state's 17-member delegation attended the fair to provide real-life validation for the GOP's complaints.
Republicans repeatedly promoted Illinois' presidential vote showing Trump's losing differential had narrowed from 17 percentage points in 2016 and 2020 to less than 10 percentage points last year. But rather than Trump making gains — his vote total increased by only about 2,200 from 2020 — election results show Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024 underperformed Joe Biden's 2020 winning total by nearly 410,000 ballots.
Kathy Salvi, who took over as state GOP chair in July of last year amid party infighting over its leadership, urged Republicans to double down in promoting Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill' because of its provision extending his first-term tax cuts, while she didn't mention rules that will cut Medicaid health and nutrition programs for the poor. She also contended the nation's economy has improved despite evidence that inflation has grown as Trump's tariffs take effect.
'Thank goodness we have this president (and) this administration in office,' she told members of the Illinois Republican State Central Committee at their morning meeting Thursday. 'And he asked something of us. We have to be one voice, one voice with the great things that are happening in our country.'
But Salvi also acknowledged Trump's unpopularity, particularly among women in what were once the GOP-rich Chicago suburbs. Still, she urged party members not to publicize their differences with the president.
'As for what you don't like, I think in our party, we do a little bit better if we just did this,' she said, putting a hand to her mouth and using a zipper-closed motion.
'You don't like something that some of your fellow Republicans do? You take it to them one-on-one out of respect. And if one-on-one doesn't work, go two-on-two or three-on-two. And if that doesn't work, maybe go to your local party. But we have to be a party. We need all hands on deck, folks,' she said.
Rhonda Belford, a Republican National Committeewoman and head of the state GOP's county chairs, said she was part of a group of policy-minded Republicans who had decided to offer a 'working document' making suggestions for 'positive change' in the state that candidates could use, encouraging them to focus on 'policy, not people.'
But one suggestion, comity, said much about the state of the Illinois GOP.
'Seeing the verbal and online political carnage that has become a staple of Republican politics in Illinois to the detriment of any winning effort,' her group proposed efforts to 'reduce the ongoing rancor while establishing a positive base from which to oppose our real opponents, Illinois Democrats.'
Tony McCombie of Savanna, who leads the Republican minority in the Illinois House, seized on Trump's actions against immigrants and actions by Illinois Democrats led by Pritzker to protect them.
'Illegal immigrants should not be on the rolls of our Medicaid. They just shouldn't. They shouldn't be in the state. The governor should repeal the sanctuary state. Our budget problems would go away,' she said.
McCombie contended that a fiscal cliff of hundreds of millions of dollars facing the state's mass transit could be closed not by raising taxes but by eliminating funding for immigrant services.
'Why not just send them, send the illegal immigrants back? We'll have $1 billion. I mean, that's what we should be talking about.'
McCombie expressed confidence that by the time petitions are filed at the end of October for the state's March 17 primary, 'I know we're going to have a full slate' of candidates for statewide office.
'I'll tell you, a midterm is always tough, and so a lot of people think about the opportunity,' she said. But, 'I think it's the money to go up against the (Pritzker) money in politics in Illinois that also kind of takes people away.'
Don Tracy, a Springfield attorney and part of the family that owns nationwide food distributor Dot Foods, promoted his downstate roots as he runs for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Democratic U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin of Springfield.
It was Salvi who replaced Tracy as state GOP chair, a post he had held since 2021 until he resigned last year amid efforts by some Republicans to remove him.
'I did what I could as state party (chair). I made some progress throughout the state. And it's not unique to Illinois. There's infighting when you have weak parties,' Tracy said, adding his U.S. Senate bid was also aimed 'to make the state party stronger.'
One announced GOP candidate challenging Pritzker, DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick, attended the fair to pitch his candidacy and touted his drug treatment and rehabilitation efforts at the DuPage jail.
But earlier this year, it was announced that Mendrick and DuPage County reached an $11 million settlement with the estate of a 50-year-old woman, Reneyda Aguilar-Hurtado, who died in June 2023 after being held in the county jail for 85 days while awaiting transfer to a state-run mental health center. Mendrick and 11 jail medical staffers or corrections officers were accused — in a federal lawsuit brought by Aguilar-Hurtado's daughter — of repeatedly failing to act as Aguilar-Hurtado's health rapidly deteriorated. A county pathologist had determined the death was due, in part, to 'medical neglect.'
Ted Dabrowski, a former vice president of the right-leaning Illinois Policy Institute and current president of Wirepoints, a conservative advocacy group, also said he is weighing a bid for governor and expects to make a decision soon. Some Republicans said privately that Dabrowski was looking to tap into Uihlein's wealth to back his bid.
Cook County GOP Chair Aaron Del Mar also has been considering a run for governor, but he has not yet decided.
While Democrats at their fair day on Wednesday featured Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the leader of the Democratic minority in the U.S. House, Illinois Republicans had as their main speaker Fox News commentator Gianno Caldwell. Caldwell, who is from Chicago's South Side, later moved to DuPage County.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sent the Illinois GOP a video in which he sought to justify his Trump-backed mid-decade redistricting effort. A special legislative session to consider a new congressional map, ostensibly called for flood relief, is to be gaveled to a close on Friday with no action taken due to the absent Democratic lawmakers.
'It's ironic since, as you all well know, no state is more gerrymandered than Illinois,' Abbott said of the Democrats' choice of a state to protest the partisanly drawn maps.
'The redistricting that we seek in Texas is perfectly legal and complies with the Voting Rights Act. It is fair. It is necessary. It will provide Texans the opportunity to vote for the representation in Congress that they deserve,' he said. 'I will continue to call special session after special session until we get these maps passed.'
Later Thursday, Texas House Democrats who left the state said they would return to Texas after lawmakers adjourn their current special session on Friday and when California Democrats introduce their retaliatory map designed to neutralize the Texas GOP effort.
Texas GOP state chairman Abraham George also appeared before Illinois Republicans and defended the proposed new map. He contended Democrats are hiding here because they don't like Donald Trump. They don't like what is going to happen with the redistricting. So they need to come back home or resign so we can have a special election.'
'Democrats don't hate gerrymandering. They hate losing, and with this new map they know they're going to lose about five seats. You know, we could make it harder for them and make it eight seats,' he said. 'We could have 33 seats on the Republican side. We're not doing that.'