Jim Nowlan: Will the Illinois GOP show up for the 2026 state elections?
We are in the important pre-primary phase of the 2026 elections in Illinois (circulation of petitions opens in September), when prospective candidates strut their endorsements — and money raised — in efforts to scare off possible opponents. In our basically one-party state, Democratic wannabes are coming off a long bench to make their cases.
In contrast, Republicans have no bench of experienced, well-known prospects to speak of. Because of extreme gerrymandering, the GOP has few state legislators and no statewide officials whatsoever. Attractive but no-name candidates are being counseled by Republican insiders that this is a no-win year for the GOP and it's better to stay out.
Will the GOP even show up with a slate of credible candidates for the U.S. Senate, the governorship and all other statewide offices?
After all, the party in the White House generally does poorly in the midterm election. And Gov JB Pritzker has more money than Croesus ($3.7 billion, according to Forbes) and seemingly giddy enthusiasm for spending it. Recent history shows he stands ready to bankroll all the Democratic statewide candidates with more than enough money to blow away the opposition. After all, he wants to show national Democrats that he leads his party to victory up and down the line.
GOP woes don't end there. Illinois Republicans are divided into a downstate (outside the seven metro Chicago counties) that is enthusiastically pro-Donald Trump, versus the suburbs, where moderates and Democrats reign.
For example, DuPage County and its 920,000 residents used to be largely white and GOP. But the times, they are a'changin'. According to the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP), a language other than English is now spoken at home in nearly one-third of the households in the six counties surrounding Cook. Republican George Ryan won the governorship in 1998 with 70% of the DuPage County vote, whereas Trump garnered 42% of that county's vote in 2024.
GOP nominees for the U.S. Senate and governorship will have to declare their position on Trump, a no-win situation: Come out strongly for Trump and lose the suburbs or come out against Trump and watch voters downstate sit on their hands in November. Be wishy-washy on Trump, and lose votes across the board.
And who will bankroll GOP candidates in the face of such dour prospects? Billionaire Ken Griffin has departed Illinois for Florida, with his millions for GOP causes. Make no mistake: Big money has replaced party organization as the engine of candidate success.
Lightning does strike, however. In 2004, little-known state Sen. Barack Obama entered a crowded field that sought an open seat in the U.S. Senate. Trailing in the polls throughout in the Democratic primary, Obama surged to victory when, near the end of the primary, the front-runner's candidacy imploded almost overnight as a result of juicy revelations of messy marital discord.
In the general election campaign that followed, the attractive GOP nominee dropped out of the race because of sexual peccadilloes revealed in unsealed divorce records, and Obama skated into the U.S. Senate. The rest, as they say …
I expect there will be no-name and, maybe otherwise, very attractive candidates on the ballot next year for the GOP but with little money.
I have mentioned money several times in this essay. In the past decade, Pritzker has spent $400 million on his own and associates' campaigns. A Democrat, he even sabotaged the Republican primary campaign for governor in 2022. In that year, according to this newspaper, Pritzker spent $24 million to boost the nomination of possibly the weakest of his possible opponents for the general election. Pritzker's money advertised that Darren Bailey was 'too extreme' for Illinois — which was, irony definitely intended, an attractive message for a big swath of conservative GOP primary voters. Shameful politics.
Big money, corrosive of democracy, could be the overarching issue for Republican candidates in 2026: 'You can't buy my vote! Don't let JB Pritzker continue to buy elections in Illinois!'
Lightning does strike. But you have to show up.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNN
26 minutes ago
- CNN
Trump Deploys National Guard To L.A. Amid Immigration Protests - Inside Politics with Dana Bash and Manu Raju - Podcast on CNN Audio
Trump Deploys National Guard To L.A. Amid Immigration Protests CNN Inside Politics 43 mins First: California clashes. Trump deploys the National Guard to crack down on immigration protests. As sources say the president could cut funding for the Golden State. How will this end? And: Breakup. Trump's feud with Elon Musk threatens his coalition. Can the president's agenda survive the onslaught? Congressman Mike Lawler joins us live. Plus: Election night. What will the first big primaries in Trump's second term tell us about how voters feel.
New York Post
31 minutes ago
- New York Post
Some LA migrant protests fueled by taxpayer-funded group with Dem ties — another with CCP link
One of the groups leading anti-immigration protests in Los Angeles is a taxpayer-funded activist organization with ties to the Democratic Party, while another has links to the Chinese Communist Party. The Coalition for Human Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) — which received tens of millions of dollars in government grants during the Biden administration — staged a rally last week to denounce Immigration and Customs Enforcement arresting illegal migrants across the city, including those convicted of heinous crimes. 7 CHIRLA staged a rally last week to denounce Immigration and Customs Enforcement arresting illegal migrants across the city. REUTERS Advertisement Protests against ICE escalated since then, with more than 1,000 rioters taking to the streets, assaulting immigration officers, slashing tires and defacing public buildings, the Department of Homeland Security said, prompting President Trump to call in around 2,000 National Guard troops Sunday to quell the violence. According to financial records obtained by DataRepublican, CHIRLA received nearly $34 million in government grants, mostly from the state of California, in the fiscal year ending June 2023, a jump from the $12 million it received the previous year. 7 Protests against ICE escalated since then, with more than 1,000 rioters taking to the streets. REUTERS Advertisement The radical group also received around $450,000 in grants for 'citizenship education and training' between October 2021 and September 2024 from the DHS — the very agency the group was protesting last week. The federal agency cut ties with the group and terminated any further funding in March, including clawing back nearly $101,000 in funding that had yet to be paid out. A CHIRLA spokesman denied that the group had anything to do with the violence in a statement to The Post on Sunday. 7 CHIRLA received nearly $34 million in government grants, mostly from the state of California, in the fiscal year ending June 2023. He said CHIRLA 'organized a press event on Thursday' to protest the round-ups and had 'been sending legal observers to immigration courts and detention centers on Friday, Saturday and today as part of the LA Rapid Response Network. 'We have not participated, coordinated, or been part of the protests being registered in Los Angeles other than the press conference and rally cited above,' the rep said. Advertisement Rioting broke out in LA on Friday as federal authorities resumed the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration, conducting numerous raids in recent weeks and netting 'around 150' arrests, according to Trump's hard-nosed border czar Tom Homan. 7 The radical group also received around $450,000 in grants for 'citizenship education and training' between October 2021 and September 2024 from the DHS. REUTERS Another group that was behind some of last week's protests is the Marxist Party for Socialism and Liberation, which played a part in virulent past anti-Israel campus protests at Columbia University and which was once associated with suspected DC terrorist Elias Rodriguez. PSL has ties to the Chinese Communist Party through funding from socialist billionaire Neville Singham and his wife, Jodie Evans, founder of activist group Code Pink, according to a 2024 report by the Network Contagion Research Institute. Singham sunk millions of dollars into backing the groups after selling his software company, ThoughtWorks, for $785 million in 2017. Advertisement 7 Rioting broke out in LA on Friday as federal authorities resumed the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration. AP Singham's ties to the Chinese government and Communist propaganda are well-documented. The New York Times published a lengthy 2023 expose on his far-reaching money machine, which has steered millions to China-praising nonprofits from South Africa, Ghana and Zambia to Brazil, New Delhi and beyond. The PSL did not immediately respond to a Post request for comment Sunday. Rioters gathered Friday after the recent protests to attempt to stop ICE agents from carrying out the immigration sweeps, leading to officers deploying tear gas and other less-lethal methods of crowd dispersal. 7 Another group that was behind some of last week's protests is the Marxist Party for Socialism and Liberation. REUTERS More than a dozen arrests were made Saturday, said Bill Essayli, the United States Attorney for the Central District of California, on X. Images and videos showed hundreds of protesters clashing with riot gear-clad federal agents who were attempting to apprehend illegal immigrants near a Home Depot in Paramount, Calif. California Gov. Gavin Newsom and embattled Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass decried the raids, the latter claiming the federal agents used tactics that 'sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city.' Advertisement 7 Rioters gathered Friday after the recent protests to attempt to stop ICE agents from carrying out the immigration sweeps. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images In a statement on X on Saturday, Newsom wrote, 'Federal government is moving to take over the California National Guard and deploy 2,000 soldiers. That move is purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions. LA authorities are able to access law enforcement assistance at a moment's notice.' In a fiery response to Newsom and Bass on Truth Social Saturday, President Trump said, 'If Governor Gavin Newscum, of California, and Mayor Karen Bass, of Los Angeles, can't do their jobs, which everyone knows they can't, then the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!.'
Yahoo
36 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump's ‘Big Beautiful Bill' Would Slash Medicaid & SNAP: 3 Moves Retirees Should Make Now
President Donald Trump's 'one big beautiful bill' has passed in the House and is now awaiting Senate approval. If passed, Trump's signature bill would extend the tax cuts granted by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and add additional tax cuts. While this might be welcome news to many, the bill also includes changes to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that could threaten seniors' access to these programs. Find Out: Read Next: 'The 'one big beautiful bill' passed by the House of Representatives, if it were passed into law today, would cut Medicaid and SNAP by a combined $1 trillion,' said Chris Orestis, president of Retirement Genius. 'In addition, because of the increase to federal debt of as much as $5 trillion, the bill would trigger an automatic reduction in Medicare funding of $500 billion,' he continued. 'This would represent the largest cut to social services and health insurance for the poor, disabled, children and the elderly in U.S. history.' Here's a look at the changes retirees can make now to secure care and avoid benefit disruptions if the bill were to pass. Before changes go into effect, check with your healthcare providers to ensure there won't be any interruption to your care if there are cuts to Medicaid. 'Check with your healthcare provider to see if they might cut back on services or cease accepting Medicaid-funded patients, and contact any nursing home where you or a loved one may reside to find out if they will be reducing the number of patients they can support — or even [if they are] possibly planning to close,' Orestis said. Knowing this ahead of time will allow you to find alternative care providers before it's too late. Learn More: If you are reliant on SNAP, start searching for alternatives that may be able to provide food assistance in the event your benefits are reduced or cut. 'Make sure you know where there are local support services through community or faith-based organizations to replace lost access through SNAP,' Orestis said. Many retirees plan to 'spend down' their savings so that they qualify for Medicaid to pay for their long-term care. However, this may no longer be a viable option. 'If you are considering going onto Medicaid for long-term care and are preparing to engage the 'spend down' process to impoverish yourself and get below the poverty level to qualify, you may want to reconsider that strategy, and instead look to leverage private pay resources to pay for your care,' Orestis said. 'If you are on Medicaid, you will primarily be reliant on nursing homes for your care, and their ability to withstand these cuts will be very challenging and up in the air,' he continued. 'If you are private pay, you are in control and can decide where and when you will receive care, such as at home or an assisted living community not funded by Medicaid.' Strategies to stay private pay for long-term care would include long-term care insurance, annuities, a life insurance settlement, a reverse mortgage or VA benefits. Editor's note on political coverage: GOBankingRates is nonpartisan and strives to cover all aspects of the economy objectively and present balanced reports on politically focused finance stories. You can find more coverage of this topic on More From GOBankingRates Clever Ways To Save Money That Actually Work in 2025 This article originally appeared on Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' Would Slash Medicaid & SNAP: 3 Moves Retirees Should Make Now
