DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick seeking GOP bid for Illinois governor in 2026
James Mendrick, who has been DuPage County sheriff since late 2018, announced Thursday he intends to run for the Republican nomination for Illinois governor in 2026 and not seek a third term as sheriff of the state's second-largest county.
In a post on his political campaign's Facebook page, Mendrick played up his law-and-order credentials and noted his accomplishments as sheriff, writing, 'This was a very hard decision to make.'
'I will bring safety, security and fairness to the city of Chicago and the rest of our State,' he wrote. 'Our culture is being eliminated by senseless laws created by our current government that persecutes cops and empowers criminals. I'm here to stop the bleed.'
Mendrick, of Woodridge, becomes the first candidate to formally announce an intent to run in the 2026 governor's contest, just shy of a year until the March 2026 primary. But he's unlikely to be the only GOP contender.
Aaron Del Mar of Palatine, a member of the state GOP's central committee and an unsuccessful 2022 candidate for lieutenant governor, has expressed interest in running, as has former state lawmaker Jeanne Ives of Wheaton. Ives, also a member of the GOP central committee, lost a 2018 primary bid for governor.
Two-term Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker, a billionaire who has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to twice be elected to the state's highest office, has yet to reveal if he intends to seek a third term.
Regardless of whether Pritzker seeks reelection, Mendrick faces the need to raise both his personal profile and campaign cash.
A member of the DuPage County sheriff's office for about 30 years, including his six so far as sheriff, Mendrick is little-known outside law enforcement circles and county Republican politics. His sheriff's campaign fund, the only one he currently has, began the year with just $87,377.
As sheriff, Mendrick oversees the DuPage County Jail. While touting his rehabilitation and drug treatment efforts at the jail, Mendrick also lashed out at the state's SAFE-T Act, which eliminates cash bail for nonviolent offenders, and sanctuary laws that protect noncitizen immigrants by barring local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities.
In his social media post declaring his plan to run for governor, Mendrick also wrote that in his years as sheriff he's routinely questioned people and asked them if they think DuPage should be more like Chicago or if Chicago should 'be more like DuPage County and assimilate our attributes.' He said 'every single answer' he's received has been DuPage.
'We are DuPage strong. Let's be Illinois strong! What we have done can be done Statewide. Don't let them put you to sleep with 'it's always been this way' talk. We need a secure future for our State and we will make Chicago and Illinois safe again,' he wrote.
Mendrick has faced controversy as DuPage County, once a hotbed of suburban Republicanism, has seen its demographics increasingly shift toward Democrats who control the County Board. He was among several county sheriffs who said he would not enforce provisions of the state's ban on the possession of certain high-powered semiautomatic weapons.
Last year, a downstate federal judge ruled the gun ban violated the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, but the law remains intact while the state contests the ruling before the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago.
At a February 2023 meeting of Wayne Township Republicans, Mendrick lashed out at the law as 'garbage' and an example of Democratic ideology and 'a furtherance of their socialist agenda.'
'This is a pattern, people. This is a pattern of taking away your freedom. It's a pattern toward socialism. It's a pattern of taking away everything that you know. Look at the economy. Look at what's going on in your schools. Look what's going on in law enforcement. I mean, is there a realm I am missing that they didn't touch? Your entire way of life is changing,' Mendrick said to an audience of about 35 people.
'I don't care if the Democrats hate me and the media hates me. Do you really think I'm gonna get their votes anyway? I mean, really. And this is the Republican problem. A lot will be, 'Oh, I'm so sorry. Let me join with …'' he told the GOP group. 'No. Absolutely not. Hold firm. Do your job. Be a Republican. And don't waver to these people just because they're crying and screaming at you.'
At the township meeting, Mendrick also condemned Democrats for 'the way they've taken God out of society' and 'erasing history.'
'I am going to say it right now. I'm a strong believer in God. I believe that's how I get to where I go,' he said.
Chicago Tribune's Jeremy Gorner contributed.
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Politico
19 minutes ago
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Suspect still being sought in shooting of 2 Minnesota state lawmakers
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Boelter was appointed to the workforce development board in 2016 and then reappointed in 2019 to a four-year term that expired in 2023, state records show. Corporate records show Boelter's wife filed to create a company called Praetorian Guard Security Services LLC with the same Green Isle mailing address listed for the couple. Boelter's wife is listed as president and CEO and he is listed as director of security patrols on the company's website. The website says the company provides armed security for property and events and features a photo of an SUV painted in a two-tone black and silver pattern similar to a police vehicle. Another photo shows a man in black tactical gear with a military-style helmet and a ballistic vest. An online resume says Boelter is a security contractor who has worked in the Middle East and Africa, in addition to past managerial roles at companies in Minnesota. 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In July 2024, Trump was grazed on the ear by one of a hail of bullets that killed a Trump supporter. Two months later a man with a rifle was discovered near the president's Florida golf course and arrested. Other incidents include a 2022 hammer attack on the husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in their San Francisco home and a 2020 plot by anti-government extremists to kidnap Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and start a civil war. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said he asked Capitol Police to 'immediately increase security' for Minnesota Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith. He also asked Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican, to hold a briefing on member security.
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31 minutes ago
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The GOP's big bill would bring changes to Medicaid for millions
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What's in the bill House Republicans wrote the bill with instructions to find $880 billion in cuts from programs under the purview of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which has a sprawling jurisdiction that includes Medicaid. In the version of the bill that the House passed on a party-line vote last month, the overall cuts ended up exceeding that number. The Kaiser Family Foundation projects that the bill will result in a $793 billion reduction in spending on Medicaid. Additionally, the House Ways & Means Committee, which handles federal tax policy, imposed a freeze on a health care provider tax that many states impose. Critics say the tax improperly boosts federal Medicaid payments to the states, but supporters like Hawley say it's important funding for rural hospitals. 'What we're doing here is an important and, frankly, heroic thing to preserve the program so that it doesn't become insolvent,' Speaker Mike Johnson said on NBC's 'Meet the Press.' 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Politico
31 minutes ago
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Minnesota's slain Democratic leader lived the political divisions in the US every day
MINNEAPOLIS — Americans talk constantly about how their country is split down the middle politically. Melissa Hortman lived that every day as a Minnesota House member. Her unique perspective on politics came from her job as the House's top Democrat and its unusual challenge. She had to defend liberal priorities in a chamber divided 67-67 between Democrats and Republicans while working to see that the even split didn't keep the Legislature from funding state government. She and her husband were shot to death early Saturday in their Minneapolis-area home in what authorities are calling an act of political violence. Another prominent area lawmaker, state Sen. John Hoffman, was shot and wounded, along with his wife, in their home about 15 minutes away. Hortman had served as House speaker for six years when the 2024 elections cost Democrats their slim majority. She led fellow Democrats in boycotting House sessions for almost a month, starting in mid-January, to prevent the GOP from using a temporary vacancy in a Democratic seat to cement control over the chamber, forcing Republicans into sharing power. She wanted to protect state health coverage for adult immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, a liberal policy enacted on her watch as speaker in 2023. But when the only budget deal that she could broker included a GOP bill to cut that coverage, she provided the single Democratic vote in the House, securing its passage so that state government would remain funded for the next two years. 'She battled fiercely, but never let it impact the personal bond that we developed serving as caucus leaders,' GOP House Speaker Lisa Demuth said in a statement. 'I am beyond heartbroken by her loss.' The shootings shocked a state that prides its politics as being 'Minnesota nice,' even despite higher partisan tensions in recent years. To outsiders, Minnesota looks blue. The state hasn't voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 1972, and all of its statewide elected officials are Democrats. Yet the Legislature is now almost evenly split, with Democrats clinging to a 34-33 majority in the Senate. Republicans are still frustrated with how Democrats used their slim majorities in both chambers in 2023 and 2024 to roll over them and enact a sweeping liberal agenda. In 2023, Democrats had an ambitious wish list and passed practically everything on it, with Hortman a key player. The measures included expanded abortion and trans rights, paid family and medical leave, universal free school lunches, child care credits and other aid for families. But on Saturday, the mourning for Hortman, Hoffman and their families was bipartisan. Hoffman, 60, is chair of the Senate Human Services Committee, which oversees one of the biggest parts of the state budget. He lives in Champlin, in the northwest part of the Minneapolis area, and owns a consulting firm, and he and his wife, Yvette, had one daughter. He previously was marketing and public relations director for a nonprofit provider of employment services for people with mental illnesses and intellectual and developmental disabilities and supervised a juvenile detention center in Iowa. He was first elected to the Senate in 2012. In 2023, Hoffman supported budget legislation that extended the state MinnesotaCare health program to immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, starting this year. On Monday, he voted against a bill to end that coverage for adults on Jan. 1 — a GOP goal that was a key part of the budget agreement that Hortman helped broker. Last year, Hoffman sponsored a bill designed to prevent courts from blocking people with disabilities from adopting children, and in 2023, he proposed an amendment to the state constitution to create a fund to pay for long-term care by taxing the Social Security benefits of the state's wealthiest residents. Hortman had served as the House Democrats' leader since 2017, and six years as speaker, starting in 2019. Under a power-sharing deal, her title became speaker emerita. She and her husband, Mark, lived in Brooklyn Park, another suburb in the northwest part of the Minneapolis area. They had two adult children. A lawyer, she twice lost races for the House before first winning her seat in 2004. U.S. Sen. and Minnesota Democrat Amy Klobuchar recalled campaigning door to door that year with Hortman, when Klobuchar was the elected chief prosecutor for Hennepin County, which includes Minneapolis. Klobuchar praised Hortman's support for free school lunches, women's rights and clean energy, calling her 'a true public servant to the core.' Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, who attended the University of Minnesota's law school with Hortman, said: 'She was smart, savvy, strategic, kind, funny, brave, and determined.' Hortman became part of the Democrats' legislative leadership team in 2007, then House minority leader in 2017, before Democrats recaptured a House majority in 2019. Her proposals included state emission standards like ones imposed in California and a ban on the sale of products containing mercury. She also proposed studying the feasibility of ending state investments in fossil fuel companies. Demuth, the current Republican House speaker, said Hortman was a nationally recognized expert on energy policy. 'She wasn't only a leader — she was a damn good legislator, and Minnesotans everywhere will suffer because of this loss,' said Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin, a former Minnesota state party chair and a friend of Hortman's.
