Illinois conservatives woke up yesterday to a rally that looked and felt like the beginning of a fight for the state’s future. Darren Bailey officially kicked off his second run for governor with a three-stop launch that brought him to The Drake in Oak Brook, and the energy on the ground made one thing clear: working people are tired of being talked down to by elites in Springfield.
Bailey didn’t come alone — he named Cook County Republican Party Chair Aaron Del Mar as his running mate, a bold signal that this campaign intends to take the suburbs and the city seriously instead of writing them off. Voters watching should understand this is a campaign organized to win, not just to posture for cable TV.
At the heart of Bailey’s message is raw, American common sense: taxes are crushing families, opportunity is fleeing the state, and Chicago neighborhoods are being neglected while political theater plays out in the governor’s mansion. Bailey promised an affordability-first agenda that centers job growth, tax relief, and putting parents and small businesses, not bureaucrats or donors, back in charge.
In an interview with conservative media, Bailey even recounted a private early-morning exchange with J.B. Pritzker on Inauguration Day 2019 — a story he used to underline how promises from the political class too often mean nothing once the checks clear. That account was given in a sit-down with Gary Franchi of the Next News Network and has been repeated by the campaign, and it should make everyday Illinoisans ask a simple question: who is really fighting for you?
Make no mistake — this is a contrast between a billionaire governor who preens for national headlines and a candidate who says he’s lived paycheck-to-paycheck like the families he represents. Bailey’s campaign rightly frames Pritzker’s record as out of touch with the struggles of working people, and voters deserve to hear that contrast plainly and repeatedly.
On the most serious issue of all — public safety — Bailey put country before party and said he would work with any president to keep Illinoisans safe, a fight-or-unite posture Republicans ought to own. Chicago’s Labor Day weekend bloodshed, which left multiple people shot and eight killed, is the grim proof that the status quo is failing families and children on the city’s streets. Bailey’s willingness to cooperate on concrete safety solutions is the kind of leadership that beats performative politics.
For families thinking of packing up and running to greener pastures, Bailey’s message was unapologetic: don’t give up your home to corrupt or indifferent politicians. He warned that surrender is how states die — and pledged to restore the economy, control taxes, and protect neighborhoods so that Floridas and Texases don’t keep winning the people Illinois built the nation with. This is not nostalgia; it’s a plan to keep communities intact and prosperous.
If you watched the kickoff you saw what the establishment doesn’t want you to see — real people fed up with being told their pain is a talking point while elites cash checks and virtue-signal. Liberal activists can shout their slogans outside the ballroom, but that won’t fill a gas tank or fix a broken school; real leadership listens to families and then gets to work.
This campaign offers a stark choice: more billionaire governance that prioritizes image and influence, or leadership that puts working Americans first and actually fights for safe streets, fair taxes, and opportunity. Darren Bailey is throwing down the gauntlet — and hardworking Illinoisans should answer it, stand up for their towns, and demand a governor who remembers who they serve.
