THE VOTERS CHOSE BAILEY. DURKIN CHOSE PRITZKER. WHOSE PARTY IS IT, ANYWAY?

Illinois Republicans were promised a fight for change. Now their former House leader is helping the Democratic governor stay in power, while voters demand to know whether their own party will fight for the nominee they chose.

By Staff Writer | October 5, 2026

Republican voters chose Darren Bailey to challenge J.B. Pritzker. Jim Durkin chose to help Pritzker defeat him.

Less than a month before Election Day, the former Illinois House Republican leader appeared in the Democratic governor’s campaign video, rejecting his own party’s nominee and supporting another four years for the incumbent.

For Illinoisans who want a different direction, it is a bitter collision. They are being asked to volunteer, donate and vote for change while a man who once led the Republican opposition helps sell the continuation of Democratic power.

Pritzker gets a campaign weapon. Durkin gets a platform. The voters who chose Bailey get told their candidate is not worth supporting.

And the party that keeps asking those voters for loyalty faces a question it can no longer answer with another fundraising appeal.

Whose choice matters: the voters’ or the insiders’?

Durkin’s criticism was blunt.

“His politics don’t work for me, nor the Republican Party I know. He’s never accomplished anything for Illinois and he’s not cut out for the job.”

— Jim Durkin, former Illinois House Republican leader.

“The Republican Party I know.”

Those words reach beyond Bailey. They expose a struggle over who gets to define the party and what happens when its voters choose a direction prominent leaders reject.

Republican voters know a party, too. They know years of promises to challenge Democratic control. They know the donation requests, the election warnings and the assurances that their participation matters.

Now they are watching one of the people who once carried those promises appear in the opposing governor’s campaign.

Durkin says Bailey cannot deliver. Voters have every reason to ask what Durkin’s own leadership delivered, and why his answer to Illinois’ problems is another Pritzker term.

Bailey’s response captured the anger behind that question.

“Jim Durkin and J.B. Pritzker, they don’t give a damn about you and they don’t give a damn about anyone in the state of Illinois. And I’m really angry and frustrated about that.”

— Darren Bailey, Republican nominee for Illinois governor.

That frustration will sound familiar to citizens who feel their concerns are heard during campaigns and forgotten afterward.

They worry about household costs, taxes, public safety and whether their children will find opportunity close to home. They want those concerns to drive the election. Instead, they are watching a former Republican leader help the Democratic incumbent argue against the challenger they selected.

For those voters, this endorsement is personal in a way a television campaign may underestimate. It questions the judgment they exercised at the ballot box.

Pritzker’s campaign promptly released a video promoting Durkin’s support. The endorsement arrived ready to become part of the governor’s reelection message, raising a clear question about when the discussions began and how the rollout was arranged.

Pritzker has said the endorsement was offered to him. Bailey has accused Durkin of looking toward a cabinet appointment in a potential future Pritzker presidential administration.

The political cooperation is already visible. Durkin is lending his Republican credentials to the Democratic governor’s case for staying in office.

Illinois Republican Party Chairman Bob Grogan responded with a sweeping condemnation.

“JB Pritzker’s two-terms as Illinois governor have been a complete and total failure as he raised our taxes over and over, championed illegal immigrants and passed the most bloated state budget in history. This is who opportunists in search of relevance like Jim Durkin have aligned themselves with and is further proof that the only way to save Illinois is by electing new, strong leadership like Darren Bailey.”

— Bob Grogan, Illinois Republican Party chairman.

Grogan’s statement leaves little room for ambiguity about his position. He says Illinois needs Bailey.

Republican voters can now ask whether the party’s actions carry the same urgency as its words.

One response went directly to that point.

“So has Bob Grogan thrown any money from IL Republican Party in the direction of the Bailey-Del Mar campaign?”

— Marty Basak.

That is the question leadership should expect from people being asked to contribute their own money and time.

How much assistance is the statewide ticket receiving? What voter outreach is underway? Where are party resources going, and why?

Durkin is helping Pritzker make his case. Bailey’s supporters deserve to know what their party is doing to help make theirs.

The Illinois Freedom Caucus condemned Durkin’s endorsement and pointed to his support for tax increases and firearm restrictions, including the semiautomatic rifle ban. Bailey challenged his support for the 2019 gas tax increase.

Those disputes give the endorsement a history. For Republicans who opposed those policies, Durkin’s decision confirms a divide they believe has existed for years: They wanted stronger opposition to the Democratic agenda than their leadership provided.

Now Durkin is praising the governor associated with policies they wanted Republicans to resist.

That is where attorney Thomas DeVore’s criticism hits hardest. He challenges the premise that Bailey explains the Republican Party’s decline.

DeVore, the party’s 2022 nominee for attorney general, argues that Durkin is blaming the voters’ choice for a problem that took shape during the years Durkin himself helped lead the party.

His argument centers on DuPage County, a former Republican stronghold in the suburban region Durkin represented.

According to DeVore’s analysis, Republican midterm participation there fell from 175,223 in 1998 to 138,667 in 2022, while Democratic participation rose from 71,055 to 190,601. He places the crossover in 2018, during Durkin’s tenure as House Republican leader and four years before Bailey first ran for governor.

The chronology matters.

If the erosion of Republican strength preceded Bailey’s gubernatorial candidacy, Bailey cannot explain the whole failure. Durkin’s leadership and the party’s organizing strategy belong in that discussion, too.

“One party organized them and the other party held dinners.”

— Thomas DeVore, attorney and former Republican attorney general nominee.

DeVore then turns Durkin’s argument about a wasted vote into a challenge about votes Republicans failed to mobilize.

His analysis identifies a modeled Republican electorate of 252,406 in DuPage County and says 113,739 people in that group did not participate in the 2022 midterm. He says 52,576 voted in the 2024 presidential election after skipping the midterm.

His contention is that Republican leadership has an organizing opportunity it has failed to seize.

That is a far more consequential argument than another exchange of insults. Durkin says Bailey is the wrong candidate. DeVore says the leadership blaming Bailey has failed to bring potential Republican voters into the election.

Those competing explanations demand scrutiny because they lead to very different actions.

One tells Republicans to abandon their nominee. The other tells Republican leaders to do the work of reaching voters.

And this year, Durkin has chosen to spend his political credibility helping Pritzker.

For a Republican voter deciding whether to participate, the contradiction is difficult to miss. The party asks for a vote to challenge Democratic control while its former leader tells voters to extend it.

How does that build confidence? How does it motivate the volunteer making calls after work or the donor who cannot afford much but contributes anyway?

The governor benefits from every Republican argument against Bailey. He benefits again if frustrated Republican voters decide there is no point in showing up.

Meanwhile, Pritzker still owes Illinoisans an accounting of his own record. A Republican endorsement cannot answer a family’s question about affordability, a community’s concern about safety or an employer’s worry about the cost of doing business.

Democrats hold the governor’s office and legislative supermajorities. They have the power to shape policy and the responsibility to defend its consequences.

Republicans have the responsibility to offer a credible alternative and demonstrate a serious effort to elect it.

Citizens bear the cost when the governing party fails to deliver or the opposition fails to compete. They should not have to accept excuses from either.

That brings this election back to the people whose interests can disappear beneath the endorsements and personal attacks.

They can ask Pritzker what another term will improve in their daily lives. They can ask Durkin why the governor deserves it. They can ask Grogan what the Republican Party is committing to defeat him.

Those are direct questions. They deserve direct answers before November 3.

Durkin has made his choice. The voters still have theirs.

They can insist that the nominee they selected receives a serious campaign effort. They can judge the governor by his record rather than his endorsements. They can demand that party leaders account for the money, trust and authority placed in their hands.

The public does not owe Illinois’ political establishment another comfortable election.

Before asking citizens for another vote, another donation or another four years, both parties should answer the question this endorsement has made impossible to ignore.

When the people asked for change, what did you do to help them get it?

Official and Primary Sources

• Illinois State Board of Elections, November 3, 2026, general election information.

• JB for Governor, “WATCH: Republican Leader Jim Durkin Endorses Governor JB Pritzker,” campaign announcement and endorsement video.

• Illinois Republican Party, Chairman Bob Grogan’s full statement responding to Jim Durkin’s endorsement.

• Illinois Freedom Caucus, public statement concerning Durkin’s endorsement and legislative record.

• Thomas DeVore, public commentary and DuPage County voter analysis.

• Marty Basak, public response to the Illinois Republican Party statement.

Secondary Sources

• The Center Square, “Former House GOP leader endorses Pritzker, Bailey critical of retired top-dog,” October 5, 2026.

• Chicago Sun-Times, Mitchell Armentrout, “Former Illinois House GOP Leader Jim Durkin crosses party line to endorse Gov. JB Pritzker over Darren Bailey,” October 5, 2026.