Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, won a third term in office Tuesday, defeating Republican Darren Bailey for the second straight gubernatorial election.
The Associated Press called the race for Pritzker at 7 p.m. With less than one percent of the vote counted at that point, Pritzker had 70 percent of the vote, or 13,210 votes, to Bailey’s 26.6 percent, or 5,025 votes. Independent candidate Collin Corbett received 3.3 percent, or 632 votes.
This marks the second time Pritzker has defeated Bailey in a gubernatorial contest. In 2022, Pritzker won with 54.91 percent of the vote, or 2,253,748 votes, compared to Bailey’s 42.37 percent, or 1,739,095 votes. In that race, Bailey focused much of his campaign on criticizing Pritzker’s criminal justice record, especially the SAFE-T Act, which ended cash bail and placed new restrictions on police use of force. Bailey had pledged to repeal the law, arguing it made it harder to prosecute accomplices in murder cases and allowed anonymous, unsworn complaints against police officers.
Pritzker’s recent remarks on Trump
In the months leading up to the election, Pritzker was a vocal critic of President Donald Trump. During a September 20 appearance on ABC’s This Week, he called Trump’s administration “the most corrupt presidency that we’ve seen in our lifetimes, maybe ever in the United States,” and alleged that Trump and administration officials were financially benefiting from their positions.
“[Trump’s] essentially stealing from the American public and certainly making money, making decisions that shouldn’t be made, so that he can put money in his pockets and he can put money in his own family’s pockets,” Pritzker said.
Pritzker suggested Democrats could make corruption allegations a central theme of their midterm campaigns, adding, “We ought to be pushing back and holding him accountable.”
Earlier, during a September 9 appearance on CNN’s The Arena, Pritzker raised the possibility that Trump could send Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection agents to polling places during the midterms. “And I expect that he may try to do that. They’ll be wearing camouflage uniforms. They’ll be carrying automatic weapons like they did when they invaded our city before,” he said.
Pritzker also pointed to Illinois’ successful legal fight against the deployment of National Guard troops in the state, saying, “We won in the Supreme Court to prevent him from sending the National Guard into our streets. We can’t prevent him from sending CBP and ICE.” He said protecting voting access was a core responsibility of state leaders: “What our job is as governors and in our states is to protect people’s right to vote,” and called for state or party organizations to escort voters to the polls.
