State Fair Shows Strengths and Weaknesses of Each Party Heading Toward November
House Republican Leader Tony McCombie (R-Savanna) speaks to media on Republican Day at the Illinois State Fair Thursday.
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If you didn’t already know Democrats in Illinois are full of confidence and maybe even a little hubris and that Republicans are divided underdogs, those stereotypes were fully exacerbated at this week’s Illinois State Fair.
While the political days at the Fair don’t hold quite the same importance as decades gone by, it still serves as a barometer for enthusiasm and organization of each party headed into the fall campaign.
It’s certainly no surprise with the governor’s office, all of the statewide constitutional offices, both U.S. Senate seats, 14 of 17 congressional seats, and supermajorities in both chambers of the General Assembly, Democrats have plenty to pat themselves on the back for.
The Illinois Democratic County Chair’s brunch, which grew out of tensions between local parties and former House Speaker Michael Madigan’s state party apparatus, remained the largest political event of the Fair, drawing more than 1,500 attendees to the BOS Center in downtown Springfield.
There, Democratic politicians like Governor JB Pritzker went through a laundry list of their legislative accomplishments, like raising the minimum wage, passing a workers’ rights amendments, and codifying abortion rights in state law, noting Republicans opposed each issue.
"It's embarrassing for them," Pritzker prodded Wednesday morning. "It's no wonder the Illinois GOP is a super minority party."
Others, like Sente President Don Harmon, pointed to “financially responsible” governing that has made the legislature “approaching boring,” though he may have forgotten how session ended in the House in May.
The Director’s Lawn rally later Wednesday included short speeches from the statewide elected Democrats, all mostly singing their own praises and prodding Republicans and the top of their national ticket.
"They have a 34-time convicted fraudster at the head of their ticket," Pritzker said, referring to former President Donald Trump.
Earlier this week, Trump had called Pritzker a “loser” in his Twitter interview with Elon Musk. Pritzker responded when asked by reporters.
"As I recall, I won by 16 points in my first election, by 12-and-a-half points in in my second election, we're gonna have Kamala Harris winning this race all over the country," Pritzker said. "We know who the winners are and Donald Trump is the loser."
Meanwhile, Republicans Thursday attempted to turn the page on multiple years of division inside the party’s infrastructure and attempted to show itself as a contender around the state in November.
But, while the Illinois GOP has mostly tended to take a more gentle approach to Trump, dating back to then-Gov. Bruce Rauner’s avoidance of Trump in the 2016 race, Illinois Republicans fully embraced the MAGA Thursday.
“We’re on a mission to elect Trump-Vance and everyone down ticket,” new Illinois GOP Chair Kathy Salvi said at a GOP breakfast Thursday morning. “We’ve got to figure out a way to bring people together. There’s no better way to do that than bridging these gaps.”
The GOP Director’s Lawn rally was delayed 45 minutes and scaled back after a rain shower passed over the Fairgrounds.
“Does Illinois need a little bit of sane governance?” Salvi asked rhetorically in an enthusiastic, if not meandering, speech. “This is my pledge: to help communicate and restore sanity to our Illinois Capitol. All of you bring that, but some of the people who get under that dome, somehow, they lose their common sense. That’s what voters want.”
Salvi said Republicans are running to stop crime, attack the cost of living, and to stop the “export” of corruption from Illinois politicians.
House Republican leader Tony McCombie (R-Savanna) claimed Democrats were trying to allow felons to vote, a right they already have in Illinois if not currently incarcerated.
“Democrats have been working for years to try to convince the people of Illinois and our nation that the Republican Party does not believe in democracy,” she said. “But yet, Democrats want noncitizens and felons, I’m sorry, I mean justice-impacted individuals to vote.”
There have been legislative proposals by Democrats to allow voting in county jails or prisons, but, so far, the issue hasn’t picked up much legislative steam.
What McCombie didn’t mention, though, was Trump, the leader of the GOP, was convicted earlier this year on 34-counts of felony business fraud.
While McCombie has previously said she expects House Republicans to pick up seats in November, even though they’re defending seven seats won by President Biden in 2020 and lack financial resources compared to Democrats, she alluded Thursday that 2024 may be more about setting the stage for 2026.
“This is about the Republican turnout, because for us, it's about the next governor's race,” McCombie said. “If we can show that we have a great turnout, we are going to get a great Republican candidate. Because you're right, that map doesn't matter. We will turn the state around. I promise you that it might not happen next this year, but it is going to start happening.”