SPRINGFIELD — For years, Ted Dabrowski wielded influence behind the scenes in Illinois Republican circles, serving as a go-to source for conservative research and commentary through his stewardship of thinktanks Wirepoints and the Illinois Policy Institute.

With Republicans largely relegated to the policymaking sidelines in Democrat-dominated Springfield, Dabrowski’s efforts have mostly proven an academic exercise.

That could change this year.

The 62-year-old conservative policy wonk is stepping out from the background and into the political limelight, placing his name on the ballot for the first time as one of four GOP candidates vying to deny Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker a third term.

“I’ve tried to put out solutions; I’ve exposed the problems,” Dabrowski told Capitol News Illinois in an interview. “I’ve been traveling the state, working with legislators, working with grassroots groups and I finally said, ‘Look, I can’t keep watching what’s happening. I got to get off the sideline and get in the game.’”

The son of a Polish immigrant father and Ecuadorian immigrant mother, Dabrowski spent two decades in banking, including stints in Mexico and Poland for Citibank.

He became vice president of the conservative Illinois Policy Institute in 2011 and president of Wirepoints in 2017. In the latter role, Dabrowski published reports on a range of major public policy issues like taxes, pensions, education, immigration and crime. He stepped down upon the launch of his campaign last fall.

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In a podcast interview for Capitol News Illinois’ election series, Dabrowski laid out his policy positions, divulging that he’d like to reduce the state income tax to 3% from 4.95% and would like to limit local taxing bodies’ ability to raise revenue locally. Capitol News Illinois will publish a feature and full interview with each of the four GOP governor candidates in the coming weeks.

Dabrowski, of Wilmette, said he is the strongest candidate to take on Pritzker, claiming he can win back the suburban voters necessary for a Republican to win statewide while still pledging allegiance to conservative policy positions he says are “common sense.”

‘Common sense’ policies

Illinois Republicans’ once tried-and-true method for winning statewide elections was blending fiscal conservatism with social moderation — a reflection that the party’s conservative base alone wasn’t large enough to win.

But, in an era of heightened political polarization and Republican dissent from Trump not tolerated, the state party now essentially mirrors the national party.

Dabrowski’s positions are uncompromisingly conservative, though he believes them to be within the confines of “common sense.” And he is placing a bet on voters rendering a judgement that Pritzker’s policies over the past seven years have been “too extreme.”

As examples, Dabrowski pointed to a new state law allowing terminally ill Illinoisans to end their lives with physician-prescribed medication, the state’s policy of not cooperating with the federal government on civil immigration enforcement and exceptions allowing for abortions after fetal viability.

“The things I stand for, I think we’re going to have more than 50% agree with me in Illinois, and that’s why I’m running,” Dabrowski said.

Still, Trump presents a challenge for Republicans running in Illinois. The president’s approval rating in the state sits at just 39%, according to the Emerson poll, while Pritzker is at 51%.

Dabrowski acknowledged that the president “is not as popular in Illinois as he is in other states.” He largely agrees with Trump’s positions, particularly on immigration. But he does not believe this will hamper his chances, instead focusing on Illinois-centric issues.

“We’ve got the highest property taxes in the country. Trump didn’t do that,” Dabrowski said. “That’s done by Democrats and Pritzker.”

The state doesn’t levy property taxes — a function of local governments like municipalities and school boards. Property taxes are the main funding source for K-12 education in the state, and decades of state government underfunding have often forced local taxing bodies to make up lost revenues by increasing property taxes.

To that end, Dabrowski is proposing a phased capping of Illinois’ property tax rates at 1% of a home’s value. According to the Tax Foundation, Illinois’ effective property tax rate is 1.83%, the highest rates in the country.

He said he believed the reduction wouldn’t harm schools, arguing Illinois presently spends more per pupil than surrounding states for worse academic outcomes. He also said savings could be found in consolidating some of state’s nearly 900 school districts.

Read more: Bailey proposes ‘Illinois DOGE’ as Republican governor’s race focuses on spending | Illinois to withhold nearly $500M in spending, citing federal uncertainty

Dabrowski also told Capitol News Illinois that he would seek to lower the state’s individual income tax rate from 4.95% to 3% — the rate from 1990 to 2010. It dropped to 3.75% from 2015 to 2017 when a temporary hike expired during the two-year budget impasse. In the two-year period the rate was reduced, the state drastically cut social services as its backlog of unpaid bills ballooned to over $16 billion. Lawmakers raised the rate back to 4.95% in 2017, and as of Friday, that number dropped to just over $2 billion, fitting into a standard 30-day billing cycle.

He did not say specifically what cuts would offset lost tax revenue, instead suggesting that it reflects the need for “a cultural shift” in state government.

Like his GOP opponents, Dabrowski said he will audit all state spending to root out waste, fraud and abuse. He said that Illinois has “had that same massive ballooning of expenses” as has been seen in Minnesota, which was rocked by a massive fraud scheme targeting the state’s generous social welfare programs. Dabrowski acknowledged, however, that he did not have any specific evidence to support claims of corruption in Illinois state agencies.

“We should be a top-five state, and we’re not,” Dabrowski said. “And under Gov. Pritzker, we’re a bottom-five state in job creation and economic growth (and) in wage growth. That’s a failure.”

Building a coalition

To win the nomination, Dabrowski will have to get past the party’s 2022 nominee, former state Sen. Darren Bailey, as well as video gambling mogul Rick Heidner and DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick. To win the general election, he’ll have to get through Pritzker, a self-funding billionaire who’s believed to have 2028 presidential ambitions.

But Dabrowski believes himself uniquely qualified to unite the often-warring factions of the Illinois Republican Party, raise the resources necessary to compete with Pritzker and ultimately win enough independents and moderate Democrats in Chicago and the suburbs to prevail statewide.

Read more: Few fireworks as Illinois GOP governor hopefuls share stage for first time | How to vote in Illinois in 2026: Early voting begins this week for most of the state

“I’m the only one building a broad coalition,” Dabrowski said. “If you look at the coalition of donors I’ve put together, if you look at the coalition of grassroots, if you look at the support and endorsements that I’m getting, nobody else is doing that.”

Dabrowski leads in fundraising, having pulled in nearly $1.8 million mostly from a handful of wealthy donors. And he’s lined up support from key players in the state GOP, including conservative megadonor Richard Uihlein and former state Rep. Jeanne Ives. Both backed Bailey in 2022. He’s also won the endorsements of dozens of Republican state lawmakers.

“When you thoughtfully consider who has the ability to win new voters, repair our state, attract support statewide and unite our party, the choice is clear, period,” said state Rep. Travis Weaver, R-Peoria, upon endorsing Dabrowski in January.

Whether that coalescing of the party’s establishment translates into votes remains an open question. Bailey has strong residual name recognition from his failed 2022 gubernatorial run and remains the frontrunner. An Emerson College poll last month placed Dabrowski in distant second with just 8% support to Bailey’s 34%.

But nearly half of GOP voters surveyed told the pollster they were undecided, suggesting they are open to an alternative to known-commodity Bailey.

‘Nothing’s changed in 2026’

For Dabrowski, the argument against Bailey isn’t policy driven. All four GOP candidates share similar conservative positions on the major issues. It’s all about electability.

He hammered this message in a recent campaign ad featuring news coverage of Pritzker being declared the winner of the 2022 governor’s race over Bailey just seconds after the polls closed. A scrolling message then reads that the 12-percentage-point, half-million-vote loss “wasn’t even close” and that “nothing’s changed in 2026.”

“This year, we don’t need to hope for a miracle… There’s one candidate that can beat JB Pritzker…” the scroll reads before flashing Dabrowski’s campaign logo.

Dabrowski said he’s “working on” building his name recognition and believes his support will grow once voters know more about him. He thinks he can crack the code in the Chicago suburbs, once the bedrock of the state’s GOP but has shifted solidly Democratic over the past decade under Trump and the party’s increasingly rigid conservatism on social issues like abortion and gun rights.

Dabrowski and his running mate, emergency room physician Carrie Mendoza, both live in the Chicago suburbs. He told the Chicago Tribune editorial board last month that it’s easier for them — “professionals” — to resonate with voters in the most populous part of the state than Bailey, a farmer from southern Illinois who speaks with a twang.

“Look, in Illinois, if I’m going to win over people to support a Republican, we have to be persuasive, logical, reasonable and fact-based,” Dabrowski said – “not hyperbolic.”

Public safety

On public safety, Dabrowski said he would repeal the SAFE-T Act, the 2021 law that eliminated cash bail as a condition of pretrial release. He argued the law “attracted criminals” to the state. However, mirroring national trends, violent crime has been declining in Illinois over the past few years. Chicago, for example, posted its lowest violent crime rate in a decade in 2025, with murders hitting a 60-year low.

Dabrowski also supports repealing the state’s TRUST Act, which prohibits state and local law enforcement agencies from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement unless presented with a valid judicial warrant.

He blamed Pritzker for the federal government’s aggressive immigration enforcement operation in Chicago last fall, arguing unauthorized immigrants being held in the state’s jails and prisons should be turned over to federal immigration officers.

“We wouldn’t be chasing them on the streets and creating all the havoc,” Dabrowski said. “I as governor would work with the federal authorities and just hand over these bad guys.”

Several analyses of Immigration and Customs Enforcement data reveal, however, nearly all immigrants arrested during Operation Midway Blitz did not have a criminal record.

If elected, Dabrowski would likely face a Democratic-led legislature. He said he would work to persuade lawmakers that his policies are best for the state. And, of course, he’ll provide the numbers to back up his arguments.

“I’ve earned the respect and trust, I think, of people on both sides,” Dabrowski said. “Doesn’t mean they always agree with me, but they know that I’m data-centric.”

Ben Szalinski contributed.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.