Article Summary
- DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick is one of four candidates seeking the Republican nomination for governor in the March 17 primary.
- Mendrick has been a vocal critic of the state’s SAFE-T Act and the elimination of cash bail, as well as its policy toward immigration enforcement
- Mendrick says public schools should return to focusing on teaching basic skills such as reading, writing and math, and that they should have to compete with private schools for enrollment.
This summary was written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
SPRINGFIELD — In February 2025, DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick announced on social media that he was running for the Republican nomination for governor, focusing on public safety and reducing crime rates.
His announcement came four months before incumbent Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker announced he would seek a third term, making Mendrick the first major party candidate to enter the race.
Now, nearly a year later, Mendrick is locked in a four-way race for the GOP nomination. His competition includes conservative activist Ted Dabrowski, millionaire businessman Rick Heidner and former state Sen. Darren Bailey, the party’s 2022 nominee. Mendrick is the final of those GOP candidate for governor to sit for Capitol News Illinois’ election podcast series.
While each of those candidates has been more prolific at fundraising, Mendrick remains hopeful his low-budget, grassroots campaign will catch on with voters.
“What do you spend campaign money on?” Mendrick said during a podcast interview. “I’ve done this long enough to know flyers, ads, all the stuff that really doesn’t work so much right now. What everything is about now is touching people and social media. And I will tell you, our social media is blowing up. We get about 1.8 million viewers per 28 days just on Facebook alone, and we’re on about eight different platforms. So our social media is spiking so high.”
Mendrick has lived in DuPage County more than 30 years, according to his website. After rising through the ranks of the department, he took over as sheriff in December 2018, becoming the top law enforcement officer in a county of just under 1 million people.
Mendrick said there is more to the job than simply serving as the county’s top cop. He says it also involves the kind of executive and administrative skills that are also necessary for a governor.
“I think a lot of people misunderstand a sheriff’s office being a police department,” he said. “We’re more like Microsoft. We’re an $80 million government budget, and we’re dealing in government. It’s another government position, and you have to understand headcount, contracts. I’m the main contract guy. (I’ve) arbitrated awards. I supervise over 800 people in a government institution.”
SAFE-T Act
Still, much of what Mendrick talks about on the campaign trail centers around law enforcement issues, including his criticism of Illinois’ SAFE-T Act. That’s the sweeping criminal justice reform law that the Legislative Black Caucus pushed in 2021 in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing in Minneapolis the previous year.
That law ended cash bail as a condition of pretrial release for criminal suspects. In its place, the law spells out circumstances and conditions under which suspects may be held in custody while they await trial that focus more on a person’s threat to public safety and their likelihood of showing up for court appearances.
Read more: Top Democrats say they would consider small changes to Illinois’ SAFE-T Act
Mendrick was among the many law enforcement officials who opposed passage of the law abolishing cash bail at the time, and he remains critical of it today.
“We have the second biggest jail in the state,” Mendrick said of DuPage County. “Eighty percent of the people who come into the doors of my correctional facility are on heavy substance — fentanyl, heroin, alcohol, a mixture thereof. Half of those people are self-medicating for mental health issues.”
In DuPage County, Mendrick said, he has implemented programs to provide services ranging from drug detoxification to education and job training to those individuals while they’re in jail. But he said the repeal of cash bail has made it harder for his department to deliver those kinds of services.
“Now, after about two hours (that it takes) to see a bond court judge, we let them go,” he said. “You know what that’s called? They’re tweaking, or jonesing or detoxing. Whichever word you prefer. But we’re letting them go in that state of mind.”
TRUST Act, more
Mendrick is also critical of the state’s policy toward noncitizens and its relationship with federal immigration enforcement agencies. That policy is officially enshrined in the Illinois TRUST Act, which restricts state and local law enforcement agencies from assisting federal authorities in enforcing civil immigration law. But it is sometimes referred to colloquially as the state’s “sanctuary” law.
“I could solve the problem in a day. One executive order,” Mendrick said. “We are violating federal law. That’s why we’ve lost $2 billion in federal grants, because we’re defying federal law. When federal law and state law conflict, federal law prevails. It just that’s the way it is.”
Mendrick also responded to questions about his approach to issues other than law enforcement and immigration. On the issue of public education, for example, which accounts for about one-fifth of the state’s General Revenue Fund budget, Mendrick said he believes schools should focus more on basic subjects such as reading, writing and math.
“I think a big problem is a lot of what’s in the curriculum,” he said. “I think instead of reading, writing, arithmetic, they’re focusing on politics, sexuality. And there’s a difference between biology and sexuality. Biology is something kids need to learn. Sexuality should not be within school environment. It diverts what you prioritize. Instead of education, you’re going to prioritize sexuality, because that’s what you’re being fed. I think a lot of those things need to be out of school so we can focus on the basics again.”
Mendrick also said he favors “school choice” policies, which generally allow private schools to receive public funding and parents are given more choices in deciding where to send their children.
“That’s what makes college so competitive, is that if you’re not a good college, people aren’t going to come,” he said. “And if people want to pay more and travel a little bit further to another school, I think that’s the way to do it.”
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.
