This post originally ran as our Capitol News Insider newsletter for Friday, Aug. 21.
Happy Friday, Insiders.
Hope everyone who made the trip to Springfield this week had a corn dog and lemon shakeup. Here’s a baker’s dozen of takeaways from the Illinois State Fair political days:
1. Democrats and Republicans both stressed affordability, but that’s where the commonalities ended. Gov. JB Pritzker and Democratic candidates on the statewide ticket focused their ire on President Donald Trump.
Pritzker only mentioned GOP opponent Darren Bailey a few times. The other Democratic candidates didn’t mention their little-known GOP opponents at all. And Trump’s name was conspicuously absent from the lips of Republican leaders as they laid blame for cost-of-living issues at the feet of Democrats who control Springfield. The split screen was on full display.
2. While Pritzker insists Democrats will run through the tape, some are already turning their gaze to the Chicago mayoral election next February. Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias and Comptroller Susana Mendoza are among several declared candidates challenging incumbent Mayor Brandon Johnson.
Mendoza isn’t seeking reelection. Giannoulias, on the other hand, is running for reelection and mayor simultaneously, for which Mendoza took a not-so-subtle jab, saying that voters “deserve a candidate who’s going to be all in the position that they’re asking you to support them for.”
Giannoulias brushed it off, saying “you don’t quit the job you’re in while you’re interviewing for the next one.” The race for the Fifth Floor has statewide implications. If Giannoulias wins, the governor would get to appoint his replacement.
Illinois Secretary of State is viewed by many, including Giannoulias, as “the best job in government.” And it’d be a plum appointment that’d allow Pritzker to further stamp his imprint on the state.
3. “The future of the Democratic Party here in Illinois” is how Giannoulias introduced state Rep. Margaret Croke, D-Chicago, the party’s nominee for comptroller. Indeed, there was a glimpse into the future as Croke, lieutenant gubernatorial nominee Christian Mitchell and Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton — the party’s nominee for U.S. Senate — shared the stage.
Croke and Mitchell used to work for Pritzker while Stratton has been his governing partner for seven-and-a-half years. It serves as a reminder that whatever Pritzker does in the future, his influence will likely outlast his time as governor.
4. Democrats also looked back, giving retiring Sen. Dick Durbin his flowers as he wraps up his three-decade tenure representing Illinois in the Senate. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, the keynote speaker of the Illinois Democratic County Chairs’ Association brunch, noted that Durbin was an early supporter of legislation creating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Others thanked Durbin sponsoring the bill that ended smoking on commercial flights and for championing the DREAM Act. Durbin said his career has been “a wonderful experience.” Stealing a line from former Rep. Mo Udall, D-Arizona, Durbin said: “If you have politics in your bloodstream, only embalming fluid will replace it.”
5. Democrats touted their electoral dominance, but it may have cost them with the national party as Illinois lost out to swing state Michigan for the right to be one of the six early voting states in the 2028 Democratic primary.
“I think we’re a victim of our own success,” Chicago Ald. Michael Rodriguez told members of the Illinois Democratic State Central Committee in Springfield Tuesday. “The fact is Illinois is such a stronghold that the national party was gonna go with a purple state for the Midwest.”
Illinois’ primary will be on Super Tuesday on March 7. The Democratic National Committee also announced Thursday that the party’s nominating convention won’t be returning to Chicago in 2028. Though the Windy City is still a candidate for 2032.
6. Pritzker isn’t much for the progressive versus moderate ideological discourse taking place in the Democratic Party right now. Anyone who’s listened to him or his top advisors in recent years could tell you that.
But he laid it out again Wednesday for those who needed reminding: “These days, it seems like the pundits and the naysayers want to stay in an endless loop of debate about the future of the Democratic Party to draw false and rigid divisions and paint a picture of a fractured coalition. If there’s a divide in the national Democratic Party that exists, it’s the one between ‘Team Fight’ and ‘Team Cave.’ And in Illinois, we made our choice. We’re on ‘Team Fight.’”
7. As Democrats bashed Trump for rising prices, the Illinois Tollway on Wednesday morning approved a 57% increase on cars and 30% on trucks beginning next year. It will increase by inflation every two years after that without further public hearings or board votes.
Pritzker defended the hike, noting that it will fund capital projects. “We want to make sure that our roads are pothole-free, that we’re making sure to build more so that we can build our economy across the state of Illinois,” Pritzker told reporters.
8. Emceeing Republican Day was newly minted Chairman Bob Grogan, who ousted incumbent Kathy Salvi earlier this year. He joked to reporters that he “probably has the second-hardest job in the world” after Trump.
But Grogan said he sees an opening to win over new voters due to Democratic policies he cast as extreme. Or, to put it another way: “It’s common sense versus communism,” he said.
9. Bailey openly embraced Trump when he was running for governor in 2022, even promising to “roll the red carpet out for him.” But this time around, if Trump visits Illinois, it seems as if he’ll come in through the back door.
Bailey did not utter Trump’s name once in prepared remarks. He’s also taking pains to avoid topics that have hurt him with suburban voters in the past, such as abortion.
“I am committed to staying focused on what unites us instead of divides us. We know that’s affordability, that’s safety, and that’s education,” he said. “I will not be legislating nor restricting abortion. I’ve made that statement before, and I will stick with that.”
10. Rep. Marty McLaughlin, R-Barrington Hills, is taking help from the House Republican Organization this time after declining it two years ago. That allows him more access to party staff and money, and he said he believes House Minority Leader Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, has improved her caucus’ political operation.
McLaughlin faces Democrat Maria Peterson for the second consecutive election, having beat her by just 47 votes in 2024.
11. McCombie declined to say how many seats she’s aiming to pick up, but said the 112th District represented by Rep. Katie Stuart, D-Edwardsville, 76th District represented by Rep. Amy “Murri” Briel, D-La Salle, and 97th District represented by Rep. Jessica Dixon Heitman, D-Plainfield, are among her targets. Stuart is facing Jimmy Ford and Briel is up against Liz Bishop for a second time.
12. Both days featured some shenanigans. On Tuesday, mobile billboards circled the block in downtown Springfield airing an Illinois House Republican message highlighting posts House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch has liked on social media, including those of young women in bikinis.
Other billboards tied newly appointed Rep. Heitman and Stuart to Welch. And on Thursday, Pritzker’s campaign paid for inflatable dinosaurs to hold signs reading “Dinosaurs against Darren Bailey.”
It refers to curriculum at a school founded by Bailey and his wife, Cindy, that allegedly teaches that dinosaurs and humans walked the earth at the same time. Bailey did not directly answer whether he believes that when asked by reporters.
13. Attendance notes: The three Republican members of Illinois’ congressional delegation, Reps. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro; Darin LaHood, R-Peoria; and Mary Miller, R-Hindsboro, did not attend Republican Day.
Welch attended several fundraisers but skipped Democrat Day festivities. A spokesman said the speaker returned home for his daughter’s first day of seventh grade. The IDCCA reported more than 3,000 in attendance for the brunch, a new record.
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