Raised
$152,634Who funds Darren Bailey?
$152,634Source: https://illinoissunshine.org/committees/bailey-for-illinois-34092/
No donor breakdown available yet.
This candidate has limited public financial disclosure. Check FEC.gov or IllinoisSunshine.org for filing details.
In the November 8, 2022 general election, Bailey received 1,739,095 votes (42.37%) vs. JB Pritzker's 2,253,748 (54.91%), a 12.5-percentage-point margin — the widest Illinois Republican loss in a governor's race since 2002. Bailey was shut out in all six collar counties except one, reflecting deep suburban Chicago weakness.
Source: → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Illinois_gubernatorial_election
Gov. JB Pritzker contributed $24 million to the Democratic Governors' Association, which ran ads calling Bailey 'too conservative for Illinois' — a deliberate strategy to elevate the most beatable Republican over moderate Richard Irvin (backed by $50M from Ken Griffin). The tactic worked: Bailey won the June 2022 primary with 57.7%, then lost the general by 12.5 points.
Tax records at the Clay County Treasurer's office and Illinois Department of Revenue show that from 1996 to 2012, while serving on the North Clay Board of Education, Bailey voted to increase the property tax levy every time one was proposed, totaling an 81% combined increase — a direct contradiction of his anti-property-tax legislative and campaign messaging.
As an Illinois state senator from 2021–2023, Bailey was chief sponsor of exactly one bill that became law — SB 2150, a firefighter recruitment measure. WBEZ found no member of the 18-person Senate Republican caucus had fewer chief-sponsored bills enacted. His House record was similarly thin: one bill (increased fines for passing school buses) over two years.
Bailey supports a complete statewide ban on abortion except to save the mother's life, explicitly opposing exceptions for rape or incest. In a 2017 Facebook video, he compared abortion to the Holocaust, stating 'the attempted extermination of the Jews of World War II doesn't even compare on a shadow of the life that has been lost with abortion since its legalization.'
On May 20, 2020, the Illinois House voted 81–27 — a bipartisan margin — to remove Bailey from the chamber floor for refusing to wear a mask during the COVID-19 pandemic. He had also filed a lawsuit in Clay County Circuit Court challenging Pritzker's stay-at-home order; a judge issued a temporary restraining order that applied only to Bailey personally and was later vacated.
Source: → https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/05/21/illinois-gop-lawmaker-removed-mask/
On July 4, 2022, within 90 minutes of the Highland Park parade shooting that killed 7 people, Bailey stated in a Facebook livestream: 'The shooter is still at large, so let's pray for justice to prevail, and then let's move on and let's celebrate the independence of this nation.' He later apologized. The incident reinforced his image as insensitive to suburban Chicago communities.
Darren Bailey, born March 17, 1966, in Louisville, Illinois, is a farmer from Xenia, Clay County, who holds an Associate of Science in agricultural production from Lake Land College. He served one term in the Illinois House (109th District, 2019–2021) and one term in the Illinois Senate (55th District, 2021–2023) before becoming the 2022 Republican nominee for governor, losing to JB Pritzker by 12.5 percentage points (54.91% vs. 42.37%). After losing a 2024 congressional primary to incumbent Rep. Mike Bost by 2.8 points, Bailey announced a 2026 gubernatorial rematch in September 2025, pairing with Cook County Republican Chair Aaron Del Mar as running mate. He is campaigning on an 'Illinois DOGE' spending audit commission, repeal of the 2021 Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, and property tax reform, while moderating his tone following the October 2025 helicopter crash that killed his son Zachary, daughter-in-law Kelsey, and two grandchildren.
Prior office: Illinois Senate, 55th District (2021–2023); Illinois House, 109th District (2019–2021)
The SAFE-T Act abolished mandatory cash bail for criminal defendants in Illinois and implemented broader criminal justice reforms. Bailey voted against it and later made opposition to the Act a cornerstone of his tough-on-crime gubernatorial campaigns.
Bailey voted against legalizing recreational cannabis in Illinois, consistent with his socially conservative position opposing the bill signed by Gov. Pritzker in June 2019.
Bailey voted against the Illinois casino expansion bill that authorized new casinos including a potential Chicago casino. He opposed further gambling expansion on moral grounds.
Bailey voted against the $45 billion Rebuild Illinois infrastructure package, the state's largest such investment in decades, which funded roads, bridges, schools, and transit through a gas tax increase.
Bailey sponsored a resolution calling for Chicago to be expelled from Illinois and made its own state, citing policy disagreements on guns, abortion, and immigration. It gained no traction legislatively. Bailey later called it 'a warning shot' after it became a liability during the 2022 governor race.
Bailey pushed legislation to prohibit public funding for gender reassignment surgery, part of a broader pattern of anti-transgender legislation he championed during his House term.
The only bill Bailey successfully shepherded into law as a state senator, SB 2150 created incentives to recruit volunteer firefighters. His entire two-year Senate record produced only this one enacted bill, according to WBEZ's review.
Bailey vocally and repeatedly opposed the Reproductive Health Act, Illinois's landmark 2019 abortion-rights law that repealed the state's dormant abortion ban and established abortion as a fundamental right. He challenged the bill's use of 'individual' rather than 'woman,' and has since called for a complete abortion ban in Illinois.