MARION, Ill. — Stumping for votes in conservative southern Illinois, Republican governor hopeful Darren Bailey took the same stage as Donald Trump Jr. on Saturday night, with the former president’s son encouraging those in attendance to back Bailey while Bailey stuck to his campaign speech and didn’t publicly acknowledge the younger Trump’s presence.
The scene was markedly different from the one that unfolded in the waning days of the GOP primary this summer, when former President Donald Trump endorsed Bailey. Since that endorsement, however, Bailey has slowly tried to distance himself from Trump as Bailey faces a general electorate in Illinois that twice rejected the former president by a 17% margin.
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On Saturday, Trump Jr. and Bailey both appeared at the Williamson County GOP’s 11th annual Ronald Reagan Tribute Dinner Gala, where the former president’s son was the keynote speaker.
But Bailey never gave a shoutout to Trump Jr. or alluded to his father’s support of him. Instead, the state senator from downstate Xenia told stories about his encounters on the campaign trail, and decried unsafe streets in Chicago, “out-of-control” taxes, high gas prices and “failed schools” under Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s nearly four years in office.
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[ Donald Trump endorses Darren Bailey in GOP primary for governor ]
Acknowledging the heavy presence of Republicans in the audience gathered inside an airy banquet hall in this town east of Carbondale, Bailey pleaded with the crowd to continue supporting him and called on unregistered voters in Williamson County, a heavily Republican county, to register to vote.
“I know I can’t do this on my own. I understand that. But here’s what I do know. We can and we will. And that’s going to be the story of Illinois, friends. We’re hearing this story everywhere we go. I’m talking about Chicago. I’m talking about Wheaton. I’m talking about Naperville, Libertyville, the South Side, the West Side,” Bailey said. “We’ve got 30 days to go and I stand here as bold and confident as I ever have been about anything to tell you that ‘Yes, we’re gonna win.’”
He also poked fun at Pritzker’s inability to answer a question at the end of last week’s first broadcast debate when both candidates were asked what their “walk-up” song would be.
“I’ve got one for him. ‘Hit the Road Jack.’ Don’t you come back no more, no more,” Bailey said to applause. “Don’t ask me to sing it or y’all will leave.”
Bailey won the GOP nomination to take on Pritzker in part with the help of the former president’s endorsement — support Bailey embraced at the time, noting there was “no” daylight between him and Trump. But since the general election campaign got underway in earnest, Bailey has tried to create some separation while still trying to connect with Trump’s base of voters in Illinois.
When asked recently about how aligned he was with Trump, Bailey told the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board that he mostly supported Trump’s policies that led to a robust economy, adding he was “honored to have his endorsement, obviously, but he’s not on the ballot. I’m on the ballot.”
At Saturday night’s event, Bailey appeared to have limited interaction with Trump Jr. In a VIP gathering room next to the hall, while Trump Jr. for a time stood in front of a backdrop apparently to take photos with guests, Bailey stood apart, chatting with his aides, his wife, Cindy, and other attendees.
But during his keynote, Trump Jr. made several nods to Bailey, including once by name when Trump Jr. talked about how his father faced “unprecedented Democrat attacks” during his presidency “with sort of unprecedented lack of assistance from Republicans who were too weak to fight.”
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“And that’s why we need a push for strong Republicans in all of these offices. Darren Bailey’s in this room right now. You have a chance to do that here,” Trump Jr. said as the crowd erupted in applause. “If there’s ever a chance you can unseat the lunatic in your Governor’s Mansion right now, it’s this year. Because people are looking at every little thing that’s going on and they’re saying, ‘What the hell is happening to our country?’”
While Bailey repeatedly centers his campaign on his Christian faith and says his religious values will affect how he’d run Illinois as governor, Trump Jr. turned one of the most famous Christian beliefs on its head during his speech.
“We’re sick of turning the other cheek,” Trump Jr. said. “We’re sick of the live-and-let-live while they’re out there every day trying to destroy our values, our beliefs, our freedoms and our Constitution.”
Trump Jr. also drew laughs from the crowd when he took a subtle, off-color swipe at Chicago saying “it’s sort of nice to be in Illinois and actually not have to worry about getting shot.”
Sitting at a table beside his wife not far from stage, Bailey, who himself has repeatedly referred to Chicago as a “hellhole” in his campaign rhetoric about the city’s violence, nodded in approval to some of Trump Jr.’s remarks at a variety of points throughout his speech.
“Here in Illinois, get him to the Governor’s Mansion,” Trump Jr. said. “This a war of attrition guys, and like I said, every aspect of your existence is on the table.”
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Among his last gestures before leaving the stage was when he pointed at Bailey and exclaimed, “Get this man elected governor!”
