New Republican to run for Illinois governor as election season begins
[August 15, 2025]
By Ben Szalinski
SPRINGFIELD – More Republicans are entering races for statewide office
after an initially slow start in announcing candidates for the 2026
election.
Illinois Republicans held their annual events around the Illinois State
Fair on Thursday, with former Illinois GOP Chair Don Tracy launching a
U.S. Senate campaign and Ted Dabrowski, the president of conservative
research group Wirepoints, announcing he will launch a campaign for
governor in the coming weeks.
The men enter the 2026 race a week after the window opened for
candidates to begin collecting signatures that are due to the State
Board of Elections at the end of October.
“For 15 years I’ve been working on reporting on Illinois, on these
problems, suggesting a lot of solutions, and what I’ve seen is the state
continue to go downhill,” Dabrowski told reporters.
Dabrowski’s Wirepoints.org publishes research and commentary on state
policy issues and advocates for conservative solutions on pensions,
taxes, governance and other public policy issues. Before joining
Wirepoints in 2017, Dabrowski was vice president of policy for the
conservative Illinois Policy Institute think tank after spending nearly
20 years in banking.
He said the state’s business climate, tax burden and population growth
have gotten worse under Gov. JB Pritzker, who is seeking a third term in
2026. Dabrowski said he is focused on improving reading scores in
schools, making life more affordable and creating jobs.
But a major question Republican candidates will have to answer is where
they align with President Donald Trump. Dabrowski side-stepped the
question on Thursday.
“Illinois’ problems having nothing to do with Donald Trump,” Dabrowski
said. “He can’t fix the property taxes. He can’t fix the gas taxes. He
can’t fix our outmigration. We have to fix it.”
Mendrick focuses on crime
Dabrowski is joined by DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick in the race,
who called Medicaid cuts signed by Trump “unsustainable,” but said he
believes the president is doing a good job overall.
“I don’t really follow the national, the presidential stuff, a whole
lot, but I’ll be honest with you: so far what I’m seeing, financially,
it looks like he’s doing pretty good,” Mendrick said. “I can’t think of
anything that he’s doing right now that I would disagree with.”
Mendrick is leaning into his experience as the only elected official in
the Republican primary for governor.
“I know how politics works out there,” Mendrick told reporters, saying
that he approaches his job with bipartisanship. “I think I can do a lot
better than most other candidates.”
Crime is his top issue – an issue former state Sen. Darren Bailey made
the center of his unsuccessful 2022 campaign for governor. But the
difference, Mendrick said, is he believes he knows how to address public
safety issues because of his work as sheriff.
Mendrick was elected sheriff in 2018 and did not face an opponent in
2022, allowing him to survive a wave of Democratic victories in DuPage
County that year. But he still has to convince other Republican leaders
to support him.
“He’s done a great job as sheriff, but like any other candidate, you got
to get out there, and you got to build a base of support,” Senate
Republican Leader John Curran, of DuPage County, told reporters.
Both Dabrowski and Mendrick hinted they have some donors lined up
willing to fund their campaigns.
Joe Severino, a Lake Forest businessman who has unsuccessfully run for
Congress, has also said he will run for governor.
Tracy to run for Senate
Tracy is getting back into the political arena after resigning as party
chair last summer, citing infighting on the party’s State Central
Committee. Several other candidates have filed paper work with the
Federal Election Commission to run for office, but Tracy is the most
notable name to enter the Senate race.
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Ted Dabrowski, president of the conservative media outlet Wirepoints,
speaks to reporters after telling fellow Republicans he plans to
announce a bid for governor soon. (Capitol News Illinois photo by
Jerry Nowicki)
Tracy, an attorney from Springfield who unsuccessfully ran for
lieutenant governor in 2010, said he plans to self-fund most of his
campaign and believes he can attract voters from all sects of the
Republican Party.
“It’s a team effort,” Tracy told Capitol News Illinois. “But having been
state chairman, having run statewide before in 2010, I know people
throughout the state. A lot of people, I think, will help me, and I’ll
need their help. I’ll need the help of all Republicans.”
Tracy has previously been criticized by some in the party for not being
more vocal in his support of Trump. At Tracy’s last State Fair as party
chair in 2023, Trump was largely ignored. But on Thursday, Tracy said he
supports Trump’s agenda.
“The Trump agenda is peace, prosperity and law and order,” Tracy said.
“And I think most Americans, including most Illinoisians, support that
agenda.”
Voters’ affordability concerns will be Tracy’s top issue, he said.
“For working families, it’s become unaffordable, especially in Illinois,
where we have – on top of inflation – we have high taxes,” Tracy said.
“It’s going to be hard work, but I’m not afraid of hard work.”
Other races
The choices of statewide candidates for Republican voters in March’s
primary are still taking shape. No candidates have emerged for
comptroller or treasurer, while Bob Fioretti, a Cook County attorney who
has unsuccessfully run for numerous offices in both parties, is planning
to run for attorney general.
Diane Harris, a Joliet Junior College trustee who is active in Will
County Republican groups and unsuccessfully ran for state senate in
2022, is running for secretary of state. She said lines remain too long
at drivers services facilities and new policies putting many services
online aren’t working for everyone.
“Even though this is an online era, not everybody is online,” Harris
told Capitol News Illinois, adding that people shouldn’t have to make
appointments for services that should be available at the offices at
anytime.
In legislative races, the Republican leaders in the General Assembly
acknowledged the midterm election for a Republican president coupled
with Pritzker likely spending millions to help Democrats could create a
challenging year for Republican candidates. But Curran said he is
hopeful.
“We’re going to be very well positioned defend every seat we have. 2026
is going to be about gains for us,” Curran told reporters as 16 of 19
Republican senators, including himself, are up for reelection next year.
Democrats already have two seats to target in the west suburbs after
Sen. Don DeWitte, R-St. Charles, and Rep. Amy Grant, R-Wheaton,
announced they will not seek reelection. Both have held their seats in
districts that have increasingly leaned Democrat in recent elections.
“Whenever Republicans are on top, the Democrats get activated, and vice
versa. However, we’re not going to give up. We’re going to stay
activated,” House Minority Leader Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, told
reporters.
Capitol News Illinois is
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coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily
by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation. |
