Dupage Policy Journal

Wheaton, IL – This year Republicans have an opportunity to defeat one of America’s worst governors.  After lockdowns, masking children, disrupting schooling, and record crime including murder at the highest in 25 years, JB Pritzker is vulnerable. Republicans must nominate a candidate that can defeat him.

After watching Richard Irvin’s deceitful campaign, every conservative must agree:   Irvin’s lies disqualify him to be the Republican nominee for Governor.  And Irvin is the only candidate assured to lose to Pritzker if he were to win the Republican primary.

Most appalling about Richard Irvin’s lies is that he accuses, or projects on to, his opponents stances that he actually holds himself.  For example, Richard Irvin has accused Darren Bailey of supporting Obama and Biden and of not supporting the Trump agenda. The truth, in 2016 and 2020 Bailey voted for Trump and in 2020 Bailey was a Trump delegate.  Bailey has voted Republican every time, except for voting in the 2008 Democrat Primary so he could vote against Obama and Clinton. It’s absurd that Irvin would accuse the most pro-Trump Republican state senator and a Trump delegate of being against Trump and voting for Biden.

Irvin, on the other hand, denounced Trump.  Text messages uncovered by WTTW reveal that Irvin called Trump an “idiot” and a bigoted racist.” Irvin voted for Democrats repeatedly. He voted Democratic in 7 out of the last 8 Primaries, a record that classifies him as a Democrat.   Then, in 2008, Irvin celebrated the Obama/Biden victory and in 2020 he celebrated the Biden/Harris victory. Additionally, just this week, at the Chicago Tribune editorial endorsement interview, Irvin was the only Republican Gubernatorial candidate who refused to explicitly say that he voted for Donald Trump. Irvin’s record and statements show that he does not support Republicans. 

 Republicans looking to nominate a Republican should consider Irvin’s other documented obfuscations and lies, here are a few of those:

-Irvin has said he is the only candidate that can take on Pritzker. But as Mayor of Aurora, Irvin praised Pritzker’s handling of COVID and called him a “great friend” and a “great leader”

- Irvin says he opposes state mandates, but under his leadership as mayor, late into the pandemic in fall 2021, the City of Aurora parroted Pritzker’s mandates and said employees would have to be vaccinated or undergo weekly testing for COVID-19. Other mayors refused such mandates on employees.

- Irvin is now saying “All Lives Matter,” but just last year following the BLM riots, Irvin said he supported Black Lives Matter “strongly” and “passionately.” 

- Irvin says he will be tough on crime, but he praised the Democrat crime bill, a bill that public safety organizations and every single Republican opposed. 

It is not surprising that Irvin is backtracking from previous positions. There is no indication that Irvin decided to run out of a deep desire to take on Pritzker and lead a policy revolution, as most of the other candidates did. If Irvin hadn’t been recruited and funded by big money, there is little doubt that Irvin wouldn’t be running for Governor. 

It is dishonest to avoid direct contact with voters. On the campaign trail, Irvin refuses to interact openly with Republican voters, avoids questions, rarely participates in candidate forums, and circulates primarily in private meetings. Irvin is handled and rehearsed by consultants and staff, regurgitating poll-tested talking points.  It is embarrassing to see a grown man hide from the people he says he wants to represent.

Ken Griffin, Illinois’ wealthiest individual, who has given the Irvin campaign $45 million should be embarrassed to be associated with a disgustingly dishonest campaign like Irvin’s, and so should every Republican in the state. From the cartoonish ads to the lack of a policy agenda, the only winners in this election will be the consultants and marketing groups making millions from Mr. Griffin to run this scam. 

On policy, Republicans cannot trust Irvin to reign in public sector unions and dismantle the corrupt pension system, disrupt education bureaucracies by giving parents the money to direct their child’s education, demand rogue states attorneys prosecute and lock up criminals, or institute a property tax cap like Indiana has to halt the outmigration of Illinoisans to more affordable states.  Republicans can’t trust Irvin in office because we can’t trust him as a candidate.

Finally, the Irvin/Bourne campaign has set a new low for shameful political attacks. We as a party cannot reward this kind of campaign and hold ourselves out as a party that prides itself on integrity and fair play.  Illinois Republicans have a fighting chance to turn this state upside down this year, it can only happen by nominating a conservative reformer, that’s not Democrat Richard Irvin.

– Jeanne Ives is a former state representative and GOP candidate for governor. She is the CEO of Breakthrough Ideas.