DuPage County Republican Party Chairman Kevin Coyne isn’t sugarcoating the party’s current position.
In a candid video released on YouTube, Coyne described the GOP’s performance in the April 1 municipal elections as nothing short of “a complete disaster.”
“It was a terrible night. It was embarrassing,” Coyne said. “Those of us in leadership should be embarrassed. We have a lot, a lot of work to do to turn this county around politically.”
Coyne, a former Naperville City Councilman and founder of the conservative PAC Safe Suburbs USA, officially took the reins of the county GOP on Jan. 1. He succeeded longtime chairman and DuPage County Board member Jim Zay at a time when Republicans are facing mounting losses across the once-solid red county.
In the wake of recent Democratic gains—including flipping both a countywide office and a board seat in the November 2024 election–Coyne has pledged to modernize the party’s infrastructure, messaging and campaign strategies.
Coyne zeroed in on vote-by-mail (VBM) ballots as the party’s most urgent challenge.
“We’re getting just decimated with these vote-by-mail ballots,” he said. “Turnout among the non-VBM voters in DuPage this past Tuesday was 16%. They get almost half — 49% — of those VBM voters to vote. Those are overwhelmingly Democrat voters.”
He called closing the VBM gap “priority one” for his tenure as chair.
“Until we close those ballots, friends, I don’t see this ever turning around. It’s too much of a sweeping advantage,” he said.
Coyne added that he plans to sign up for permanent vote-by-mail himself and encourages fellow Republicans to do the same.
He also addressed what he sees as a branding crisis for Republican candidates, especially in nonpartisan April elections.
“I've received a number of emails and comments from Republican voters saying, I just don't know who the Republicans even are,” Coyne said. “A lot of them say it's never on their social media or their website. I think that's a fair point to raise. And to speak to it, I know historically it's been very frowned upon for candidates to run partisan type campaigns in April. Well, you can see that the folks on the other team don't play that way. And they are clearly running very partisan campaigns and obviously it's working.”
He urged Republican candidates to embrace their political identity rather than hiding it.
“You shouldn’t be embarrassed to be a Republican. The county’s as strong as it is today because of how strong the Republican Party’s been. We’ve done a great job here for a great number of years. We need to remind people of that.”
With fundraising struggling in recent cycles, Coyne acknowledged the significant financial disparity between the GOP and Democrats, who benefit from unions, PACs and the personal wealth of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, whose net worth stands around $3.7 billion.
“They just have a massive financial advantage that we have to figure out how we're going to close,” he said. “And we're working on getting a membership program put together. We're going to be working on drumming up small donations on a larger level, and we're gonna be doing what we can to get creative, to try and get more money into this party. We simply have to get that done.”
Coyne outlined plans to launch a small-donor membership program and hold the first major GOP fundraiser of the year in Elmhurst this spring.
He also called for unity within the party’s ranks—from staunch conservatives to moderates.
“I hear a lot from the right, the very right side of our party, and from the more moderate side,” Coyne said. “I'm not getting in between that. We need everybody involved. We need to kill the sniping. Grassroots are a pivotal, critical part of this party. You're not going to be able to have functioning campaigns without a strong, loud grassroots base of support. We have to have that. We have to give them respect. They must always have a seat at the table.”
In his message, Coyne emphasized his commitment to inclusivity.
“If you’re Republican, I don’t care how far right or how moderate you are — I’m going to see you as a friend and an asset to this party that needs to be respected and stay involved,” he said.
Despite recent setbacks, Coyne remains optimistic.
“We're not giving up,” he said. “We're going to continue to fight. We're gonna continue to do what we can to turn this around because we have to. We know what's going to happen to DuPage County if the Democrats control it for much longer. It's not; it's going to sink, and it's gonna sink fast. There aren't very many parts of our country that are well run in Democrat hands; this will be no different.”
Kristina McCloy, the Hinsdale-based founder of Concerned Parents IL, expressed her agreement with Coyne’s concerns, highlighting the significant impact of vote-by-mail ballots. She also supported his call for candidates and campaigns to be more vocal about their values and priorities, emphasizing the importance of clear and assertive messaging in political races.
DuPage County, once a Republican stronghold, has experienced a significant political shift toward the Democratic Party.
Democrats now hold a commanding presence in county offices, including a majority on the County Board, and have steadily increased their influence over the past two decades, particularly since the 2016 election.
In 2022 Deb Conroy, a longtime state representative, narrowly defeated Republican Greg Hart in the closely contested race to become the first Democrat to chair the DuPage County Board in over 75 years, marking a significant shift in the political landscape.
Hart, who was elected on April 1 unopposed as Hinsdale Village President, has been emblematic of the schism within the local GOP. He has faced criticism for his shifting positions and lack of commitment to traditional Republican values. He has been questioned over his critiques of Trump, support of progressive causes like LGBTQ rights and BLM, and efforts to appeal to moderate Democrats while distancing himself from the GOP base.
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