Bost, Fighting for His Political Life: "You Can't Burn The Place Down"
Rep. Mike Bost (R-Murphysboro) is locked in a tight race with former state senator and 2022 GOP nominee for Governor Darren Bailey.
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On the day before a grueling primary race to win his sixth term in Congress, you can hear the weariness in Congressman Mike Bost’s (R-Murphysboro) voice.
He’s traveling between four campaign stops in his sprawling 34-county district that covers the southern third of Illinois that has found him in an eight-month sprint being challenged, almost unbelievably, from the right.
Bost is trying to hold off former state senator Darren Bailey, who was the 2022 GOP nominee for governor in Illinois.
Bailey has repeatedly attempted to make Bost look like a leftist, but Bost and his campaign have squarely aligned themselves with former president and likely 2024 GOP nominee Donald Trump.
It even earned Bost Trump’s endorsement, which many observers believed would be a golden ticket in a district where GOP voters have an astronomically high approval rating of the controversial former president.
“Is it the only thing? No, but it’s a great help,” Bost said.
But Trump’s endorsement hasn’t caused a landslide in polling. A GOP pollster earlier this month showed Bost with a six-point lead over Bailey and sources say internal polls from both camps are showing a consistently close race.
Bost says the tight race has less to do with Trump and more to do with the modern GOP feeling on incumbency.
“There are people who automatically want to throw the incumbent out,” Bost said. “The voters themselves have got to come to a point where they understand you can’t burn the place down, you build the place up.”
Bost took a subtle shot at Bailey, who is aligned with House Freedom Caucus members like Congresswoman Mary Miller (R-Hindsboro) and have been responsible for much of the internal House GOP strife since Republicans took the House last year.
“I’m a governing conservative and we know that we actually need to [fix things],” Bost said. “We’ve got to make this nation better and we have to redirect the ship in the right course. To do that, you’ve gotta be able to be a governing conservative and not somebody who just goes to Washington to who votes everything down and says ‘my answer’s no, my answer’s no.”
We made multiple requests to speak with Bailey. Bailey’s campaign did not make him available for a phone interview Monday.
Bailey will hold an election night party with supporters in Louisville in Clay County tonight at the private Christian school he and his wife operate. Bost will gather with supporters in Murphysboro, but won’t be making a late night of it.
He’ll be spending the night near the St. Louis airport to catch an early flight to D.C. Wednesday morning.
“Win or lose, I still have a job to do,” Bost said.
After tonight, we may know how much longer Bost will be doing the job.