2024 Dem Candidate Switches Parties, Gives Cash to GOP Candidates
Dr. Dave Nayak, who ran for State Senate as a Democrat this spring, has switched parties and created a new PAC supporting Republicans.
NOTE: This story was originally posted for subscribers only. To receive subscriber-only newsletters and content, click here.
When political observers last saw Dr. Dave Nayak, he was finishing third in the Democratic primary this spring in the 20th Senate District on the north side of Chicago, the most Democratic district in the entire state.
Nayak, who referred to himself as a progressive during the spring campaign, has re-emerged this fall. As a Republican.
Nayak says he has joined the GOP and has created a new PAC, “Better Education Illinois” that is contributing to a handful of Republican legislative candidates around the state.
He attacked Democratic leaders in the state as “corrupt.”
“My adult life, I had identified as a Democrat, because, quite frankly, I thought that the Democratic Party stood for ideals against waging war. I was wrong about that,” he said. “I thought that the Democratic Party prevented censorship, protected our First Amendment rights speak freely. I was wrong on that, too. I believed that the Democratic Party genuinely cared about the health and safety and the well being of Americans, but specifically Illinoisans, and I was wrong about that.”
Nayak, who splits time between Chicago and his Grundy County farm, has contributed to Rep. Marty McLaughlin (R-Barrington Hills), Rep. Dan Ugaste (R-Geneva), and GOP House candidate Gabby Shanahan.
Nayak says his foray into Republican races stems from his support of school choice.
“We’ve seen school choice educational options declining over the years in the state. It’s because of the actions of current and former [Democratic] officials,” he said. “Parents know best how to educate their children and we have to support Illinois legislative candidates who champion school choice. We wanted to support those legislators who are not only committed to school choice, but are in difficult races.”
As for Nayak, a lung specialist who identified as a Democrat a few months ago, he says he’ll be voting for Donald Trump in the presidential election and much of his rhetoric mirrors that of longtime progressive-turned-Trump supporter Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., even mutating one of Kennedy’s key lines into “Make Illinois Healthy Again.”
“What I hope is that people like me and others who have taken the plunge of trying to have tried to be elected by the people of Illinois can use the platform that has been given to us to highlight the issues that are plaguing our communities and our state,” he said. “My experiences have culminated in this moment to speak out against those who are profiting off of sick people, those who are destabilizing the safety of our communities, and also censoring those people that speak out.”
Nayak sounded as if someone who was laying the groundwork for a statewide run as a Republican in 2026, but brushed off that speculation.