Before Illinois Republicans who want to be governor take on incumbent JB Pritzker, they may have to deal with another high profile problem first: former President Donald Trump.

Trump lost handily in much of the Chicago area. He only won 24% of the vote in Cook County, and under 40% in both DuPage and Lake counties. While Trump lost all but one county in Cook County and the collar counties, he dominated now President Joe Biden in many more rural, heavily Republican counties around the state.

Trump received at least 75% of the vote in 24 counties, mostly downstate.

Trump’s hold on the GOP and continued insistence he didn’t lose the November election may pose a conundrum for Republican candidates for Governor. Downstate, voters may want to hear that Trump wasn’t legitimately defeated, but will have to be careful not to scare off moderate suburban voters in the General Election.

We reached out to all five Republican either announced or considering a run for Governor if they believe if President Joe Biden won the election “legitimately.”

Perhaps a sign that they plan to cater to heavily pro-Trump voters, neither announced candidate, Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) and former Sen. Paul Schimpf responded to our inquiries. We reached out to their media teams and directly to the candidates without a response.

Suburban Chicago businessman Gary Rabine, who is expected to announce a run for Governor in the next few weeks, said he believes there was voter fraud in 2020.

“Whether there was 10,000 votes or 10,000,000 votes stolen or added, I do not have the facts and data to determine that,” Rabine said. “Knowing that there was voter fraud of any magnitude should inspire all ethical politicians, lawyers, and citizens to investigate this thoroughly to ensure that every American can be confident their voice matters.”

Both potential candidates seen as more “mainstream” conservatives, Sen. Jason Barickman (R-Bloomington) and Republican National Committeeman Richard Porter from suburban Northfield said they believe Biden won the election legitimately.

“I know people will say there were reports of election issues,” said Barickman. “However, I didn’t see anything that caused me to believe the outcome would have been any different.”

(Disclosure: I managed Barickman’s first race for Senate in 2012 and we remain close friends.)

“Biden won and is President,” said Porter. “Our elected representatives at the state and federal levels need to address the legitimate concerns arising from the 2020 election, preserving and securing the fundamental civil right to vote is essential to domestic tranquility and national unity. We need to be able to have faith in our elections, and the truth is that tens of millions of Americans see what happened over the last year and feel disenfranchised.”

Porter pointed out thousands of ballots in the state of Nevada that were either cast from non-existent addresses, voted twice in the state, or of people who died.

“The Democratic Party has a casual disregard at best for preventing fraud,” Porter said. “They fight to change long established election laws to eliminate ballot custody security, proof of voter identity and partisan oversight of the counting process. Naturally, Republicans are suspicious of and angry at folks that do what they can to eliminate safeguards against fraud and then blithely dismiss all evidence of fraud, often without even looking at the evidence. And it is largely Democrat elected officials in the areas where laws protecting the vote were disregarded.”

If a Republican candidate for Governor panders to a downstate, pro-Trump audience and wins the primary, it will surely be used in a political ad to scare away suburban voters.

Navigating the Trump landmines may be the biggest challenge the candidates face.

Patrick Pfingsten

@pfingsten1 patrick@theillinoize.com