Pritzker Calls GOP "Lunatic Fringe" in Pointed State Fair Speeches
Governor JB Pritzker waves to the crowd at Governor’s Day at the Illinois State Fair Wednesday. He’s joined onstage by (l-r) Comptroller Susana Mendoza, Treasurer Mike Frerichs, and new state Democratic Party Chair Rep. Lisa Hernandez (D-Cicero).
It’s the traditional kickoff to the fall campaign in Illinois, but with a primary pushed back to June and lightning rod candidates at the top of each ticket, the Illinois State Fair seems almost as another stop in a non-stop campaign tour.
Democrats held Governor’s Day at the State Fair Wednesday. From Rick Pearson and Jeremy Gorner of the Chicago Tribune:
Illinois Democrats looked to both the past and the future as rallying points on their day at the Illinois State Fair Wednesday, castigating former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s one-term stewardship of the state and warning that the party’s candidate for governor in November, Darren Bailey, would be even worse.
In highly-charged, partisan language, Democratic leaders accused Republicans of sowing division by promulgating views many consider extreme.
“In America, in the face of what the Supreme Court and the radical right wing are trying to do to the fundamental rights of every American, we, the coalition of the sane, owe something better to our children and our grandchildren. We need to win and we need to keep our promises to the people who elected us,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said at the annual Democratic county chair association brunch.
Pritzker defeated Rauner in 2018 and is facing a reelection challenge from Bailey, a downstate farmer and state senator endorsed by former President Donald Trump. He is now solidly in charge of a state party that is trying to move past internal divisions that were revealed in the election last month of his candidate, state Rep. Elizabeth Hernandez of Cicero to be the new state party chair.
“The lunatic fringe has taken over their party and they’ll say anything, do anything, destroy anything to get elected,” Pritzker said. “You see, the Donald Trumps and the Darren Baileys of this world want us to feel alone in the struggles that we’re all facing together. They want to distract us into believing that marriage equality, Black history, Disney World, and library books are more of a threat to our children than AR-15s. They’re attempting to divide America with hateful words and a radical agenda.”
Targets for Democrats included Rauner’s tumultuous term as governor, marked by a historic two-year budget stalemate; Bailey’s controversial statements, including his contention that the Holocaust pales in comparison to lives lost through abortion; and Trump’s continued hold over the GOP.
Democrats head into the Nov. 8 general election holding all statewide offices, supermajorities in the legislature, both U.S. Senate seats, a majority of congressional seats and control of the Illinois Supreme Court.
In lieu of the traditional state fair rally, the Pritzker campaign brought in country star Chris Young for a concert following speeches they billed as a “unity event.” State Fair sources said the concert cost the Pritzker campaign in excess of $300,000, which would have nearly wiped out the Bailey campaign coffers. He filed at the end of June with around $360,000 on hand.
Republicans will surely aim their pointed attacks at Pritzker Thursday on Republican Day at the Fair.