Successful Primary Candidates on What Worked and What's Next
Former Quincy Mayor Kyle Moore, who won the GOP primary for the open 99th House District, speaks with a TV reporter after polls close Tuesday night.
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Just two days after winning a hotly contested Senate primary across a large swath of northwest and north central Illinois, former Dixon Mayor Li Arellano wasn’t taking a vacation or sleeping in.
Arellano is deployed beginning this weekend for National Guard training at Ft. McCoy, Wisconsin.
37th Senate District candidate Li Arellano [R] watches results come in Tuesday night. (Photo: Shaw Media)
Speaking to The Illinoize at a stop near the Illinois/Wisconsin border Thursday, Arellano reflected on his primary victory in the 37th Senate District, where he captured nearly 50% of the vote in a three person race where all of the candidates nearly mirrored each other on policy.
“We tried to show that I was not a candidate who made promises, but I was a candidate who had delivered,” he said. “Sometimes, there’s a question of whether experience matters in races, especially in the Republican Party. People are frustrated with elected officials, experience can almost be seen as a negative thing in elected offices. But I think it did resonate in this race because of the results we had in Dixon.”
Arellano handily won northern counties in the district, Lee, Ogle, and Whiteside, propelling him to victory.
Meanwhile, Republican Grundy County Board Chairman Chris Balkema of Channahon, who earned almost 50% of the vote in the heavily Republican 53rd Senate District said he’s planning to spend the next few months on a “listening tour” of the district after, he says, he sapend the last six months talking.
Balkema was boosted by more than $75,000 in outside funding from conservative group Americans for Prosperity. He was thankful for their backing.
“I was very grateful for their support. I think they had a very positive impact that was translated into votes,” Balkema said. “Their DNA and my DNA have very smiliar atributes. It made the needle move.”
If there as a criticism of Balkema, its that his home in Channahon appears more suburban than the rest of the sprawling, wide open, rural district. But, Balkema reflected back on growing up in a small town and living and working in Livingston County during his career with Caterpillar.
Balkema says he wants to “hit the ground running,” when he goes to the Senate in January. There is no Democratic opposition in the heavily Republican district.
“[I’m going to] invest the time to build relationships and trust with as many of the 220,000 people in this district as possible,” Balkema said. “[During the campaign], I wrote a letter to every one of the 108 mayors in the district, I reached out to fire chiefs, so I’ve already started to build those relationships. But I want to capitalize on that. When I show up in Springfield, I don’t want to have to learn about what’s important in the district, I want to be able to hit the ground running.”
AFP boosted another central Illinois candidate, Regan Deering of Decatur, who cruised to almost 70% of the vote in a district stretching from Bloomington-Normal to Decatur.
Deering, an heiress to the Andreas family of ADM fame, who lost a race for congress in 2022, said she had to approach the 88th district with care as a majority of vote came from Bloomington-Normal and McLean County and not Decatur.
“Our goal was to continue to show up,” Deering said. “We went and met business leaders and other key stakeholders in McLean County and talked about our message of conservative values and how we wanted to advocate for educators and small business owners, farmers, and everyone in between.”
Deering won McLean County and the city of Bloomington.
“That’s hard work paying off,” she said.
Deering will likely replace Rep. Dan Caulkins (R-Decatur), a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, who isn’t seeking re-election.
Deering wouldn’t say if she plans to join the controversial group of Republicans when she is sworn in next year.
She says a priority of the summer and fall will be helping Republicans try to pick up legislative seats around the state.
Another Republican who sailed in a GOP primary Tuesday is Kyle Moore, the former Quincy Mayor who received nearly 75% of the vote in the 99th House District stretching from Quincy to Jacksonville.
Moore, who will replace outgoing Rep. Randy Frese (R-Paloma), works in economic development in the Quincy area. He says he wants to help reduce red tape for small and rural communities to receive state grants to help land business and growth.
“When you’re a village of 1,000, you do not have the capacity to apply for those grants,” Moore said. “I think there should be a voice on how to make state funding more accessible to our smaller and rural communities.”
Moore says he’s optimistic that business can thrive in Illinois.
“Illinois can be a great place to locate a business,” he said, citing manufactures who moved into the Quincy area from out-of-state. “Illinois can be a place where businesses want to do business, but we have to create an environment for that to happen.”
He knows, though, accomplishing things in Springfield will be tough, but it’s important for the GOP to get things done, even in the super minority.
“I think its going to be a struggle to really show people what Republicans are doing in Springfield if we don’t have tangible things we can bring back,” he said. “I’m not talking about pork barrel spending projects, but how we can impact legislation in a meaningful way. Certainly people will understand that we’re putting up the good fight and they understand that the deck is stacked against us.”
Democrat Billy Morgan [center] watches results come in for the 79th House District primary Tuesday night. He’ll face Rep. Jackie Haas (R-Bourbonnais) in November. (Photo: Facebook)
One Democrat who organized a winning primary Tuesday was Billy Morgan of Monee. Morgan, 33, worked for Gov. Pat Quinn while he was in office and shortly after Quinn left the Governor’s office and now works at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy. He serves as a Monee Township Trustee and defeated Kankakee Schools Superintendent Genevra Walters Tuesday night to face Rep. Jackie Haas (R-Bourbonnais) in November.
Morgan credited his primary victory to organizing a campaign operation early.
“I did everything I could to just try to build as many relationships as possible on the ground,” Morgan said. “The strategy was to lock up a lot of endorsements early, knock on a lot of doors, and that we’d really focus on fundraising. Fundraising is one way to differentiate yourself out of the gate to let people know I’m serious about this and I’ve got the infrastructure to be able to make this really happen.”
Morgan says he doesn’t plan to make his race with Haas personal, but a “contest of ideas.”
“I think there’s a question of whether Jackie has been able to be effective [for] the district, at getting things out of committee or getting bills passed,” he said. “I don’t think that there’s any reason for me to go out there swingin’ about personality. I think we just need to focus on the issues, focus on who can get things done for working families in the district.”
Morgan will try to add to a Democratic majority in a district Donald Trump won narrowly in 2020.
Republican Liz Bishop and Democrat Amy Murri-Briel will face off in the 76th House District in November, a competitive seat being vacated by Rep. Lance Yednock (D-Ottawa).
Bishop defeated a far-right opponent, while Murri-Briel defeated two opponents in a narrow primary victory.
Bishop says Republican voters chose a candidate they felt was most suited to win in November in a gerrymandered district that stretches from LaSalle-Peru to Ottawa and north to DeKalb.
76h House District Democratic primary winner Amy Murri-Briel, who goes by “Murri”, watches results come in Tuesday night. (Photo: Shaw Media)
Murri-Briel, who wasn’t available Thursday, has previously categorized her brand of politics as “pragmatism” in a race against a moderate and a progressive.
Bishop, for her part, was complimentary of Murri-Briel and believes voters have “solid choices.”
“In this case, having two qualified, capable candidates serves the voter better. They will have solid choices to make in November,” Bishop said. “We’re going to focus on economic issues and immigration. People are frustrated with the cost of living and how to pull it back down. That’s what people are concerned about.”
It is likely to be a top tier, expensive, potentially negative race Democrats don’t want to lose.
“I’m up for it,” Bishop said. “We’re confident. It’ll be hard work, but it’ll be fun.”