Republicans sought to reclaim their own national convention momentum at the Illinois State Fair before Democrats throw their big party in Chicago next week, with GOP leaders on Thursday shrugging off positive polling for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and warning of a generational “train wreck” if she takes the White House.
Illinois’ GOP delegation left the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last month buzzing with optimism around former President Donald Trump’s odds against President Joe Biden.
Now with Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, atop the ticket, state Republican leaders are urging local candidates to stay the course on issues of crime, economics and corruption to help them chip away at Democratic strongholds in the suburbs.
“Republicans will bring a stop to the crime in our unsafe neighborhoods,” newly elected state GOP Chair Kathy Salvi said at her party’s rain-soaked rally. “Republicans will attack the cost of living and this inflation that’s gone to unprecedented levels. And, sadly to say, we have learned how to export the culture of corruption to other states, and that’s going to end once we have Republican control.”
“We’re ready for the type of governance that we need not only in Illinois, but in America. The Harris-Walz administration will be a train wreck not just for us, but for all future generations,” Salvi said.
No Republicans have held statewide office in Illinois since Gov. JB Pritzker unseated former Gov. Bruce Rauner in 2018, and the GOP remains outnumbered by Democratic super-majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly.
Illinois House Minority Leader Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, argued the party could snag several seats back from Democrats in November. But first, she said, Republicans need to acknowledge how they’ve ceded control to Democrats in recent years.
“We are dealing with a party who wants to destroy small business, hurt our most vulnerable and make families feel that they need to be reliant on government for everything,” McCombie said of Democrats. “How did they do that? We let them. We got lazy. We believed the lie that our voice and our vote does not matter, but it matters.”
“This election isn’t just about a presidential race,” she said. “It’s about setting the stage for the next governor’s race. Our turnout in this race will be instrumental in determining the future leadership for Illinois.”
Earlier, Illinois Senate Minority Leader John Curran downplayed the local impact of Harris’ entry into the race, and he advised state candidates not to rely on Trump or his running mate, JD Vance, to bolster turnout.
“Down-ballot races are individual races,” the Downers Grove Republican said outside a joint meeting of the Republican Party State Central Committee and county chairs.
“Candidates need to continue, especially in the suburbs, to present themselves and not rely on national waves or national trends. They have to build their own image in the suburbs. That’s what we’re doing, working with the candidates that we have throughout the state,” Curran said.
Palatine Township Republican Chairman and state central committeeman Aaron Del Mar said he expects Harris’ candidacy to boost Illinois Democratic turnout, “but the honeymoon won’t last forever.”
“Democrats are on a little bit of a sugar high right now. I think when she actually starts taking questions from the press and is getting scrutinized by the press, I think a lot of that will change. I mean,” Del Mar said. “I think there’s a reason why she hasn’t answered questions [from the media] since becoming the nominee.”
Salvi called for a renewed focus on driving early voting and mail-in balloting, both areas in which Democrats have vastly outpaced Republicans as Trump has consistently raised unfounded concerns about the legitimacy of the process.
“We will work hard to bank as many pre-Election Day votes as possible and overwhelm the Democrats with Republican votes, because the political party that votes for weeks and months will mathematically beat the party that only votes for one day,” Salvi told central committee members, referencing her own failed 2022 campaign against Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill.
“I won two years ago, the day-of vote, but we got slaughtered in the early and mail-in ballots. So once we compete in this way, we will win elections,” Salvi said. She called it a critical tactic in “stopping Harris and JB Pritzker from spreading the influence of their leftist propaganda across the nation.”
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