Ill. – Tuesday is primary election day in Illinois, and the race could tell everyone about the impact former President Donald Trump may have left.
It’s the Republican race for Congress.
Farmer and former state legislator Darren Bailey lost to J.B. Pritzker in 2022 in the race for governor. Bailey is now after the seat of five-term incumbent Congressman Mike Bost.
Bost stopped in Swansea Monday to rally supporters in his five-stop district-wide barnstorm tour on election eve, with Bailey turning up the heat in his campaign attack on Bost.
“10 years in Congress, it’s time to go,” Bailey said of Bost. “That’s a career politician who’s put the system over the people. I think the people are going to change that.”
Bailey, who had Trump’s endorsement in 2022, was hoping to land the same support this time around.
Instead, the endorsement went to Bost.
Recent polls show Bost leading Bailey by at least six points. The endorsement could prove to be pivotal in the district that holds the majority of southern Illinois.
“(Trump) knows from working side by side with me that I can get things done and how important having someone in a more senior position is for him…when his new administration takes over,” Bost said.
Bost said Trump valued his 10 years in Congress.
“I look at someone who’s made a career out of politics, who’s been in congress for 10 years and has nothing to show for it,” Bailey said of Bost’s record.
“If (Bailey) wants to see what we’ve done, come to my office; you can see it hanging on the wall. Every piece of legislation that Donald Trump signed, that we carried, that he knew was important to this nation,” Bost said.
Both candidates called the migrant crisis at the U.S. border with Mexico the top issue of the campaign.
Bailey said Bost was late to the party in dealing with the crisis.
“(He) calls himself a ‘governing conservative.’ That spells compromise. That’s all the man has done,” Bailey said.
There will have been 15 days of in-person, early voting ahead of the primary election day. One polling place in Fairview Heights had about 280 votes cast total as of Monday afternoon. A majority of the early voters cast Democratic ballots.
