By Illinois Review
On Wednesday, Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy submitted his resignation as party chairman effective July 19th – blaming the rise of the powerful “grassroots,” party infighting and the recent removal of state central committee member Mark Shaw as vice chairman of the party without “due process” as the embattled leader of the IL GOP presided over widespread and massive losses during his brief tenure as chairman.
“When I took on this full-time volunteer job in February, 2021, I thought I would be spending most of my time fighting Democrats, helping elect Republicans, raising money to pay for more Party infrastructure, and advocating for Party unity. Unfortunately, however, I have had to spend far too much time dealing with intra party power struggles, and local intra party animosities that continued after primaries and County Chair elections.”
Tracy also blamed the rise of the “grassroots,” writing, “Like Vince Kolber, my friend and former Finance Committee Chair, I am also concerned about the current infatuation of some members of the SCC, few as they are, with certain individuals they call “grass roots” leaders.”
Last week Kolber, who served as chairman of the IL GOP Finance Committee, abruptly resigned in an angry letter to Tracy, just weeks after the influential conservative grassroots base of the Illinois Republican Party scored major victories during the GOP State Convention in Collinsville – and after two years of unflattering stories by this publication. Kolber, who is registered to vote in Illinois and Wisconsin, was still angry about losing his election at the state convention for national committeeman – after being eliminated in the first round to Mark Shaw, who faked a delegate badge and threatened to beat up a fellow state central committee member. During the first day of the convention, the Republican National Committeeman nominating committee voted 14-3 to keep Kolber on the ballot despite failing to meet the candidacy requirements as outlined by the IL GOP’s own bylaws.
Late this past Monday, the Illinois Republican Party State Central Committee – the governing board of the IL GOP, voted overwhelmingly to remove fellow SSC committeeman Mark Shaw as vice chair of the state party – in a stunning move – proving yet again the grassroots’ dominance over statewide GOP politics. And the vote clearly did not sit well with Tracy, who wrote in his resignation letter that,
“Recent events including the RNC Committeeman election, immediately followed by the retribution sacking of the losing candidate Vice-Chair Mark Shaw, a long time State Party leader and worker, without due process and without taking any step to disciplining others for alleged or admitted Convention misconduct, portends a direction of the State Party I am not comfortable with.”
In officially announcing his resignation, Tracy wrote,
“Accordingly, I hereby resign as Chair of the Illinois Republican Party effective upon the election of my successor preferably no later than July 19, 2024 at 5pm. Like Vince, I will continue to personally support many of our great Republican state, local and federal candidates, and our many great Republican County Chairs and other positive and productive Republican leaders.”
Tracy then added,
“I hereby appoint Jan Weber as Chair of a Search Committee and empower her to add two other members to that Committee as she sees fit.”
The embattled state party chairman than added a “PS:”
“My resignation has nothing to do with today’s anonymously sourced Chicago Tribune article. I made my decision to resign early yesterday morning, communicated it to Matt Janes before our 10am staff call yesterday, and began drafting this notice yesterday shortly before or after the staff call.”
For the last two years, this publication has consistently called on Tracy to resign. And on November 21, 2022, just weeks after massive and widespread GOP losses during the midterm election, IR editor-in-chief Mark Vargas wrote an opinion piece titled, “It’s Time for Don Tracy to Resign, Now,” writing,
“It’s also going to take new Illinois GOP leadership – and it is why I am calling on IL GOP Chairman Don Tracy to resign.
Resign Now.
The people of Illinois need to know that the GOP is serious about rebuilding and putting the best team in place to win.
If Don Tracy can take credit for victories, then he most certainly can take responsibility for losses. And the losses were many.”
Since November of 2022, this publication has published dozens of articles critical of Tracy and calling on him to resign. And last June, 30 organizations representing over 80,000 conservative grassroots activists from across the state, signed an open letter and shared exclusively with this publication, calling on the Illinois Republican State Central Committee to remove Don Tracy as chairman of the state party in a motion of “No Confidence.” In the letter, the grassroots wrote,
“The state of the Illinois Republican Party is not good. Under chairman Don Tracy’s leadership, fundraising is a struggle, party infighting has made its way into the pages of the Chicago Tribune, Politico and Crain’s Chicago Business – and more importantly, the conservative grassroots base – the heart, soul and backbone of the Illinois Republican Party, feels ignored – and their volunteer efforts minimized.”
The letter also pointed out the “significant gains” that Democrats have made in local, state and federal races under the embattled chairman’s tenure as leader of the Republican party.
“Under chairman Tracy’s leadership, the Democratic Party of Illinois has made significant gains. In November, Republicans lost every statewide office; Democrats increased their supermajority control in the Illinois legislature; Republicans lost 14 of 17 congressional races; and in the Illinois Supreme Court, Republicans lost winnable races giving the Democrats a 5-2 majority in the state’s highest court.”
During the 2022 Primary, conservative grassroots candidates were viciously attacked by IL GOP-endorsed candidates in mailers paid for by the Illinois Republican Party – falsely claiming that their conservative opponents were “fake” Republicans and “not one of us.”
And in the gubernatorial primary in 2022, the IL GOP-backed candidate Richard Irivn was receiving support from party leadership – and his campaign was even allowed to use the IL GOP postage discount. A perk not afforded to other conservative grassroots candidates for governor.
During the school board races in April of 2023, Tracy and the IL GOP were nowhere to be found – abandoning the grassroots base of the party while Gov. JB Pritzker and the Democratic Party of Illinois spent $800,000 to support their far-left school board candidates and attack their conservative opponents.
Just months before his election as chairman of the IL GOP, Tracy donated to a Democratic candidate endorsed by liberal US Sen. Dick Durbin and Democrat US Rep. Cherie Bustos, a friend and ally of former Democratic US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. But this should come as no surprise because after all, during the 2002 Illinois Primary, Tracy ran as a Democrat. And in 2020, during the height of the pandemic, Tracy’s family-owned business, Dot Foods, where he is an owner, donated to Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
The race to succeed Tracy begins, who will leave his party role after the Republican National Convention in July. With such a diverse and large state, an IL GOP co-chairman role appears to make the most sense and can unite the southern and northern part of the state as Republicans prepare for a tough election in November.
