By Illinois Review
In his weekly Chairman’s Memo, which is published every Friday evening, embattled IL GOP chair Don Tracy raved about how Illinois Republicans were “well represented” at the first presidential debate in Milwaukee – and that Republican leaders, including Tracy and national committeeman Richard Porter, spent their time in Wisconsin “sharing best practices and recommendations with each other to win elections.”
The memo also focused on the failed policies of the Biden administration and encouraged Illinois Republicans to vote early – something IL GOP officials never talked about last election. But noticeably missing from the memo was any mention of the Republican frontrunner – President Donald Trump, who leads the field of candidates by over 40 points – in a deliberate diss to the wildly popular former president.
The memo also failed to mention that over 200 million people tuned into Tucker Carlson’s interview with President Trump – making it the most watched interview of all-time – which was released on the social media platform X at the same time as the debate, in a deliberate dig at both the Republican National Committee and the one-time popular cable news channel which has purposely distanced itself from the former president in recent years.
Tracy also deliberately failed to mention how the Biden administration is weaponizing federal agencies to target their political enemies – choosing to focus on policy matters, instead.
Several IL GOP officials, including Porter and fellow state central committeewoman Jeanne Ives have already endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over Trump. Porter is best remembered as the chief architect of the failed Richard Irvin for governor campaign. Irvin – who had the support of IL GOP leaders would lose the primary by 43 points despite $50 million in funding from Chicago billionaire Ken Griffin.
Tracy has maintained that he’s going to remain neutral during the presidential primary election, but on March 23rd, Tracy and the IL GOP traveled down to Naples, Florida to host a private reception featuring former US Attorney General Bill Baar, who served as AG under the Trump administration.
Baar remains critical of Trump, and in November, he published a scathig opinion piece in the New York Post, writing,
“Unless the rest of the party goes along with him, he will burn the whole house down by leading ‘his people’ out of the GOP. Trump’s willingness to destroy the party if he does not get his way is not based on principle, but on his own supreme narcissism. His egoism makes him unable to think of a political party as anything but an extension of himself – a cult of personality.”
Last November, House Republican leader Jim Durkin – a close ally of Tracy, announced his resignation as leader after overseeing humiliating losses during the general election – and in media interviews, Durkin attempted to place all of the blame on President Donald Trump.
Although Trump leads in the polls by over 40 points, political newbie Vivek Ramaswamy is enjoying a post debate bump, where he dominated the debate stage on a night that was supposed to be DeSantis’.
In an informal post debate poll, Ramaswamy out performed DeSantis 23-21. And Ramaswamy continues to surge as the Florida governor continues to struggle on the campaign trail and in polling.
By Illinois ReviewWith Illinois Republicans preparing for their annual Unity Breakfast on March 18 – the morning after the primary election – grassroots activists across the state are...
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