By Illinois Review
While President Donald Trump cruises to historic, landslide victories in Iowa and New Hampshire, the embattled Illinois Republican Party will remain neutral during the presidential primary season as disgraced former Illinois House Republican leader Jim Durkin – a close ally and confidante to state party chairman Don Tracy, continues to attack the presumptive Republican nominee for President of the United States and his base of loyal supporters.
In Wednesday morning’s edition of POLITICO’S Illinois Playbook, it was reported that “the Illinois Republican Party is staying ‘neutral’ for the primary and will get behind whoever is at the top of the ticket, party chair Don Tracy told Playbook.”
Tracy’s comments come on the heels of Trump’s landslide victories in Iowa and New Hampshire. After the Iowa Republican primary last week, both Vivek Ramaswamy and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended their presidential campaigns and announced that they were endorsing the former president over Nikki Haley – the only remaining candidate in the race who has the support of establishment Republicans and the anti-Trump wing of the party.
In national polls, Haley trails Trump by 56 points. In Iowa, Haley finished in third place – 32 points behind Trump. And in South Carolina – Haley’s home state where she served as governor, polls show President Trump leading Haley by 36 points with just 10 days left before the primary.
But Tracy’s comments that the IL GOP will remain “neutral” during the presidential primary season is hypocritical. Last January, Tracy joined Bishop on Air and blamed the conservative grassroots Republican nominee for governor – who was endorsed by President Trump – for the 2022 midterm election losses, and said the IL GOP needs to re-evaluate their primary election neutrality policy moving forward.
During the 2022 primary election, the Trump-endorsed candidate defeated the IL GOP’s preferred candidate, Richard Irvin by a shocking 43 points.
Tracy also reiterated during the interview that the IL GOP remained neutral during the governor primary, despite a pile of evidence that suggests otherwise.
It’s hard to claim neutrality, as Tracy did when nearly half of the Republican State Central Committee members – the governing board of the IL GOP, including RNC national committeeman Richard Porter, endorsed Irvin for governor during the primary.
Porter even served as an honorary co-chair of Irvin’s campaign.
It’s hard to claim neutrality, as Tracy did when the general counsel of the IL GOP John Fogarty – was also the general counsel to the Richard Irvin campaign – representing the interests of the IL GOP and team Irvin at the exact same time.
It’s hard to claim neutrality, as Tracy did when in July, he was recorded in an exclusive audio with conservative leaders – admitting that the Irvin campaign used the IL GOP postage discount – a perk not afforded to the other Republican gubernatorial campaigns.
On Tuesday evening, Republican National Committee Chair Rona Romney McDaniel – a close friend of Porter and Tracy’s, told Fox News that it’s time to unite around Trump.
“I’m looking at the math and the path going forward and I don’t see it for Nikki Haley. I think she’s run a great campaign but I do think there is a message that’s coming out from the voters, which is very clear.”
Romney-McDaniel then concluded,
“We need to unite around our eventual nominee, which is going to be Donald Trump and we need to make sure we beat Joe Biden.”
In an article published late on Tuesday evening, it was reported in Breitbart that a CNN exit poll revealed that 70 percent of Haley’s voters were not registered Republicans. And after Trump was declared the projected winner in New Hampshire, Haley wasted no time taking the stage and delivering what appeared to be a victory speech and vowing that she would remain in the race.
Moments after Haley finished her speech, a CNN correspondent reporting live from the White House north lawn said they had just spoken to an official with the Biden campaign who commented that Nikki Haley staying in the race was “welcomed news” for Democrats.
On Wednesday morning, disgraced former Illinois House Republican leader Jim Durkin told Illinois Playbook that Trump was a “bully, a narcissist and a pathological liar.” Durkin went on to say that “the MAGA’s have co-opted the Republican Party,” and that Republicans will lose big in the November election because of Trump.
Durkin, who is a celebrated figure within the IL GOP and remains a close friend of Tracy, has been the voice of the very small and ineffectual anti-Trump wing of the tone-deaf Illinois Republican party.
After overseeing widespread losses that saw Illinois House Democrats strengthen their supermajority control in Springfield in the 2022 election, Durkin announced that he would be stepping down as House Republican leader. A month later, Durkin announced that he would be resigning his seat and leaving the legislature altogether.
Just days before resigning from office, Durkin was the only Republican to join the Democrats, voting in favor of the assault weapons ban – a move that angered conservative Republicans across the state.
Even before Trump, Durkin had a history of losing. In 2002, he unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate, losing to incumbent Democrat U.S. Senator Dick Durbin by a staggering 22 points.
From 2013-2023, Durkin served as the House Republican Leader where he maintained his party’s status in the minority.
In 2012, the year before Durkin was elected minority leader, there were 54 House Republicans – and when Durkin stepped down as leader and resigned from the legislature in 2023, there were only 40 House Republicans.
Durkin was also an early supporter of the failed Richard Irvin campaign for governor in 2022, and was highlighted on the original endorsement list.
Irvin not only pulled Democratic Primary ballots in 2014, 2016 and 2020, but he also spent years praising Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker – referring to him as a “great friend and a great leader.”
Irvin would go on to lose the primary election by an astonishing 43 points despite Chicago-based billionaire Ken Griffin dumping $50 million into his campaign and racking up over 60 endorsements from IL GOP leaders from across the state – including Durkin.
The next Republican primary is in South Carolina on February 3rd.
