By Illinois Review
On Friday, embattled Illinois Republican Party chair Don Tracy and Republican National Committee chair Ronna Romney-McDaniel, who made a surprise appearance just days after informing President Donald Trump of her plans to step down after the South Carolina primary – received a half-hearted applause from the crowded ballroom during their joint appearance at the IL GOP’s Bank Your Vote Gala in Rosemont.
Since her election as RNC chair in 2017, Romney-McDaniel – the niece of Never Trumper and establishment Republican Utah Sen. Mitt Romney has presided over big Republican losses in 2018, 2020 and 2022.
Romney-McDaniel has also come under fire for reports that showed the RNC spending millions of dollars on private jets, limousines, luxury retreats and Broadway shows since her election as RNC chair in 2017.
Tracy, who was elected chair of the Illinois Republican Party in 2021, presided over massive Republican losses during the 2022 midterm elections where Republicans lost every statewide race; lost winnable congressional races and lost winnable seats on the State Supreme Court. The Democrats on the other hand, expanded their supermajority control in the Illinois legislature making Republican legislators irrelevant and voiceless on state matters. And during the local school and library board election in the Spring of 2023, Republicans lost big as well.
Tracy has also come under fire for blaming the Republican nominee for governor and a Trump-endorsed conservative grassroots candidate for the 2022 midterm election losses.
Multiple sources who attended the gala shared with this publication that Tracy kept interrupting his remarks on Friday evening by asking the crowd to stop talking. Sources also confirm that none of the speakers, including Romney-McDaniel, Tracy or Kennedy mentioned President Donald Trump during their public remarks.
During the 2022 election cycle, Tracy never talked about a vote by mail program, but in March of 2023 that all changed when he sent a letter to Illinois Republicans talking about the importance of implementing a “vote by mail” program for the 2024 election cycle in an effort to beat the Democrats at their own game. Again, something he never talked about until after embarrassing defeats in 2022.
What Tracy did not mention, however, is the fact that Illinois Democrats have allocated millions of dollars to implement such programs, while Illinois Republicans are operating on a shoestring budget.
Tracy even goes a step further and admits in his letter just how irrelevant Republicans are in Illinois and that it’s impossible to change anything related to Vote By Mail until Republicans have a voice in Springfield.
“However, the harsh reality is that until we have the numbers in the legislature to change it, we have to play to win under the existing rules and we must increase Republican voter turnout by greater use of Vote By Mail.”
For years, President Trump has talked about mail-in ballots being ripe with fraud and a tool in the Democrat’s arsenal to sway an election. On Friday, Romney-McDaniel and the IL GOP hammered the importance of voting early and by mail.
But the gala’s main speaker, U.S. Senator John Kennedy (R-La), who received a thunderous applause and standing ovation when he was introduced, seemed to contradict the evening’s message as reported by POLITICO’S Illinois Playbook, when he declared in his remarks that there should be “an Election Day, not an election month.”
Kennedy – a conservative, pro-life Republican from Louisiana consistently receives an A rating for his pro-life views. Kennedy also opposes using taxpayer dollars to fund abortions and he fought against the Democrats’ attempts to force states to legalize abortions up to the point of a child’s birth. Sen. Kennedy has also led the effort to defund Planned Parenthood.
On January 24th, Kennedy endorsed President Trump over his rival Nikki Haley, posting on X,
“Competition makes us all better, so I let the primary play out, but this thing’s over. It’s going to be Pres. Trump versus Pres. Biden: A choice between hope and more hurt. It’s not even close. I choose hope. I am endorsing Pres. Trump and look forward to working with him.”
Trump endorsed Kennedy in 2016 and again in 2021, saying,
“Fantastic news for Louisiana and the U.S.A. – Senator John Kennedy will be seeking re-election! John is strong on Crime, the Border, our Military, our Veterans, Pro-Life, Energy and the Economy, and our very much under siege Second Amendment.”
To complicate matters even more, the IL GOP’s co-host for the evening gala that featured Kennedy was Greg Hart – a pro-choice, “Never-Trumper” who continues to bash the wildly popular former president and leading Republican candidate for President on his social media accounts.
In October of 2022, just a month before the midterm election, IL GOP chair Don Tracy and the IL GOP paid for a pro-choice mailer in support of Hart, who was running for DuPage County Board Chair. Hart would go on and lose the election.
In the days leading up to the mailer, Hart’s wife Alex released a campaign video saying,
“As DuPage chairman, Greg won’t change our laws supporting a woman’s right to choose, and he will always support women’s health.”
And in the mailer, Hart again reiterated that her husband “will always protect women’s rights and never restrict our right to choose.”
On. June 8, 2023, Hart posted on his personal X account,
“I think Donald Trump is not fit to be leader of the free world.”
On June 9, 2023, Hart reposted a statement on X written by former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan – another “never-Trumper” that said,
“Our party has a clear choice to make: do we want to spend the next election making the case against Joe Biden’s presidency , or do we want to spend it defending Trump’s indefensible behavior in multiple prosecutions?”
In another post on X, Hart posted,
“Yet another sickening statement from someone who is not fit to be President.”
The IL GOP likes to talk about party unity as they did on Friday, yet they openly reward divisive people who contradict the party’s pro-life platform and spew hatred at the man who’s the presumptive Republican nominee for President and leader of the national Republican Party, with a fancy a co-host title and a spot on stage next to Kennedy.
No wonder Tracy and Romney-McDaniel received a cold welcome – and why Tracy kept asking the crowd on Friday to stop talking during his remarks – Republicans are tired of losing and they’re tired of their leaders saying one thing but doing another.
The only thing Tracy can promise at this time is another election in Illinois that’s dominated by losses. And until the IL GOP is serious about winning – Tracy will remain in his position because in Illinois, party leaders reward wealth over winning.
