Breaking: Kathy Salvi Elected IL GOP Chairwoman, Will Finish Don Tracy’s Term

By Illinois Review

On Friday afternoon in a Zoom call, the Illinois Republican State Central Committee – the governing body of the IL GOP, voted to elect Kathy Salvi as state party chairwoman – where she will finish Don Tracy’s term, which expires in 2026.

On Wednesday evening, three candidates submitted their applications for party chairman: Aaron Del Mar, John Cabello and Kathy Salvi – but just minutes before the 12:00 pm Zoom meeting, Del Mar withdrew from the race – leaving Cabello and Salvi as the two remaining candidates.

Going into Friday’s vote, Salvi had the support of SSC members Joan Lasonde, Jason Plummer, Jan Weber and Jeanne Ives, while Cabello – an Illinois State Representative, had the support of Mark Hosty, Mark Shaw, Rhonda Belford, Myles Nelson, Laura Pollastrini and Larry Smith. The SSC members that supported Del Mar, moved over to support Salvi – which pushed her over the finish line.

The concern for Del Mar’s supporters was that Cabello had the support of Mark Shaw – who was pushed out as vice chairman of the state party last month after it was revealed that he broke party rules and purposefully misrepresented himself as a delegate during the state convention in May. And in his resignation letter, which was a 10-page meltdown, Shaw was in attack mode, angrily attacking fellow SSC members, county GOP leaders, the grassroots – which he referred to as “uniformed lemmings,” and he even borrowed a line from Democrat Gov. JB Pritzker – calling former GOP attorney general nominee Tom DeVore a “grifter.” In October 2021, Gov. Pritzker called DeVore a “grifter” for filing lawsuits against the governor’s mask mandate in schools during the pandemic.

The votes to make Salvi the new party chairwoman was more of a move to block Shaw from serving in a leadership role again than it was in support of Salvi – but ultimately, she became the beneficiary. In 2022, Salvi was the GOP nominee for U.S. Senate, losing to U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth in the general election.

Salvi begins her term on July 19th – the day that Tracy officially resigns as state party chairman.