Bailey says calling Chicago a ‘hellhole’ was ‘dumb’ as he courts more city votes
CHICAGO - Darren Bailey, the downstate farmer who is again trying to challenge Gov. JB Pritzker in November’s election, expressed regret for calling Chicago a "hellhole" in his previous gubernatorial campaign as he tries to court more urban voters.
What they're saying:
Bailey’s campaign released a new video on social media on Sunday in which he and his lieutenant governor running mate Aaron Del Mar, of Palatine, appeared to tour the city and try its famous hot dogs and deep dish pizza.
"Alright Darren, what did you think of the ‘hellhole’?" Del Mar asks Bailey in the video.
"Aaron listen, I said something dumb, and I am certainly not too proud to admit when I’m wrong," Bailey responds. "So, I love Chicago. I love everything this city has to offer. I can’t wait to experience it."
In the social media post, Bailey added he said things about the city "I wish I could take back. But this city showed me grace anyway. I’m a better man for it."
Bailey's latest campaign move also comes after he said he literally moved into an apartment on the city's Near South Side, according to Capitol News Illinois.
The backstory:
When he first ran for governor in 2022, Bailey routinely blasted Chicago and its Democratic leaders. In one debate, he called Chicago a "crime-ridden, corrupt, dysfunctional hellhole."
Such rhetoric did not seem to go over well in the hugely Democratic city during that cycle. Pritzker won the election easily by a nearly 55% to 42% margin, thanks in large part to besting Bailey by more than 470,000 votes in Chicago alone (an 82% to 15.5% margin).
During this cycle, while Bailey has again espoused tough-on-crime positions and proposed a DOGE-like plan to address Illinois’ persistent fiscal challenges, he’s also altered his rhetoric in an effort to attract more votes in the state’s most populous region. In addition to losing Cook County by 50 points, Bailey also lost DuPage, Lake, and Kane counties by double-digit margins in 2022.
While Bailey has also been an ardent supporter of President Donald Trump, he’s also tried to distance himself from some of the president’s more extreme statements. Earlier this month, when Trump went after Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV for his criticisms of the war in Iran and briefly posted an AI-generated image of himself appearing to look like Jesus, Bailey said the president was "wrong."
In another instance earlier this year, Bailey called out a post by the national GOP of an AI-generated image of Pritzker intended to mock the governor for his weight. Bailey responded, saying such mockery was "unnecessary, unproductive, and has no place in our politics."
There’s little doubt that Pritzker is in prime position to win a third term as governor in November as Republicans face major political headwinds. Not only do voters give Trump low approval ratings, but historically, the party that loses a presidential election has almost always gone on to recapture at least one chamber of Congress in the following midterm election cycle over the past three decades.
Still, it might be worth noting that while Trump lost Illinois for the third-straight election in 2024, he did so by just under 11 percentage points, a significantly smaller margin than the 17 points he lost by in 2020 and 2016.