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State Sen. Darren Bailey speaks at an election-night party in Effingham, Ill., June 28.
Photo:
Jim Vondruska/Getty Images
One of the dark ironies of this election year is that while Democrats try to disqualify
via the Jan. 6 hearings, they are helping to nominate his allies to run against in November. They had mixed success in Tuesday’s GOP primaries, but the tactic gives new meaning to cynical politics.
Illinois Democratic Gov.
J.B. Pritzker
has a record of failure that should make him vulnerable this fall. But lucky for him, he’ll face the Republican his money helped nominate. State Sen.
Darren Bailey
won the GOP primary with 58% of the vote Tuesday after Democrats spent more than $30 million on his behalf.
Democrats pumped up Mr. Bailey in advertising as a pro-life, pro-gun Trump supporter, knowing it would appeal to GOP primary voters. Mr. Trump last weekend endorsed Mr. Bailey, but the lawmaker already had a double-digit polling lead thanks to Democratic ads. Democrats thought Mr. Bailey would be the easiest candidate to defeat in November because he claims the 2020 election was stolen and stresses conservative cultural issues.
Aurora Mayor
Richard Irvin,
a moderate African-American from Chicago’s suburbs with a compelling biography, would have been the most formidable opponent. That’s why Democrats spent millions of dollars tearing him down. One ad accused him of “profiting by defending some of the most violent and heinous criminals” as a defense lawyer.
Mr. Bailey’s victory probably had less to do with Donald Trump than with his cultural conservative bent that resonates downstate. Former Republican Gov.
Bruce Rauner
supported abortion rights and won election in 2014 by campaigning against Chicago’s public-union machine. But he lost re-election in 2018 after cultural conservatives soured on him.
Mr. Bailey’s best but longshot bet is to avoid talking about divisive social issues like abortion and instead run against Illinois’s public-union mal-governance, which has resulted in some of the nation’s highest property taxes, soaring pension liabilities and an exodus of businesses and residents.
Democrats were less successful picking their opponents in Colorado. Moderate businessman Joe O’Dea defeated state Rep.
Ron Hanks
by nine points to take on Sen.
Michael Bennet
in November. Democrats spent millions boosting Mr. Hanks with ads highlighting his support for a border wall as well as 2020 election fraud claims questioning President Biden’s legitimacy.
Meantime,
Pam Anderson
beat
Tina Peters
in the Colorado secretary of state primary. Ms. Peters used her position as a Mesa County election clerk to try to prove the 2020 election was stolen.
Heidi Ganahl
also defeated
Greg Lopez
to face Gov.
Jared Polis
this fall. Mr. Lopez continues to claim Mr. Trump was the rightful winner of the 2020 election.
Colorado has been trending Democratic amid an influx of young people and minorities. But Republicans stand a good shot of flipping the Senate seat as suburban and Hispanic voters increasingly turn against woke progressivism. Former GOP Sen.
Cory Gardner
lost re-election in 2020, but his 2014 campaign provides a road-map for Mr. O’Dea.
While many Republicans are ready to move on from Mr. Trump, Democrats find it politically useful to keep him around. It’s hard to take seriously their anguish about the condition of democracy when they gamble on helping Trumpian candidates. They’d better hope the GOP tsunami isn’t so large that it sweeps into office the candidates they claim are threats to democracy but whom they helped nominate.
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Appeared in the June 30, 2022, print edition.
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