CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A conservative downstate lawmaker officially launched his campaign to run for governor of Illinois on Monday.
Illinois state Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) made the announcement with his wife that he will be seeking the Republican nomination for governor in 2022. He pledged to take on "political elites" during a kickoff event in Effingham.
“Republicans and Democrats have worried about the donor class more than they’ve worried about the working class, and friends, that ends now,” Bailey told supporters at a kickoff event in Effingham.
“I will be a governor for the people of Illinois, guided by the lessons that I’ve learned from faith, family and community. It’s time to lift ourselves out of the mire and partisan anger and cynicism. It’s time to restore confidence in government. It’s time to revitalize our state. It’s time that we live up to our name: the heartland of America.”
Bailey, 54, is a farmer from Xenia, a village of about 400 people about 250 miles south of Chicago. He also runs a private Christian school with wife Cindy. After winning an Illinois House seat in 2018, he was elected to a state Senate seat in November in a district that covers a large area of east-central Illinois.
Bailey has been on of the most outspoken opponents of Governor JB Pritzker's approach to the coronavirus pandemic.
He is the second downstate conservative Republican to publicly declare a governor bid, following last week’s announcement by former state Sen. Paul Schimpf of Waterloo.
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