(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Former Illinois lawmaker Jeanne Ives didn’t deny that the Illinois Republican Party fared poorly in Illinois’ 2022 midterm election.
“Democrats picked up seats in the House; Republicans picked up one seat in the Senate,” Ives said. “It was a bloodbath.”
Ives, who lost to former Gov. Bruce Rauner in 2018’s GOP gubernatorial primary, said Illinois Republicans simply failed to get out the vote.
“I mean, I’ll tell you what’s going on: The Democrats are very, very good at the processes of elections, so, getting in the early votes, finding their vote-by-mail folks, getting those votes turned in … this was a lower turnout election, and we did not get our voters to the polls,” she said.
Additionally, she said the GOP let Democrats paint them all as extremists.
Women “came out in droves” to vote for abortion rights, Ives said, despite her claim that a “supermajority of people” believe in restrictions on abortion.
“It didn’t matter,” Ives said. “It seems to me that women felt like it was an attack on them when the Dobbs decision came down without understanding the broader context of the policy.”
Although outgoing House Republican Leader Jim Durkin said the party needs to find more moderate candidates, Ives said there were a number of moderate Republicans on the ballot — and they lost by the same margins as the conservatives.
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