In an unorthodox political move, Republican candidate for governor Darren Bailey is rebuking his political party’s national leaders for posting a meme on social media mocking Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker’s weight.
The Feb. 14 posting on X by the Republican National Committee was designed as a cartoon Valentine’s Day card, declaring, “My love for you is bigger than JB Pritzker.” It shows a gluttonous generated image of Pritzker holding a huge cheeseburger in one hand and a large slice of pizza in the other, sitting at a table piled with food. Hearts appear in the background while one in the foreground displays the saying, “Be Mine.” The RNC handle on X has 3.4 million followers, and the Pritzker post received 1.2 million views.
Bailey, the GOP’s unsuccessful 2022 nominee against Pritzker who is seeking a rematch as he runs against three rivals in the GOP primary, responded to the RNC’s post by citing his own personal struggle with weight and said that “this kind of rhetoric isn’t helpful.”
“It doesn’t solve problems, it just creates more division,” Bailey said in an X post of his own. “We can and should have real debates about policy, priorities, and the future of our state. But attacking someone over their weight is unnecessary, unproductive, and has no place in our politics.”
A call to the Republican National Committee was answered by an automated response saying no one was available for comment. Monday was the President’s Day federal holiday.
Bailey, in two campaigns for governor and during his tenure as a downstate Republican state lawmaker, has not been shy about criticizing Pritzker. He has mocked the billionaire business owner and heir to the Hyatt hotels fortune as having “soft hands” and having “never worked a day in his life.” Just days before the RNC posting, Bailey posted an image of Pritzker dressed like a king, standing in a bathroom, with the tagline “Flush Pritzker.”
But Bailey has not attacked Pritzker over his weight. That has largely been a role carried out by President Donald Trump, who endorsed Bailey’s 2022 run for governor and encouraged him to run again after a family tragedy in an October helicopter accident.
Pritzker has been a vocal critic of Trump as the governor has extended his national footprint in a potential 2028 Democratic bid for president, even as he seeks a third term as Illinois’ chief executive.
During a 2024 Ohio campaign rally, Trump accused Pritzker of being “too busy eating” to lead his state, adding that “he wants to eat all the time.”
As Trump stepped up his criticism of Pritzker’s ultimately successful fight against the president’s efforts to deploy the National Guard in Chicago to assist federal immigration agents, Trump said the Democratic governor “ought to spend more time in the gym.”
And during a White House event on Nov. 25 for the traditional pardoning of two turkeys around Thanksgiving, Trump labeled Pritzker “a big fat slob.”
“I was going to talk about Pritzker in size, but when I talk about Pritzker, I get angry because he’s not letting us do the job,” Trump said, referring to Pritzker’s efforts over the National Guard. “So I’m not going to tell my Pritzker joke. They have a very cute little joke, some speechwriter wrote, some joke about his weight. But I would never want to talk about his weight. I don’t talk about people being fat. I refuse to talk about the fact that he’s a fat slob. I don’t mention it.”
Pritzker, who has visibly been losing weight, has responded to Trump’s criticism, saying in August, “It takes one to know one on the weight question, and the president, of course, himself, is not in good shape.”
“I would say also that his personal attacks on me are just evidence of a guy who’s still living in fifth grade,” Pritzker said. “He’s the kind of bully that throws invectives at people — and because he knows that what he’s saying is actually commentary on himself.”
Bailey has toned down his invectives against Pritzker and Chicago in his second bid for the GOP nomination as he faces rivals Ted Dabrowski, Rick Heidner and James Mendrick in the March 17 primary for the right to challenge Pritzker in November. Pritzker has no competition in the Democratic primary.
The downstate farmer, who in 2022 referred to Chicago as a “hellhole,” has said in several interviews that his campaign this time around is based on “more listening and less talking.”
Meanwhile, in a new TV ad, Dabrowski doubled down on his anti-immigrant campaign, attacking Pritzker’s warning to Trump that “if you come for my people, you come through me.”
“But who are Pritzker’s people? They’re the more than 1,700 illegal alien predators Pritzker helped escape from ICE. They’re the people whose health care, rent and college tuition you pay for,” Dabrowski says in the ad. “Well, I have a message for you, governor. I’ll be coming for you and going through you. Your days and the days of sanctuary living for ‘your people’ are over.”
