The debacle over the Chicago Bears moving to Indiana could mean Gov. JB Pritzker has to work harder on his reelection as governor of Illinois, prior to an anticipated presidential bid. But who is the best choice for Republican voters hoping to forestall both of those possibilities?
A corporate edict prevents us from making a formal endorsement in this race, but not from offering our opinions on the three serious Republican candidates, all of whom met with us individually. (A fourth candidate, James Mendrick, did not respond to us and has not mounted much of a campaign.)
The trio offer very different choices. Darren Bailey, 59, of Xenia is a downstate farmer, and former member of both the Illinois Senate (55th District) and Illinois House (109th), who ran against Pritzker for this office in 2022 and offers the kind of traditional conservative values rooted in the rural regions of the state. But Bailey’s life has changed drastically since 2022: His son Zachary, daughter-in-law Kelsey and two of their three children, Vada Rose and Samuel, were killed in a helicopter crash in October in Ekalaka, Montana. He told us he is a changed man and we believed him. More on why in a moment.
Ted Dabrowski, 62, of Wilmette, is the leader of a conservative (and data-driven) Illinois publication, Wirepoints.org, which invariably gets under the skin of liberal journalists. Dabrowski is the epitome of the policy wonk, the kind of Republican whom you imagine in a green eyeshade poring over actuarial tables and lamenting pension debt, a descriptor not intended as an insult, although hardly the full job description of governor. He said he would cooperate far more effectively with Washington, D.C., than a Pritzker administration outspoken in its resistance, and he discussed what he said would be a DOGE-like purge of wasteful government spending. (There would be much low-hanging fruit.) On the matter of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he seemed to say he would disregard current Illinois law and declare by fiat that local and state law enforcement should be cooperating with federal immigration enforcement. Not good.
We could imagine Dabrowski, who is unlikely to appeal to rural Republicans, as a helpful research and policy staffer to a Republican governor, especially on pensions and other entitlements. But he did not suggest to us someone who would be able to work effectively with the Democratic majority in Springfield or, yet more importantly, inspire Illinoisans to feel like their state was in optimistic, moderate, sufficiently charismatic hands. Governors tend to be better when they are people people.
With a singular sartorial style and an entertaining loquaciousness, Rick Heidner, 65, a lifelong Illinoisan now of Barrington Hills, is the epitome of the self-made Illinoisan. He recounted for us how he rose from humble beginnings to amass a formidable business empire focused on Ricky Rockets Fuel Centers (11 family-friendly locations), wholesale fuel delivery, convenience stores, real estate and video gaming. Heidner is running out of frustration, to put it mildly, with what he deems to be inept liberal government in the state, hindering rather than helping entrepreneurs like himself who have created hundreds of jobs out of whole cloth.
He told us a resonant story about how a Chicago police commander had demanded he hire 24-hour private security for one of his South Side strip malls after a murder took place in the parking lot, on pains of being forced to close. Heidner quite reasonably thinks safety is the responsibility of elected officials and the police they manage. Aside from his focus on crime and opposition to the SAFE-T Act, he said he wants to “give business a reason to return to Illinois” and, when asked about ICE, argued that “if we had turned over the worst of the worst, we would not have had this problem.” Fair enough, although there surely would be too steep a Springfield learning curve for a man with near-zero political experience.
Bailey, though, does have Springfield experience. In his conversation with us, he effectively apologized for his previous endorsement visit in 2022 when he reiterated his description of Chicago as a “hellhole” and denigrated the city to its leading newspaper. This time, he said, he had learned from his mistakes (“I discovered the hard way how to love a city”), a realization he said reflected his choice of Aaron Del Mar, chairman of the Cook County Republican Party, as his running mate. Bailey’s remarks centered on what he said were his three pillars: education, safety and affordability. He said, “government’s role is to protect people” and argued that Pritzker had “allowed his hatred for Donald Trump to be greater than his love for Illinois,” although he generally avoided sharp or personal criticism, saying that he now wanted to “build people up, not tear them down.” Bailey also said he was determined to better educate Illinoisans on who their elected state officials were and how to get their help and that “we should all do whatever we can to help immigrants become naturalized citizens,” which we were glad to hear.
Indeed, we were glad to hear all of these changes in Bailey, who we found wiser, kinder and more moderate than previously the case. His base won’t be in Chicagoland. We have disagreements on many things. But Bailey does have a sincere new mission and understanding of life’s struggles.
Read the Tribune Editorial Board’s endorsements for the 2026 Illinois primary election here.
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.
