Republican Darren Bailey on his second run for governor

Today on the 21st show, Republican candidate for Governor Darren Bailey. Four years ago, he ran and lost to the incumbent Democrat, J.B. Pritzker. Now he's trying again. We'll talk with him about his politics, policy, and navigating social issues in a state where Democrats have been dominant for more than a decade. We're getting absolutely nowhere when we continue to gripe and argue and haggle about these things that obviously isn't going to change in a Democrat supermajority. I'm Brian Mackie with Darren Bailey for the hour coming up today on the 21st show, which is a production of Illinois Public Media, airing on W ILLL in Urbana, WUIS in Springfield, WNIJ in Rockford DeKalb, WVIK in the Quad Cities, and WSIU.SIU. in Carbondale. But first, news. From Illinois Public Media, this is the 21st show. I'm Brian Mackey, and my guest for the hour today is the Republican nominee for Governor Darren Bailey. Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker is seeking a third term in the state's highest office, and we had an interview with him that aired earlier this week. Bailey, of course, faced J.B. Pritzker four years ago in 2022, and J.B. Pritzker won that election. Bailey is a farmer from Southern Illinois. He started his political career on the North Clay Board of Education in Louisville, Illinois, served there 17 years, 12 as the president of the school board. He was then in the state legislature from 2019 to 2023, two years in the Illinois House and two years in the Illinois Senate. After his first run for governor back in 2022, Bailey moved on to the Republican primary for the 12th Congressional District from Illinois, challenging incumbent Congressman Mike Bossed in the Republican primary. Bailey narrowly lost that. Bossed won the general and remains in that seat today. Now Darren Bailey is running again for governor. In the primaries this year, he defeated three others to win the Republican nomination. On Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Bailey, joined me in our Urbana studios. And I should say for those of you who are keeping score at home, we asked both candidates, J.B. Pritzker, and Mr. Bailey for a full hour-long program. The J.B. Pritzker team got back to us and offered 25 minutes. That's how long that interview lasted. We did get a full show with Mr. Bailey, hence the difference in timing and length of these two interviews. views. For our radio listeners, this conversation is also on video. You can find this on YouTube. Just search for The 21st Show. That said, no calls today, but you can let us know what you think by emailing talk at 21st Show.org.

Darren Bailey, welcome to the 21st show. Thanks for being here. Well, it's an honor to be here. Thank you so much for the invite. So I want to ask you about your background. What was it like for you growing up in, and I want to get this right. Is it you say Louisville? Louisville, Illinois. We do pronounce it correctly. Got it. It spelt like Louisville-Cundecke, but pronounced correctly. So tell me about growing up in Louisville. Well, it was quite awesome, of course, growing up on a farm. learned to work and just had a lot of freedom, road motorcycles, you know, a lot in the countryside and hunted, fished, close to family. And I wouldn't trade it for anything else. You know, I know fair season is kind of coming to an end, but participated in 4-H, you know, in my younger days and during high school, FFA. And I'd like to attribute those programs to, you know, just being able to get up. I never dreamt that I would be doing what I'm doing now. But I do remember the times in the 4-H where it was your turn every other month. every few months to stand up and give a presentation, you know, in front of your peers, and I absolutely hated it. You know, if I were to quit, it would be for that reason. But just, no, I had a wonderful childhood. And like I said, my dad taught me a hard work ethic, and we were in church on Sundays and just... I always attended, you know, part of school events. And just we stayed busy, but yet it was it was a lot simpler then than it is today. And we've tried to raise our children the same way. What pulled you off the farm and into politics? Well, I tell people, you know, with the advent of social media, it's easy to get on and complain about things and walk away from the argument. However, I've always voted. I've always we've always been involved served for 17 years on our school board and and just always been involved in our community and in our church but in 2017 we had had a it was in it was close to the end of June and we'd had a pretty long and tedious wheat harvest. It was muddy that year. So we finished up, we loaded our four children up, and at that time four grandchildren, and we all got away, escaped to Florida for a little bit. And Cindy's birthday is on July 4th, so we were going to celebrate the 4th of July in Florida. And during a little bit of downtime, I just happened to pick my phone up and check out the social media, and I saw that the Illinois General Assembly was back in session. Again, I voted, but I was not very engaged with politics, and especially with Illinois politics. And it struck me odd that the General Assembly was in session over July 4th, started doing some research, realized Illinois had been without a budget for a while. But then something else quickly caught my eye as I began to tap on.

certain events that my state representative in southeast Illinois, a very conservative district, was supporting the 32% tax increase. And I've got, you know, 15 men and women that work on the farm with me, and I thought, wow, this seems to be the last thing they need. And, you know, my view of government is usually it's too big and it needs to shrink. So I contacted my state rep, contacted my state senator, had the discussion learned, and as I began to learn more. I was kind of frustrated at the situation. So I did the American thing. I got on Facebook, started sharing articles, started complaining. And before long, people were contacting me, friends that knew us, and suggesting that I would run for state rep, of which I was very disgruntled about, and I knew that I was in trouble. So our family began to, we prayed, we fasted. There was a time that I wanted to make sure my sons were ready to step into the role of management on the farm. we believe that this was an open door that we needed to go through. So that is why I am here today. Four years later, you're running for governor. And now it's four years after that. Why the leap? Well, got elected as a state rep, and honestly, I believe in term limits, I really thought that I would serve for 10 years and come back home and resume life. I showed up the first year that J.B. Pritzker was elected governor and showed up the first time ever that my party Republicans were in the super minority, and I quickly became disgusted at how Illinois politics worked, and especially being in this super minority, it was like we didn't exist. We did not have a... voice so instead of just you know sitting there for I like to be productive I like to get things done be a part of change so probably you know probably more than anything COVID might have opened a door to my next step into the Senate because when the state was shut down and I argued vehemently on the House floor even you know hey I understand your high populated areas in Chicago land if you want to close doors and force people to stay home so be it but Gosh, in Southern Illinois, we're kind of naturally social distance. So why don't you just leave us alone? But instead, the governor went ahead and started imposing these executive orders of shutdown. And again, I remained very, very active on social media. I do a lot of videos trying to educate people and business owners from, you know, your former area in the suburbs in northern Illinois started calling. And people who had perishable items, grocery stores, restaurants, et cetera, they're like, what do we do? They're making us close our doors and we've still got to pay, you know, bills. And this isn't working out too well. So I sued J.B. Pritzker. I went to many other people to try to figure out how to... do this because I'm a farmer and we won that lawsuit and then we began to go around the state and say hey guys there's no law here open your doors up churches businesses nobody shut you down you just shut you out of your own court if you want to be shut down fine so that step then my state senator stepped down and people then asked me to step into his place and expand my territory and run for state senate of which we did and I loved serving in the Senate but again

It was difficult to, I was able to work and get bills, work with Democrats and get bills passed on their behalf. But when it came time to run for governor, I had to choose. Do I want to stay in the Senate or do I want to run for governor? And for us, the choice was, you know, it was evident. By then, I felt like Illinois needed a voice that was being tampered down. I didn't like the direction that J.B. Pritzker was taking the state. So that's why we stepped into that run. So I have a long list of policy topics I want to cover you, cover with you. But before we get to that, I feel like I have to acknowledge. And this is a difficult subject, but you've mentioned your family a few times. I want to offer condolences. Thank you. As some listeners and viewers may recall, your son, daughter-in-law, and two grandchildren were tragically killed in a crash, helicopter crash last year. Again, condolences to you and your family for that. I want to say thank you to this day, even at the White Sox game that we were at recently. Everywhere we're at, every day people are coming out and continued offering prayers and acknowledgement and condolences. And I will say there's a lot of good in Illinois. And Cindy and I have experienced that goodness and especially through this. But, you know, people ask, gosh, how do you do it? How do you get by? And because of our faith and because of their faith, we know that they are home. We know where we're at. They are at. We know that we will be reunited with them one day. So I appreciate that. But I also have to acknowledge that because I tell you, without that hope, without our faith, I have no. idea what state of mind or what state we would be in. So thank you for that. So you mentioned taxes. This is always a big concern, especially among Republican voters. You mentioned, I think, a 32% tax increase. That was 3.75 to 4.9% percent percentage points on the income tax rate. What would you do to change that as governor? Well, I think... You know, that was, when that, before that was done in 2017, the budget was $32 billion. That was implemented. The budget became $34 billion. So there, it was a $34 billion budget. The first year I stepped in as a state representative, the first year J.B. Pritzker stepped in as governor. Today, it's a $56 billion budget. I think we honestly have to ask ourselves, are we comfortable with that? Is that necessary? Is that money being spent wisely? Because. To be fair, a big chunk of that was inflation. Not all of it, though. Yeah, and I will argue that a big chunk of it that maybe we're talking.

10 to 20 percent are we okay with the fact that nine years later we're setting on a 56 billion dollar budget and during that time probably pushing 80 billion of excess tax dollars has been brought in you know out of the pockets of the taxpayers that's excluding the COVID money that was hundreds of billions of dollars that was brought in and and and we have no accountability for it why why is the state of Indiana, which has, we have, you know, 12.5 million population. State of Indiana has about 7.5 million population. So they're a little over half of what we are. Yet their budget this year is a $24 billion budget, definitely a little under half of what we are. And they're setting on a $5 billion. They're setting on a $5 billion surplus in their budget. Their pension debt is $1 billion. Ours is $140 billion. We have to ask ourselves over the last eight years, where have we gone? Has it gotten better? Has it got worse? Has it maintained? Republicans, Democrats, that's what I'm hearing. This is what is different right now today than it was four years ago. Everybody, everyone, especially our friends that we're meeting every day in Chicago are feeling the pinch and they're tired of it. They want to know where their money is going. where it's went and why we are still sitting in this position of, you know, more taxes. You've cited the Department of Government Efficiency or Doge, that effort led by Elon Musk last year at the federal government to try and make cuts and cost savings there. What would you, and talked about, you know, trying to do something similar here in Illinois. Where would you start cutting? So I want to make sure that we, I want to be very clear, you know, we, we, I use that. terminology and an acronym just because people vaguely understood what it meant. I don't know that I might argue that it was not handled. efficiently. It's certainly not popular. At the national level, okay. Ours, so, you know, as your listeners are listening to this, you know, I ask, I love to ask the question, who is your state representative and who is your state senator? And right here amongst, you know, in the Champaign-Urbana area, you've got several that represent. Many times people don't know who their state rep and who their state senator is. They usually know who the congressperson is, and they usually know who the U.S. senator is. But our problems that we're struggling with here, they're coming from, you know, at Springfield. And we have to acknowledge that and get involved. So I love asking them that. I also sometimes ask, you know, who's your lieutenant governor now and who have the lieutenant governor's been in the past? And as a matter of fact, what does the lieutenant governor do? And many don't even know that. So. That's the beauty of my lieutenant governor, Aaron Delmar, who is a Palatine Township, a highway commissioner. He's been heavily involved in Cook County government. I mean, he knows how this works.

What we want to do is break down this budget so that people understand, you know, for four years, I continued to look at a 3,500 to 5,000-page document that resembled nothing of what a budget should look like, bills and information from decades old that's just been piled on to, and people have no idea where this money's coming from, where it's going. We've all heard the promise of, you know, when gambling became legal that it was going to take care of our schoolish. shoes yet here we are still you know underfinanced and and with schools recently the recreational marijuana was was passed and in hopes that it was the promises that that was going to take care of all the state's mental health issues yet jb pristker continues to push hundreds of millions of dollars to who knows where towards mental health so those days must end so our accountability process will begin to show where the money's coming from where it's going where it's been going We developed a website in January. It's called Blueprint for Illinois. It kind of gives our plan on what we, you know, the roadmap of what we hope to do to get Illinois turned around. But within that is a search engine. Literally within 24 hours, and to this day, people still continue to bring information up. Within 24 hours, it was discovered that a grant a year and a half ago of $200 million from the state of Illinois went to J.B. Pritzker's own personal Hyatt Hotel in the form of a remodeling a grant. So we were able to expose that. I mean, that is a tip, a little tiny sliver, tip of the iceberg. Okay, we need to take a break. We're listening to an interview I've recorded Wednesday with Darren Bailey, the Republican nominee for governor of Illinois. A couple of quick notes. Bailey mentioned a lawsuit against the state over COVID-19 stay-at-home orders. In July 2020, a judge in Clay County did void J.B. Pritzker's executive orders. But later that year, a different Sangamon County. County judge essentially tossed out the earlier order from the Clay County judge. Also, regarding that $200 million for a Hyatt hotel, that's taxpayer-funded investments over the past decade and a half for the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place. More after a short break, this is the 21st show. Stay with us.

It's The 21st Show. I'm Brian Mackie. My guest for the hour today is Darren Bailey, Republican nominee in this fall's election for Governor of Illinois. I spoke with Bailey yesterday, Wednesday, in our studios in Urbana. We've had to edit the conversation for time you can listen to and watch the full interview on our YouTube page. Just search for The 21st Show. Because our program is on tape today, no calls, but you can let us know what you thought. Our email address is talk at 21st Show.org. Before the break, Mr. Bailey was talking about the state budget and showing people where money is coming from and going to. So you can say you want to break down the budget. I mean, this process does happen every spring. There's committee hearings. There's working groups. There's the commission on government forecasting and accountability doing its analysis. Oh, I said on the cogfa. The cog for the governor's office. One was the budget representation of the general assembly. The other was the budget representation for the governor's office. Do you think they ever agreed with the numbers? No, we never. I mean, it was a joke. You set up, you go to these committees, and you're giving this information, a big pile of paper. then somebody's got to do something else the committee there's never any action i was on that committee for two years and it was again Maybe that's some of that's what led for me to, you know, run for governor because I see how this process is played out. I ask the people of, you know, that are listening, how many of you have ever attended a hearing in Springfield? And if you haven't, please do, because you will become thoroughly disgusted with how government is being played out, especially under the leadership of J.B. Pritzker. My point in mentioning, Cogfa, which is an acronym probably most Illinoisans have never heard of and probably we'll never hear of again, and maybe that's... okay but is that we have the broad outlines of what state money does right there was someone who famously once said the the American government is a hell is essentially when you look at where the money goes a health insurance company with an army so the state of Illinois you could say does a lot of health insurance we pay for prisons universities schools get a big chunk of our money which of those areas do you think is most overfunded and most ripe for cutting right we've seen Many less prisoners are incarcerated in Illinois than were 10 years ago, and that was a process started by Governor Bruce Router, a Republican. You know, we see schools crying out for more money, and that money's going up a lot in the past 10 years. So what is overfunded, you know, writ large, big picture areas in state government? We have to ask where the money's going, a $56 billion budget, and you just said it. Our schools are receiving less. Pensions are being cut back. Schools are receiving less, but they've had to be, they've made. the difference up with property taxes. So farmers, business owners, house owners. I think they would say schools are receiving more than they get. They're receiving more, but it's because of, but the state funding is less than it ever has been. J.B. Pritzker outlined that in January in his state of the state address. Go back and listen to that. He said for the, he bragged on it. He said state funding of schools. He put this all together in there in a package. He said state funding of schools is in an all-time low.

And he's right. He's pulled the rug under out of financing for schools. And we all know that because then schools have to go to their local communities and say, gosh, we're not getting as much from the state. So do we... Let teachers go? Do we cut programs or do we increase our property taxes? And for a long time, people say, well, gosh, we want to provide a good education. So they've increased their property taxes. That's why property taxes in Illinois are the second highest taxes in the state or in the nation. But then he went on. His next comment was more alarming. This is what he paralleled that with. And he said in January at the state of state address in Springfield. He said our graduation rates are at an all-time high. And you want to know what? He's right about that. Because under his leadership, schools, public schools, can no longer flunk. and they can no longer hold any student back. They're pushed on automatically to the next grade level regardless of where they stand. Any teacher, any administrator will agree with that and understand that. And it is so frustrating because it is destroying our future when we're pushing children out the door that by the state's own standard, go to Illinois State Board of Education, and you will see these numbers. State average. The children that graduate every year, 70% of them cannot read. write and do math at grade level. And for our friends in Chicago public school system, it's 90% that cannot read, write, and do math at grade level. That is an average. There are schools out there that are doing exceptionally well. Those are included in that average. So go to Illinois State Board of Education's website. You can even look up your own school district and see the report card. Our schools are failing because J.B. Pritzker is almost forcing them. to it's not the teacher's fault it's the state that comes in and and determines and demands what they must be teaching i believe in local control i think that the authority should lie within our local school boards to let them decide how they're going to educate our children but by and large when you look at the big picture J.B. Pritzker spent three billion dollars last year taking care of people who are here illegally see that's one of the that's one of the authorities the three authorities that are set within a governor's power in Illinois is that the governor can issue executive orders, you know, make something happen faster, you may get pushed back. The governor has control of the purse strings, so the governor can reach in, move money around it will. That's exactly what this man's been doing. That's what he did, giving illegals free housing, free health care, you know, while ignoring our senior citizens, ignoring our veterans, ignoring the homeless that you have here on the street, ignoring people in need. And then finally, the governor's third, what I believe most important authority is, filling all these agencies with the proper people to head up and truly get things done. So as well as you take a University of Illinois on a two-year rotation, the governor places trustees that set on that board. So you encompass all of that, and that's how we get the state turned around. But the answer to the question, I don't believe, is really accurate in assuming that.

You have to assume and believe the money's being spent wisely in order to think that, well, what are we going to cut or what are we going to raise taxes on? I am contending that for a time that money's there. And we've got to, that's, we put a 1% cap on our property taxes. Let's think about how long is that going to take then that maybe homeowners stop selling their homes and moving out of state, but maybe they keep their homes now. And maybe because they keep their homes, there's a need for housing, and the housing market increases, and we start building more houses, and then people start, then you start generating the income that the state needs and bringing business back. So you mentioned your sort of rise to prominence in Illinois, had a lot to do with your... objections to the COVID restrictions that were put in place back in 2020, 2021. You know, this gets at a question. If you are elected governor, you are essentially the head of a 60,000 person company, right? You got tons of employees, huge geographic spread. Who are you seeking to get advice from? If we are to have a situation like a pandemic or some other financial crisis or, God forbid, a war or something, you know, a real tragedy. Who are you looking to? What in your background prepares you for leading such a massive company, essentially? You know, being a business person, being a farmer, you know, my family, we farm 12,000 acres. We have a trucking company and an excavating business. working and actually building something. I guess I'm going to turn that question on you and I'm going to ask you what qualifies J.B. Pritzker. This man's a trust fund child. He inherited a billion and a half dollars. He has absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing you can point at and say that man grew and that man built. And my question is, who is he surrounded himself with and did it work for us. And the answer is a resounding no. Because I believe that many of the agency heads that set out there are, you know, are patronage positions. I don't think that a lot of these people that should be making decisions on their own are able to make them on their own. So I will be surrounding starting, you know, now between November 4th when we win the election, putting together the teams, the people so that upon inauguration these agencies are headed with. with smart people who actually have experience in their field, that they're able then to not, you know, they will be answering to me, but they will then be able to actually kind of change the format and the frustration of what's taking place in here in Illinois. I think there is a vast difference between me and J.B. Pritzker. Are you looking to conservative think tanks? I'm looking for anybody. I'm looking. No, my bench is anybody. Anybody who is passionate. I believe there are probably Democrat, state reps, and senators that I worked with in Springfield. No, it doesn't always have to be a conservative. I want the best, the brightest person, but I want someone with a backbone who will step up, make decisions, and move forward and get things done because there is honestly almost not a single.

agency out there that you know that I believe is you know living up to where it should be. How do you work with the state legislature, which is more than likely going to be controlled by Democrats? Your predecessor as a Republican governor was by bipartisan accounts a failure in doing that. National Review called them the worst governor in America. Yep. Well, that was before J.B. Pritzker. I have to say that that's changed. The worst Republican governor in America. It was the cover story. I agree with you. It was a disaster. How do you work with? supermajority Democrats as a downstate conservative Republican. I think that I think that's what sets this election cycle up is an amazing opportunity for Illinois. So first and foremost, especially our friends up in the Chicago area in these highly populated areas, I ask a lot of people. When I ask that question, who's your state rep? Who's your state senator? I say, well, go figure out who yours is. And if they served with me, ask them what they think of me. And several did. And most of them came back with the same answer. Well, I don't agree with Darren Bailey, but I respect him. And there were bills that, you know, floor leader Greg Harrison, the House came with pharmaceuticals that he couldn't get enough support on. And one of his staffers saw me talking about, you know, the high cost of medications to our senior citizens. And we were able to get a bill passed. J.B. did not sign that. In the Senate, Senator Passione Zias came and needed some help with some, you know, junior colleges, community colleges. And I was able to get help from our side of the bench. And we did get that passed and signed into law. So my messaging. affordability, safety, and education. Those are the only three things I've pushed out everything else that I probably was carrying along with me four years ago. Those are not just I've discovered 80-20 issues. Those are 90-10 issues. So we get elected, let alone the shockwaves that it's going to send across Illinois. It's going to send those across the nation. Many elected officials have discovered have one priority that sometimes supersedes campaign promises, and that's getting reelected. Well, in order to get reelected, hopefully the education that I'm going to bring to the people, people are going to start realizing that their struggle to financially survive in Illinois, the fact that they're concerned about this safety act failing, the fact that they're concerned about our schools failing, it's all coming from Springfield. So I believe that my door will be open. We are only going to deal with those issues. Why everybody shows up and writes up, you know, 8,000 bills is beyond me. A lot of time and a lot of energy taken up with that. We need to give people the satisfaction of understanding that they can afford to live in Illinois.

that they're safe, that their children are going to be properly educated. And I think when we do that, when we start making Illinois a more business-friendly place, instead of exiting, I think business is going, everybody seems to want to be. Illinois, just because of our location, the rivers, the Great Lakes, the rails, the roads, it's more affordable. you know, convenient and efficient for them to be here. I think we will see a return when they realize and have some faith and trust that, okay, I can come here, be safe and make money. I think that's the answer, and I think that any Democrat is, like I said, most Democrats, you know, I've always had respect for them. They had respect for me. I think that's going to reciprocate as a governor, and I think they're going to want to come to the table and focus on those issues and come up with real solutions. You can say you're focused on economic issues, but there are going to be people in the Republican coalition pushing you to change what, you know, Illinois has done with abortion law, for example, right? I've already addressed that. The J.B. Pritzker says it's a safe haven state for people. You know, Democrats are going to be trying to catch you out on that. J.B. Pritzker's doing it every day. So how do you navigate those social issues? You can say you want to focus on the economics, but these things are going to come up. But that's what divides us. You can't. That's only going to do. divide us in Springfield. Those, those, you know, those aren't 80, 20 issues. And I've learned that. I think that when we have conversation, when we work together, I don't know what, it's going to take 10 days, 100 days, 10 months, you know, a year or two, I don't know, but that is going to be my focus. It's going to remain my focus. It has to get rid of this political divide, make sure that we, you know, we understand each other and that we can, wow, what is it going to look like to a nation when they see Illinois? you know a state that's known for corruption a state that's no one for the political division that we are that a new chapter that we can work together that is that is my goal because that is the only solution that is the only way that we can save this state bruce ronner was arguably most weakened by his right flank, deserting him because they didn't like his sort of non-position on abortion. How do you resist that in the Republican coalition, right? And the federal government potentially passing, you know, rules that disallow this mailing of medication, you know, among states. The federal government could do what the federal government does. I'm representing Illinois and knowing, knowing, again, One of the biggest aspects of me running again is learning from everything that I learned four years ago. And this is one in Illinois must have developed trust in government. and in its leaders. And we're getting absolutely nowhere when we continue to gripe and argue and haggle about these things that obviously isn't going to change in a Democrat supermajority. Fully acknowledge that. So let's turn our energy and let's focus on...

You know, on what we have here plus every single day. I'm with a woman that Ms. Cindy Bailey on August 2nd, we celebrated 40 years of marriage and having her by my side to bounce ideas off to stay in check. That's worth everything in the world. So many governors don't have that at their disposal. Our listeners can't know and even our viewers can't see she's sitting here in the studio behind the cameras with us today. So explain. That's my greatest asset. With that, we need to take another break. We're listening to my interview with Darren Bailey, the Republican nominee for Governor of Illinois. We spoke Wednesday afternoon at our studios in Urbana. A few more notes. According to Bailey, J.B. Pritzker said school funding is at an all-time low. We looked through the transcript of the state of the state speech and found no evidence of that. In fact, J.B. Pritzker boasted about how his administration, quote, prioritized school funding, putting billions more into public education, end quote. Indeed, this year's budget included another $350 million increase in state funding for schools, though over the past few years, many districts have gotten farther from what the state considers adequate funding. Also, in February, J.B. Pritzker said graduation rates were at a 15-year high, not an all-time high. And while there are competing claims on state spending on health care for people who are not citizens, last year's spending does not reach the $3 billion level, Bailey claimed. Beyond that, last year's state budget ended health coverage for non-citizens between ages 42 and 64. That said, what your hearing has been edited for time. You can watch the full interview on our YouTube page. Just search for The 21st Show. More to come after a short break. Stay with us.

21st Show. I'm Brian Mackie. Let's get back to my interview with Darren Bailey, the Republican nominee for Governor of Illinois. I spoke with him yesterday, so no calls today, but let us know what you thought. Talk at 21st Show.org. You mentioned the Safety Act earlier, criminal justice policy. This is the law that, among other things, eliminated cash bail in Illinois. Advocates would say it gives judges discretion to keep dangerous people behind bars who might otherwise be able to scrape the money together to get out on the street. And the backers say the system is better off with that discretion being in judges rather than the bank account making the determination. What do you say to that? Well, from what I've understood and heard, I think most judges would argue that that doesn't necessarily really exist, that they're almost, it's almost set in motion of what they have to do. You know, we've kind of got a two-fold question there with our prison system failing as it is. I mean, I'm hearing from the Department of Correction Workers every day as far as the inmates having really more rights than the people that are supposed to be keeping them safe and correct their nature. And that's unfortunate. So likewise, out on the street, it's really the same way. When the law enforcement brings someone in, that person's usually out on the street before law enforcement fills out their papers. I think the most recent example to the failure of the Safety Act is this felon who had an ankle monitor winding up in J.B.'s backyard, jumping the fence, being in his backyard about what's that been about a month ago. You know, thank goodness there were cameras. There were state police. Things came to an abrupt halt later when this felon was interviewed. He had no idea. It was J.B.'s backyard. Let's consider if that was my backyard or if that was your backyard. Let's consider what could have been drastically different. I think that exemplifies the failure of the safety act more than absolute. anything else that it's not working. There's reports of, you know, we read every day about the crimes that are committed in Chicago by people who should have had an ankle monitor on and it was cut off. The battery was dead and there's days sometimes without, you know, being able to follow up and fix this situation. So, no, I think we've got to go back if we need to address safety issues, no doubt. But the Safety Act, there's no fixing it. If there's a problem, let's it. address the problem because honestly I was as I was a state representative when the problem first came you know on the floor and that was that Kim Fox couldn't keep up with the the full jails in Chicago so many of these many of these people you know owed $150 to get out they couldn't afford the $150 so let's just they needed a break and I stood at that time and I said okay Chicago representative if if that's what life's like up there you represent your area I will trust you but I can

tell you that that's not what I need for, you know, Clay County. That's not what I need for, you know, my district. So I'll support that if you just want to do that for Cook County and exempt any other county, you know, under 2 million population or whatever. And but they refused to do that. And then before we knew it, it morphed into what it is now without any law enforcement, without any state's attorney, without the people. you know, who live this and work this, having any say whatsoever. It was all done behind closed doors. It came out, and it was brought up at 2 a.m. in the morning, and it passed at about 7 a.m. the next morning. So what do you do? Do you build more jails? Do you think, I mean, what should be the population of our jail system? If people are not going to be getting out on bond or on bail while they're still, you know, accused, but innocent until proven guilty under our system. Well, I think. Yeah, do you build more? What do you do? So, again, you know, we sometimes that question's asked, and I think that's the wrong question. I think we give law enforcement the ability, you know, to do their job so that, you know, that. People don't want to, you know, people think twice before they commit a crime. But then we have to back up and we have to ask, why is this such a problem? And that's what Cindy and I are seeing on the south and the west sides of Chicago, this lack of opportunity. young people, young men, young women, 24 hours a day when we're going back up to our apartment at midnight, one in the morning, seeing people out on the streets walking around. We've been to the businesses in Englewood and on Kenwood and in Oakland and just seeing and understand that, gosh, there's no grocery stores around here. The grocery stores, the Walmarts, they packed up and left. And recently a Walgreens closed their doors. And because, you know, supposedly they had a million dollars stolen, you know, year alone and they can't do anything about it because you can't go and arrest the person walking out the door with a 55 inch TV on their shoulder because it's going to cost them more to prosecute that and know that that person's going to be let go it is I mean it's a it's an absolute failure and a recently safe a lot stores completely pulled out of the area so there's these vast food deserts shopping deserts these these these people need hope and they need help so instead of spending three billion dollars on people who are here illegally we need to be putting that money back into these communities and giving these young people some hope because Cindy and I are seeing them talking to them you know behind some of them are serving as bristas at coffee shops and stuff and they just as you're talking to them there's just there's just no hope to some of these people so so you you create a different atmosphere so that they can get educated thrive and survive but then to our current uh department of correction system which is again absolutely failing because of the directors and such in the course of action that it's on. After all, what is the Department of Corrections? It's supposed to correct behaviors, but many times we're finding that these inmates are, you know, being locked up and overcrowded jail cells and sometimes locked down for hours and days and weeks at a time. Unfortunately, I'm glad you mentioned, because you just mentioned a few minutes ago that you think some inmates have more rights than the correctional officers. And yet we've seen, and I asked.

J.B. Pritzker about this on a program that aired earlier this week in the Joliet Treatment Center, which was meant to treat people with serious mental health problems in our prison system, as you know. This was launched, you know, under Governor Rounder and then continued under J.B. Pritzker. It's that, you know, that sort of treatment, though, has reportedly fallen by the wayside, and now people there are setting themselves and their cells on fire in an attempt to apparently call attention to their dire situation. You know, what is your reaction to that? What do you do about, you know, these difficult, intractable issues? Well, first of all, I can't believe and trust anything that J.B. says. Everything that he says is pretty much opposite of what I say. So one of us is lying and we're living what he's been doing for the last eight years. So I have a fair, you know, case to point at and say this man doesn't know what he's talking about. Well, just to be clear, with our listeners, the people sending themselves on fire. That was based on reporting, independent reporting by ProPublica and Capital. Right, right. So why? Why? Why are they being held? Why isn't the system working? That's back to my point. They're understaffed. We still have paper mail coming in that's laced with fent and all and laced with these prison guards or walking by these jail cells and someone blows dust on them and the next thing they're in the emergency room. So yeah, I wish this was live so people could. So I'm, you know, Department of Corrections. Anybody that out there knows you need to speak up and get your message out because I'm hearing it every day. A lot of frustrated people and concern that this system isn't working because it doesn't allow them to perform their duties. a host of various reasons that was need to stop the drugs coming in to the prisons number one we need to let this system begin to where that why are they overcrowded maybe they're overcrowded because of as I mentioned before of a lack of opportunity in many of these communities that these young people or whoever you know are making bad decisions out of desperation We got a lot, you're right, this is a serious packed question, but it's not just, you know, it doesn't have to do with just the prison workers, the prisons, it's a broad array of, really, in my opinion, of what's all wrong with Illinois. So we're coming to the end of our time together. A few more politics questions. So you're running in a state. You know from firsthand experience, the last decade of elections have been about 55D-45R, give or take, three points here and there. Why do you think that is? Why is no Republican won statewide since 2014? Well, I think it's...

I think it's because of low voter turnout. I think there's a lot of apathy, you know, these midterm elections. We had decent turnout, you know, in a presidential election, but still not to the point. We need Illinois, we need to see people showing up in voting. And basically that's what I'm doing one time. I'm just pleading with everybody because I'm talking to a lot of people who are just frustrated. Our vote doesn't count for whatever reason. Get your vote in. We had about a, what, a 46% turnout. You know, there's, what is there? There's about 10 million eligible voters in Illinois, and only 70% of them are registered. And then so when you hear the numbers of a 40% turnout, that means 40% of 70%, not of the whole, you know, not of everyone eligible. So if people want their voice or they got to show up and vote. And so, you know, at the last election, J.B. Pritzker spent $35 million on mail-in voting. And, you know, AP News called the race two minutes before seven. And we were on the phone with AP News to have the conversation. No, you might want to retract this. But they said, no, we've been doing this for over 100 years, and you have a low voter turnout. The people just aren't showing up to vote. So on a low voter turnout, you can't overcome those odds. If we get up to a 55% turnout of all registered voters, we've got a victory on our hands. So your idea of Republican defeats his low voter turnout. I'm going to try a different hypothesis on you. And I've talked to just about every other Republican I've interviewed in the last few years about this. As long as Donald Trump is the major political force in American life, more people in Illinois dislike him and what he's doing than like him and what he's doing, which there are a sizable number of people who do like him, right? But more don't. And that makes it. Basically impossible for Republicans to do well here. I get that. What do you think? And I appreciate that. And that certainly holds true to our governor because he obviously hates Donald Trump more than he loves Illinois because his solid focus is continually on that man and he can't focus on his own governorship. So one message, because there are. There are a lot of independence, a lot of moderate Democrats coming and talking with me and who have that. And that's a question they have. I said, President Trump. has nothing to do with me serving as governor of Illinois. It's me. It's the people of Illinois, and it's the General Assembly. And that's the way that it should be. I mean, even J.B. Pritzker is obsessed. with President Trump because I assume he's running for president. So, you know, that brings in a whole other question of what are we going to do for somebody that's running for governor who's going to turn right around on November 4th or shortly after and address his time and energy as announcing for president because his campaign stops and his moves and everything the man's doing seems to be focused on issues outside of Illinois more so than, you know, our state itself. As a matter of fact, he was at a caterpillar event, you know.

know what, a few months ago, and was asked that question about the frustration of the people of Illinois. And he said, if you don't like it here, move. That seems to be his solution. So no, it doesn't matter who the president is. If I were elected the last time and Joe Biden was president, I would be working with him. I would be bringing all the money, the assets and resources that we need as a state from D.C. and utilizing those for the people of Illinois because therein, again, is a problem that we're suffering from the lack of. So I don't care. who the president is, all I want to do is get Illinois turned around and restore voters confidence in government, which it is severely lacking right now. But you have been, you know, a supporter of the president all along and front row, you know, some of his rallies and things like that. How do you think he's doing? In terms of Illinois, in terms of Illinois. A lot of funding held up, things like that we've heard. The funding held, everything that he's doing for, the funding being held up is J.B. Pritzker's problem. That's not a D.C. Even for disaster declarations and things like that? Yeah, there's no reason. I don't believe that D.C., these are agencies. It's not always just the president. There's a reason. I think J.B. is playing a game with us by not allowing this money to find its way here so that he can point and blame it on Trump. Now, I believe that wholeheartedly. Do you have evidence for that? Well, do you have evidence that he doesn't? I mean, other states are getting it? Why are other states getting it? Why is Colorado, New York, New Jersey? Where else is he holding it up at? California? Such president is. Well, there you go. So how do you know the exact same? Gavin Newsom was a former son-in-law of his. How do we know that that's not the case? We just, what we really need in Illinois is to clear the table of these issues, and we need to get J.B. Pritzker hasn't worked for us. A third term, why on earth, how on earth can he stand, regardless of who the president is? He had everything at his fingertips with Joe Biden being president. How did that help us? There is no one. I can talk to no one. I can find no one that can honestly sit here and tell me that life is more affordable for them today, that they feel better about Illinois today than they did eight years ago. Because it's simply not true. Everybody's pocketbook is feeling that. And I think we need to face reality and say, we need a change. What do you have to lose? Let's get something different. Let's create a new roadmap. And I think we're going to have that opportunity on November 3rd. Darren Bailey, thank you for being with us. Thank you. Before we go, a few more quick notes. An analysis last month by the Associated Press found President Trump approved more than 75% of disaster funding requests from states that voted for him in 2024. Less than half the requests were approved in states that voted for Kamala Harris. Also, I mentioned the reporting on the Jolia Treatment Center. That was from the Marshall Project, WBEZ, and the Chicago Sun Times. Again, we head to edit today's conversation for time. You can find the full version on video on YouTube. Just search for The 21st Show, which is a production of Illinois Public Media. I'm Brian Mackie. Thanks for listening.