|
By Illinois Review
Â
A handful of irrelevant Illinois Republicans surfaced this week to repeat their favorite talking point: Donald Trump is supposedly “unpopular” in Illinois and holding the GOP back. But the numbers tell a completely different story – and their comments only highlight how disconnected they are from the voters they pretend to understand.
Former IL GOP chairman Pat Brady led the charge in today’s Illinois Playbook, declaring that “Republicans are going to have a really bad cycle if they don’t change course,” and insisting that longtime Republicans “don’t see themselves carrying the Trump flag like they used to.” He claimed Trump’s “politics just don’t work here” and that the GOP is “in limbo.”
But nothing in the numbers supports Brady’s claim. And Brady’s commentary leaves out one critical fact about his own record.
In 2012, Brady was pushed out as chairman of the Illinois GOP after breaking with the party and publicly backing gay marriage. Then in 2021, the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois hired Brady to lobby Republican legislators to support a gay marriage bill – a move that permanently severed his credibility with the grassroots. These are the same voters now fueling Trump’s gains across Illinois. The idea that Brady speaks for them is pure fantasy.
|
