Embattled IL GOP Chair Don Tracy is struggling to maintain his control over the party following massive losses in November that saw the GOP losing every statewide race; losing winnable congressional races; and overseeing embarrassing losses in the state legislature that resulted in House Minority leader Jim Durkin, R, and Senate Minority leader Dan McConchie, R, to resign their GOP leadership positions.

Illinois Democrats not only maintained their supermajority in the legislature, but they control every lever of power in Illinois – making Republicans voiceless and irrelevant on local and state matters.

The losses even prompted US Rep. Byron Donalds, R-FL, who was in town to keynote a lunch hosted by senior IL GOP officials to say, “Those who are in the room do not win elections…to win elections, you need those who are not in the room.”

In other words, the grassroots – mama bears, minority and young voters, win elections – not the establishment – and certainly not anyone present at the by invitation-only luncheon at Gibson’s Steakhouse in Oak Brook.

The embarrassing GOP defeats even left members of conservative billionaire Richard Uihlein’s inner circle “mortified.” Uihlein donated over $50 million to support conservative grassroots nominee for governor Darren Bailey – directing $10 million to Bailey’s campaign and $42 million to a pro-Bailey PAC.

Talk to any conservative grassroots candidate or women-led activist groups this past election cycle – and a common theme emerges: they did not have the support of the IL GOP.

And GOP nominee for governor Darren Bailey was the latest victim.

It was clear from the very beginning that the GOP establishment would not support his grassroots campaign – and it’s why the establishment backed Richard Irvin, who would eventually lose to Bailey by 42 points in the primary, and finish in third place.

The establishment, through the Irvin campaign, also ran an incredibly negative campaign against Bailey. During a rare press availability, Irvin commented, “a vote for Darren Bailey, is a vote for JB Pritzker.”

Conservative, anti-establishment Republican Jeanne Ives is all too familiar with the establishment working against you.

During her 2018 primary against establishment-backed, Gov. Bruce Rauner, R, she endured attack after attack.

Rauner went so far, claiming that Ives is “[former DemocratHouse Speaker] Madigan’s favorite Republican.”

The claim was absurd, as Ives remained one of the most conservative members of the Illinois House. The claim was also fact-checked by the media and found to be totally false.

No surprise there.

But with the power of the conservative, anti-establishment base, she narrowly lost to Rauner, who would eventually lose his re-election to JB Pritzker.

With Tracy under fire from the conservative, grassroots base, and with new revelations that Tracy’s family-owned business, where he is an owner, donated thousands of dollars to Joe Biden in 2020, sources can confirm to Illinois Review that his leadership position is in jeopardy.

Tracy’s grip on power is hanging in the balance, and with a little help from Bailey and Ives – they can seal his fate – and powered by the grassroots, force him to resign.

Burning bridges with the grassroots is never a good thing in politics – and Don Tracy and the IL GOP establishment are about to learn a hard lesson.

Multiple sources confirm to Illinois Review this morning that over the weekend, IL GOP State Central Committee members were calling constituents who expressed interest in attending Saturday’s State Central Committee meeting, and asking them to refrain from making public comments and calling for embattled chairman Don Tracy to resign.

All of this while promising those constituents that more money would be flowing to the IL GOP from conservative mega donor and billionaire Richard Uihlein if Tracy remained in place as chairman.

This past election, Uihlein donated over $50 million to support Darren Bailey’s campaign for governor – directing $10 million to Bailey and $42 million to a pro-Bailey PAC.

In 2018, Uihlein bankrolled Jeanne Ives’ race to defeat incumbent establishment, Gov. Bruce Rauner, R – donating $2.5 million.

In July, Ives was elected to serve on the State Central Committee, representing the 3rd District.

Just last month, sources confirmed to Illinois Review that members within Uihlein’s inner circle were “mortified” by November’s election results. After donating more than $50 million to support Bailey, the election would be called by the Associated Press at 7:00 pm CST, despite the political consulting class promoting a single poll that said Bailey was within two points of Pritzker in the final stretch of the campaign.

With 98 percent reporting, Pritzker maintains a 12-point margin of victory over Bailey.

The next State Central Committee meeting is Saturday, December 10th at the Bolingbrook Golf Club.

In what may be a real window into embattled IL GOP Chair Don Tracy’s misunderstanding of the GOP, Tracy writes in a section of this past Friday’s Chairman’s Memo that “Republicans are the party of Jefferson, Lincoln, and Martin Luther King Jr.” This flawed understanding of the issues that led to the Republican Party’s founding shines light on Tracy’s lack of appreciation for the role diversity played in the GOP’s founding.

The Republican Party’s roots trace back to the beginning of the anti-slavery movement in 1854. Abraham Lincoln, who had been a Whig, saw the viability of the Republican Party when his political rival Sen. Stephen Douglas, D, drafted the Kansas-Nebraska Act, expanding slavery into western territories.

On March 4, 1861, Lincoln would become the first Republican president, who on January 1, 1863, issued Proclamation 95, better known as the Emancipation Proclamation, an executive order ending slavery.

While Martin Luther King Jr. often spoke of Lincoln in his speeches and delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., he was neither a Republican nor a Democrat. In an interview at Bennett College, King stated “I don’t think the Republican Party is a party full of the almighty God, nor is the Democratic Party. They both have weaknesses. And I’m not inextricably bound to either party.”

Diametrically opposed to Lincoln’s views were that of Thomas Jefferson and his Democratic-Republican Party, the predecessor to today’s Democratic Party. Jefferson, the third U.S. President, was a slave owner whose more than 600 slaves only gained their freedom after his death.

Jefferson had a relationship with one of his slaves, Sally Hemmings, with whom they had six children, four of whom reached adulthood and three of which joined “White Society” after being emancipated only after Jefferson died.

Houston news anchor Shannon LeNier claims sixth-generation descendancy to Jefferson’s fourth adult child who declined to join “White Society,” rather continuing to live out the African American heritage of his mother, Sally Hemmings. Even still to this day, those Black descendants are not permitted to be buried in Jefferson’s cemetery at Monticello.

The Republican Party is the party of diversity. The appreciation of diversity is hardwired into the GOP’s anti-slavery founding.

While it’s hard to believe that the Chair of the IL GOP would be so clueless as to claim Thomas Jefferson as a Republican, it was not that long ago that Don Tracy was running for public office as a Democrat. And perhaps he still is. We recently reported that in the height of the pandemic, Don Tracy’s family-owned business, Dot Foods, was donating thousands of dollars to Biden’s presidential campaign.

Illinois Review has called on Don Tracy to step down as IL GOP Chair. Whether he continues as Chair may be decided at the state central committee meeting this Saturday, December 10, at 10 am at the Bolingbrook Golf Club.