According to a political scientist from Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, former State Senator Darren Bailey is the front runner to be the Republican challenger to take on JB Pritzker.
Tari Renner, Political Science Professor at Illinois Wesleyan University, believes Bailey is best positioned on the issues.
“At this point, the focus is mostly on affordability, the economy, tariffs, education, and possibly even crime,“ said Renner. ”One issue that will certainly come up is the National Guard in Chicago, which Bailey has appeared to supportive of.“
Bailey was defeated by Pritzker falling 500,000 votes short in 2022. If Bailey wins the March 17th primary, a rematch would happen in the November general election.
Five other candidates are in the race and they are political and economic researcher Ted Dabrowski, DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick, entrepreneur Rick Heidner, business owner Joseph Severino, and Gregg Moore.