SPRINGFIELD – More Republicans are entering races for statewide office after an initially slow start in announcing candidates for the 2026 election.
Illinois Republicans held their annual events around the Illinois State Fair on Thursday, with former Illinois GOP Chair Don Tracy launching a U.S. Senate campaign and Ted Dabrowski, the president of conservative research group Wirepoints, announcing he will launch a campaign for governor in the coming weeks.
The men enter the 2026 race a week after the window opened for candidates to begin collecting signatures that are due to the State Board of Elections at the end of October.
“For 15 years I’ve been working on reporting on Illinois, on these problems, suggesting a lot of solutions, and what I’ve seen is the state continue to go downhill,” Dabrowski told reporters.
Dabrowski’s Wirepoints.org publishes research and commentary on state policy issues and advocates for conservative solutions on pensions, taxes, governance and other public policy issues. Before joining Wirepoints in 2017, Dabrowski was vice president of policy for the conservative Illinois Policy Institute think tank after spending nearly 20 years in banking.
He said the state’s business climate, tax burden and population growth have gotten worse under Gov. JB Pritzker, who is seeking a third term in 2026. Dabrowski said he is focused on improving reading scores in schools, making life more affordable and creating jobs.
But a major question Republican candidates will have to answer is where they align with President Donald Trump. Dabrowski side-stepped the question on Thursday.
“Illinois’ problems having nothing to do with Donald Trump,” Dabrowski said. “He can’t fix the property taxes. He can’t fix the gas taxes. He can’t fix our outmigration. We have to fix it.”
Mendrick focuses on crime
Dabrowski is joined by DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick in the race, who called Medicaid cuts signed by Trump “unsustainable,” but said he believes the president is doing a good job overall.
“I don’t really follow the national, the presidential stuff, a whole lot, but I’ll be honest with you: so far what I’m seeing, financially, it looks like he’s doing pretty good,” Mendrick said. “I can’t think of anything that he’s doing right now that I would disagree with.”
Mendrick is leaning into his experience as the only elected official in the Republican primary for governor.
“I know how politics works out there,” Mendrick told reporters, saying that he approaches his job with bipartisanship. “I think I can do a lot better than most other candidates.”
Crime is his top issue – an issue former state Sen. Darren Bailey made the center of his unsuccessful 2022 campaign for governor. But the difference, Mendrick said, is he believes he knows how to address public safety issues because of his work as sheriff.
Mendrick was elected sheriff in 2018 and did not face an opponent in 2022, allowing him to survive a wave of Democratic victories in DuPage County that year. But he still has to convince other Republican leaders to support him.
“He’s done a great job as sheriff, but like any other candidate, you got to get out there, and you got to build a base of support,” Senate Republican Leader John Curran, of DuPage County, told reporters.
Both Dabrowski and Mendrick hinted they have some donors lined up willing to fund their campaigns.
Joe Severino, a Lake Forest businessman who has unsuccessfully run for Congress, has also said he will run for governor.
Tracy to run for Senate
Tracy is getting back into the political arena after resigning as party chair last summer, citing infighting on the party’s State Central Committee. Several other candidates have filed paper work with the Federal Election Commission to run for office, but Tracy is the most notable name to enter the Senate race.
Tracy, an attorney from Springfield who unsuccessfully ran for lieutenant governor in 2010, said he plans to self-fund most of his campaign and believes he can attract voters from all sects of the Republican Party.
“It’s a team effort,” Tracy told Capitol News Illinois. “But having been state chairman, having run statewide before in 2010, I know people throughout the state. A lot of people, I think, will help me, and I’ll need their help. I’ll need the help of all Republicans.”
Tracy has previously been criticized by some in the party for not being more vocal in his support of Trump. At Tracy’s last State Fair as party chair in 2023, Trump was largely ignored. But on Thursday, Tracy said he supports Trump’s agenda.
“The Trump agenda is peace, prosperity and law and order,” Tracy said. “And I think most Americans, including most Illinoisians, support that agenda.”
Voters’ affordability concerns will be Tracy’s top issue, he said.
“For working families, it’s become unaffordable, especially in Illinois, where we have – on top of inflation – we have high taxes,” Tracy said. “It’s going to be hard work, but I’m not afraid of hard work.”
Other races
The choices of statewide candidates for Republican voters in March’s primary are still taking shape. No candidates have emerged for comptroller or treasurer, while Bob Fioretti, a Cook County attorney who has unsuccessfully run for numerous offices in both parties, is planning to run for attorney general.
Diane Harris, a Joliet Junior College trustee who is active in Will County Republican groups and unsuccessfully ran for state senate in 2022, is running for secretary of state. She said lines remain too long at drivers services facilities and new policies putting many services online aren’t working for everyone.
“Even though this is an online era, not everybody is online,” Harris told Capitol News Illinois, adding that people shouldn’t have to make appointments for services that should be available at the offices at anytime.
In legislative races, the Republican leaders in the General Assembly acknowledged the midterm election for a Republican president coupled with Pritzker likely spending millions to help Democrats could create a challenging year for Republican candidates. But Curran said he is hopeful.
“We’re going to be very well positioned defend every seat we have. 2026 is going to be about gains for us,” Curran told reporters as 16 of 19 Republican senators, including himself, are up for reelection next year.
Democrats already have two seats to target in the west suburbs after Sen. Don DeWitte, R-St. Charles, and Rep. Amy Grant, R-Wheaton, announced they will not seek reelection. Both have held their seats in districts that have increasingly leaned Democrat in recent elections.
“Whenever Republicans are on top, the Democrats get activated, and vice versa. However, we’re not going to give up. We’re going to stay activated,” House Minority Leader Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, told reporters.