Illinois state Sen. Darren Bailey, the GOP candidate for governor, told Newsmax on Wednesday that he expects that his competitor, incumbent Democrat Gov. J.B. Pritzker, will continue to lie during their first debate, scheduled for Thursday night.
"I love the name of the show this morning, 'Wake Up America,' and that's what we're doing; we're waking up Illinois, and people are waking it because they're fed up," Bailey said. "We've got transgender ideology in our classrooms. We've got a revolving door coming in our jails.
"Our streets aren't safe, and taxes are too high. Our children are in danger at their schools, and it's time to take it back. And that's been my message from the beginning."
Bailey said Pritzker has "destroyed the state of Illinois financially and morally."
"We're depleted," said Bailey. "We're bankrupt, and it's time to turn it around. We just got to get the people to wake up and show up and vote. One-third of Illinois eligible voters are not registered to vote. In the June 28 primary, 20% of registered voters showed up to vote. That's a problem."
Crime, he added, is the major issue for Illinois.
"When I started running just four years ago, I'm a farmer from southern Illinois, and I didn't search this out, but taxes were too high and [my wife] Cindy and I were concerned bout the future of our children and our grandchildren," Bailey said.
Then, when Democrat Pritzker was elected, matters became worse, said Bailey.
"All of a sudden, our schools became overcome with woke ideology, and now there's not been a day in Chicago for over 31 months where there's not been a shooting or a killing. Something is drastically wrong," he said.
Pritzker, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, and Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx continue to "just look blindly at this and to suggest there's not a problem," said Bailey. "I think they're going to pay the price for that on Nov. 8."
The immigration situation is also a major concern for Illinois, considering the state and the city of Chicago are sanctuary destinations, said Bailey.
"Law enforcement has its hands tied," he said. "They can do nothing. So when we take a look at Illinois and especially Chicago, and we have to ask ourselves about the drug trafficking, sex trafficking, gang violence, and gun trafficking, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to consider and look to see what's wrong with this, so, yes, we must secure this southern border."
When the border is secured, the conversation can start about legal migration, as "no state can handle what's being done with all of these migrants coming into them," Bailey said.
The first debate between Bailey and Pritzker will start at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Illinois State University campus in Normal, Ill.
They will face off again on Oct. 18, starting at 7 p.m., from the studios at WGN in Chicago. Both debates are to be broadcast statewide.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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