Bailey leads Irvin in Illinois GOP governor primary: poll

Illinois state Sen. Darren Bailey is leading Aurora, Ill., Mayor Richard Irvin by 15 percentage points among state Republican primary voters in the gubernatorial primary, according to a poll released on Friday.

A Chicago Sun-Times/WBEZ poll, which was conducted by Public Policy Polling, found that 32 percent of likely Republican primary voters in the state would vote for Bailey, a third-generation farmer, should the primary be held at the time of the polling. Seventeen percent said they would vote for Irvin.

Venture capitalist Jesse Sullivan received 11 percent support, while former Illinois state Sen. Paul Schimpf, businessman Gary Rabine and attorney Max Solomon all received less than 10 percent.

Twenty-seven percent of primary voters said they were unsure, according to the poll, which could mean that some voters are still unfamiliar with some of the candidates.

Illinois’s primary will be held on June 28.

The latest polling is a stark contrast to a WGN-The Hill-Emerson College poll last month that showed Bailey with 20 percent of the support from likely Republican voters compared to Irvin’s 24 percent.

Bailey has sought the support of former President Trump and traveled to Mar-a-Lago in April for a fundraiser for Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.) that the former president was hosting, according to Politico. Meanwhile, Irvin is considered the preferred candidate among establishment Republicans, the news outlet noted, and has been viewed as a mainstream candidate within his party.

Incumbent Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) only has one challenger in his primary — nurse Beverly Miles — though Pritzker, a hotel magnate, has name recognition and money.

The governor’s race will likely be an uphill battle for Republicans. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the seat as “solid Democrat.” 

The Chicago Sun-Times/WBEZ poll was conducted between June 6 and June 7 with 677 likely Republican primary voters. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.