MORTON, Ill. – Pumpkin pancakes and politics merged in Morton on Saturday morning.
Illinois Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey made a stop at the Morton Pumpkin Festival’s pancake breakfast to meet with voters and chat with fairgoers. The visit was an unofficial campaign stop for Bailey.
Bailey says Saturday’s visit was part of a swing through downstate Illinois that will end up in Mt. Sterling as part of a get out the vote effort.
Election forecasters Cook and Sabato have listed the race between Bailey and Democrat incumbent J.B. Pritzker as a solid Democrat hold. But Bailey says what he sees internally tells a different story.
“We’re there, we just gotta get voter turnout,” Bailey said. “He is spending $1.2 million a day. So if he was confident that he was going to be winning by 20 points, why would he be spending $1.2 million a day?”
Bailey says conversations at the breakfast focused on cost-of-living issues that include high property taxes and rising gas prices. He says ending the Iran conflict would help with gas prices, but wants to focus on what can be done at the state level. Bailey says that includes an executive order to suspend the gas tax on his first day, along with gradually capping property taxes at 1%.
Another issue he says breakfast-goers talked about was public safety. Friday was the anniversary of the implementation of the SAFE-T Act, and Bailey says he will repeal it, if elected governor.
Overall, Bailey says any change can’t happen unless people come out to vote.
“We just gotta get people to turn that frustration into a vote,” Bailey said.
Bailey says the conversations four years ago when he was the Republican nominee was reminding people to get out to vote. This year, he says the strategy is encouraging people to take ten people to the polls with them to cast a vote for Bailey.
With about a month-and-a-half left in the campaign, Bailey says he will campaign and appear at similar events like the Pumpkin Festival in an effort to get out the vote.
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