NAPERVILLE — March 17’s primary results show downstate farmer and former state lawmaker Darren Bailey will have his work cut out for him in the Chicago area as he tries for a second time to unseat Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
He and other members began that work in earnest at a unity breakfast in Naperville the next morning – an area of the state that will be a focus for the statewide candidates as the primary results once again demonstrated the fault lines of Illinois’ electorate.
Bailey was trounced by conservative researcher Ted Dabrowski in Cook, Lake and DuPage counties, and is so far trailing him among the 290 GOP primary voters in Alexander County on the state’s southern tip. In the 2022 primary, Bailey won all but one county in the state against his well-funded competitor, Richard Irvin.
Dabrowski, a resident of north suburban Wilmette, has received 48 percent of the vote in Cook County to Bailey’s 31 percent. Four years ago, Bailey was the one who received 48 percent of the vote in the state’s most populous county…