The race is heating up for candidates seeking to win the Illinois Republican primary and challenge two term Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker, a billionaire and heir to the Hyatt Hotels fortune. As of October 5, 2025, Ballotpedia lists three officially declared Republican candidates: former Illinois State Senator and 2022 GOP nominee for governor Darren Bailey, former Wirepoints president Ted Dabrowski, and DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick (2). Other outlets also mention additional entrants, including Phillip Perez, Max Solomon, and Joseph Severino (3).

While former Vice President Harris proved that money is not everything in politics, that truth only applies after a certain threshold, say, a billion dollars. For Republicans to seriously compete against Governor Pritzker and his virtually unlimited personal wealth, they will need to raise substantial sums. Mr. Dabrowski currently leads the GOP field with roughly 1.5 million dollars in contributions, placing him among the top five fundraisers statewide (4). Sheriff Mendrick follows with approximately 112 thousand dollars cash on hand, which includes funds raised prior to his gubernatorial bid (5). Mr. Bailey, meanwhile, reports 3,800.93 dollars cash on hand, a notable decline from his 2022 campaign resources (6). Interestingly, Mr. Solomon currently holds more, around 5 thousand dollars, than the previous GOP nominee (7). Without adequate funding to compete in Illinois’ expensive media markets, candidates will struggle to build name recognition and effectively reach voters.

The Prairie Post would also like to take a moment to address Mr. Severino’s campaign. While the other candidates appear to be decent, hardworking Americans running either to enact change or to gain political power, a motive we do not condemn though we always hope for the former, Mr. Severino is neither honorable nor virtuous in any respect. He has repeatedly demonstrated deceitful and fraudulent behavior. The Prairie Post strongly urges its readers to review publicly available information about Mr. Severino before considering support for his candidacy (8).