As a lifelong socially moderate Republican who supported Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, I see little chance of Illinois Republicans winning in November with a slate full of socially far-right candidates. Various polls project all our statewide candidates to lose and give remaining Republican candidates a “tossup” status.
The far-right Republicans who are gripping the Illinois’ Republican Party by the proverbial throat have too often been able to push through socially extreme candidates in the primaries,which makes it easy for Democrats to label all of our candidates as extremists. Democrats employ this tactic effectively, knowing the majority of general election voters in Illinois want women to have the right to choose, even if they themselves would never choose abortion, and favor laws restricting access to semi-automatic weapons. Thus, Democratic mailers and media ads demonize Republican candidates as “too extreme” to hold any office.
As a result, moderate Illinois Republicans — and thus all Illinois Republicans — are again likely to be denied seats at the tables of government and left looking in from the barren outside. We are being relegated to political irrelevance where and when it matters.
Socially moderate Republicans — still conservative at their fiscal core — must no longer acquiesce to the far right who insist on candidates who espouse intolerant social policies that easily allow Democrats to define us all as too extreme to hold office. Being stringently opposed to abortion and against any gun controls can no longer be the litmus test for being a Republican candidate in Illinois.
Opposing big government and the overregulation of businesses, placing family first when it comes to safety, wanting fair access to quality health care, having schools teach principles and academics, securing the southern border, placing America first internationally, and accepting our neighbors, no matter their race, creed or orientation, is consistent with being a Republican in Illinois. I am proud to be that kind of Republican.
Socially moderate Republicans are being shunned or shouted down by those on the far right of the party when we disagree with them. The far right apparently prefers defeat in general elections rather than winning with candidates who can draw socially moderate Republicans, independents and Democrats to the polls in Illinois. Thus, we’re left trying to legitimize gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey and Mark Curran, the Republican nominee for an Illinois Supreme Court seat.
Illinois Republicans face having to rationalize voting for candidates who move to the middle for the general election after worshipping at the altar of far-right politics in the primary. These candidates are political chameleons who want voters to view them differently in the general election than who they were in the primary. They know far-right candidates do not win general elections here. Bailey will be the prime example of this truism in a race that Republicans should be able to win — with an electable candidate.
Winning general elections is what matters — not winning primaries with unelectable candidates. To do so, the Illinois Republican Party should actively promote our core values on policy and shake off the troubled waters of abortion and gun rights that drown us in the general election.
I am convinced that our core Republican values, when they are at the forefront in discussions of elections, will attract more voters to our causes. Those values will coalesce hardworking Americans who want less government, fewer taxes and more opportunity to live the American Dream no matter their background or ethnicity. They know that dream — which I have lived — is being stolen from our children and grandchildren by liberal economic giveaway politics and border policies. That’s where we need to fight for policy changes and win the voters to seat us at the important tables of government. This should be self-evident by now, yet social extremists insist on perpetuating the pyrrhic fight over abortion rights and guns with the same result each election — Republicans being labeled as too extreme.
Instead, we must stand up resolutely to those willing to place abortion and gun issues above winning general elections. Illinois has already codified abortion. That’s a political fact. Let’s fight to keep it limited to 15 weeks, allow parental notification and insist there be no state funding. There are too many mass shootings to realistically believe the General Assembly will not address semi-automatic weapons. Let’s be willing to consider age limits, background and mental health checks, and waiting periods to purchase weapons. Plus, no parent with a Firearm Owner’s Identification card should be able to buy such a weapon for his or her child.
Once we stop handing the tools to Democrats to label all Republicans as too extreme, we will be able to effectively focus on Democrats’ failed policies and giveaways, porous borders, conciliatory policies toward countries that want to harm us and soft-on-crime prosecutors. And we will win on the issues that matter. Let’s turn the tables rather than repeatedly plow headlong into the Democratic playbook.
We moderate Illinois Republicans need to raise our voices. We cannot squander the November 2024 election as it appears we may have done this year. 2024 is likely to be the defining election for our modern-era republic.
Republicans have to find consensus builders. That starts today with a dialogue on social issues inclusive of everyone’s views, then tomorrow doing all we can to convince moderates and independents to support and vote for Republican candidates in 2024.
Gary Grasso is mayor of Burr Ridge, a former DuPage County Board member and 911 chairman, and a former candidate for Congress and Illinois attorney general with more than 25 years of public service.
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