Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has earned a second term in office, defeating Republican challenger and Illinois State Sen. Darren Bailey, the Associated Press projected Tuesday.
See the latest results from the contentious race below.
With the polls closed Tuesday evening on Election Day 2022 in Illinois, NBC Chicago is hosting live results on the NBC Chicago app and NBCChicago.com.
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Pritzker, who defeated incumbent Bruce Rauner in the 2018 election, will be sworn in for a second term in office in 2023, along with Lieutenant Gov. Juliana Stratton, after defeating Bailey and Republican Lieutenant Gov. candidate Stephanie Trussell.
Pritzker poured millions of dollars of his personal fortune into the race, touting his record on improving Illinois’ economic outlook while balancing the state’s budget and paying off its backlog of bills.
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The governor also emphasized his administration’s work in protecting abortion access rights in the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision overturning the Roe v. Wade precedent.
The latter argument was made forcefully by Pritzker’s campaign to cast Bailey as a conservative extremist that would strip Illinois women of their access to the procedure, with Bailey previously stating he did not support abortion, even in cases of race or incest.
Bailey was also criticized for comparing abortion to the Holocaust, and was painted as atoo conservative for Illinois voters after receiving the endorsement of former President Donald Trump.
For his part, Bailey received significant financial backing from billionaire Dick Uihlein, who poured at least $50 million into political action committees that ran a series of attack ads against Pritzker.
Those ads largely focused on issues of crime in Illinois, with Pritzker’s administration blasted for its support of the “SAFE-T Act,” which Bailey argued would cause thousands of criminal defendants to be released from prison on “non-detainable offenses.”
Bailey also criticized Pritzker’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, having filed suit against the governor’s “stay-at-home” order in 2020. He argued that Pritzker was a “thief” that had robbed children of “precious memories” with his administration’s emphasis on virtual learning during the pandemic.
If Bailey had won, he would have been just the second Republican governor to hold the office since George Ryan decided not to run for reelection in the 2002 race. Bruce Rauner was governor for one term before losing to Pritzker in 2018.
