SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Darren Bailey, who had tempered his criticism of Chicago since winning the Republican nomination for governor, returned to calling the state’s largest city a crime-ridden “hellhole” Thursday in playing to a downstate crowd during the GOP’s annual day at the Illinois State Fair.
“Our legislators are going soft on criminals to the point where they’ve made Chicago a hellhole, friends,” Bailey, who is challenging first-term Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, told an audience of several hundred people at the director’s lawn at the state fairgrounds.
“Chicago, that once great city, well it didn’t become a hellhole just because of (Mayor) Lori Lightfoot and (Cook County State’s Attorney) Kim Foxx. Starting with J.B. Pritzker, our leaders are all in cahoots. They’re knee-deep in corruption. And they don’t care about the working people like you and I. They’ve proven that,” Bailey said.
