On the heels of a tough night for conservatives across Illinois in the April local elections, former state representative and gubernatorial candidate Jeanne Ives joined Chicago’s Morning Answer with Dan Proft and Amy Jacobson to give a blunt, unsparing postmortem.
“There’s no way to sugarcoat it,” Ives said. “In most of these suburban races, Republicans got completely wiped out.”
As the co-founder of Breakthrough Ideas and host of The Real Story (Sunday nights on AM 560), Ives has her finger on the pulse of grassroots political activism. But even she was stunned by the depth of the GOP’s collapse in areas that once leaned Republican.
🧨 The Numbers Don’t Lie: “Complete Losses”
From Milton Township to Winfield, from Addison to York, Ives detailed a grim landscape: Republicans lost township races they historically dominated. Even long-serving, well-respected officials like a 20-year highway commissioner were defeated—often by lesser-known Democrats, including one candidate who had never even attended a board meeting.
“Expect higher taxes and unionization of local workforces,” Ives warned. “The Democrats are bringing their playbook—and the unions are driving it.”
🗳️ What Went Wrong?
According to Ives, the problems were both strategic and structural:
- Lack of Clear Messaging: GOP candidates failed to define what they stood for or why they were running. “You have to hit people between the eyes,” Ives said.
- Spring Break Apathy: Voters literally left town. Republicans didn’t show up during early voting, and efforts to get out the vote fell short.
- Union Turnout Machine: Teacher and public sector unions flexed their muscles. “Behind every teacher, you get at least five more votes,” Ives noted.
- Unchecked Smears: Candidates like Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau were targeted with relentless (and untraceable) robocalls filled with slander and misinformation.
“He’s the best mayor in the state,” Ives said. “And he got wiped out in part because of deceptive attacks and GOP infighting.”
⚠️ The Voter Apathy Problem
Voters, Ives said, simply don’t grasp the stakes of local elections. Many are tuned out, unaware of the money at stake and the power held by school boards and township officials. She referenced a mayoral race in Warrenville, won by just 2,490 votes, by a former school board member known for wasteful spending and shady deals.
“They don’t know how Marxist their school boards are,” Ives said. “And they don’t realize these boards control hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.”
🌟 Any Bright Spots?
A few victories stood out:
- Jim Tinaglia’s win in Arlington Heights was encouraging.
- In Mantino, the “Freedom Party” successfully made the election a referendum on Pritzker’s controversial deal with a Chinese electric vehicle company.
These wins, however, were local and issue-specific—driven by intense community organizing and clear messaging.
“They identified their issue. They stayed focused. They worked hard. And they won,” Ives said of Mantino.
🧭 Where Do We Go From Here?
With statewide Republican leadership mostly absent and the party fractured into “warlord-ocracies,” as Dan Proft put it, Ives sees a path forward—but it won’t be easy.
“We need a candidate in 2026 who sounds like Trump,” she said. “Someone who’s unafraid to speak the truth, connect the dots, and won’t be ignored by the media.”
She also pointed to 2026 as an opportunity to reshape the political map, noting that Senator Dick Durbin may not run for reelection and that the 6th and 11th Congressional Districts are ripe for flipping—if conservatives organize and unify.
💣 The Harsh Reality
Ultimately, Ives warned that unless voters wake up and start caring about what happens in their backyards, they’ll continue to lose—at the ballot box and in their wallets.
“Taxes will go up. Services will decline. School quality will erode. But unless people get off the morphine drip of apathy, nothing will change.”