State Republican Party chair quits, Del Mar hopes to fill void
Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy’s Wednesday resignation bombshell, blaming infighting in the ranks, leaves a leadership gap that could be filled by a suburban contender.
Palatine Republican and former lieutenant governor candidate Aaron Del Mar announced Thursday he will seek the chairman’s job.
“Moving forward, if my peers believe in me and give me the opportunity to lead this party, the Democrats better be ready. I’m no milquetoast,” said Del Mar, a State Central Committee member.
Tracy, a Springfield businessman, became chairman in February 2021, promising to unify the party.
“Unfortunately, however, I have had to spend far too much time dealing with intraparty power struggles, and local intraparty animosities that continued after primaries and county chair elections,” he said in a statement.
Tracy said his resignation would be effective once a successor is picked, preferably by July 19. The move comes just weeks before the Republican National Convention starts on July 15 in Milwaukee.
Other names that have surfaced as chair are state Sen. Jason Plummer of Edwardsville, who could not be reached for comment, and former Republican gubernatorial candidate Jeanne Ives of Wheaton.
Ives said Thursday she would not seek the position and disagreed with contentions the party was in disarray.
“At the state central party level, we’re all in agreement about what we need to do to beat the Democrats,” said Ives, a former state representative and a State Central Committee member. “We’re here to be the opposition party to their policy prescriptions that have destroyed … the working-class opportunities in this state.”
Tracy lamented that “we have Republicans who would rather fight other Republicans than engage in the harder work of defeating incumbent Democrats by convincing swing voters to vote Republican.”
He referenced the “infatuation” of some Illinois Republican State Central Committee members “with certain individuals they call ‘grass roots’ leaders.” He decried the “retributive sacking” of Vice Chair Mark Shaw, former Lake County Republican Party chair.
Shaw was removed as vice chair at a Monday State Central Committee meeting following allegations he voted as a delegate at a recent party convention although he was not one. Another allegation involved using threatening language at the convention, party officials said.
Shaw, a State Central Committee member, has said the accusations are untrue. He did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.
“It is unfortunate that you have a circular firing squad that seems to be the Republican Party these days,” GOP state Sen. Dan McConchie of Hawthorn Woods commented. “(We should) be focusing attention on the Democratic Party and what its continued failures have been.”
Del Mar called Tracy a “good man” and a “good Republican.”
But “the grass-roots members of our party … those who walk in parades, those that put lawn signs in the ground, knock on doors … need to have a voice and the donor class needs to listen,” he said.
The Democratic Party of Illinois seized the moment.
“While the Illinois GOP finds itself in chaos, the Democratic Party of Illinois enters the 2024 general election as a united party standing for freedom and opportunity for all of Illinois’ working families,” officials said in a statement.
Lake County Republican Party Chair Keith Brin called changing leadership right before the convention “good timing.”
“I think it's a credit to the Republican Party that we recommit toward the goal of getting great Republican candidates elected to office to turn this state around,” said Brin, who had advocated for Shaw’s demotion.
Tracy appointed State Central Committee member Jan Weber to lead the search for a replacement.
That person “needs to be a unifier of all Republicans for the good of the party otherwise we will stay in a super minority position for a long time to come,” Republican state Rep. Bradley Stephens of Rosemont said.
⋅ Daily Herald Staff Writer Russell Lissau contributed to this report.