On Wednesday, Illinois GOP Chairman Don Tracy resigned. He said he resigned because of his frustration in dealing with divisions in the state party. His resignation does come after a tumultuous period for the Illinois GOP, where interpersonal rivalries have taken precedence over responsible politics. This is just a sign of the general trend in the Republican Party, a movement toward chaos and mismanagement that harms the party’s electoral chances.
Tracy explained his resignation in a letter to the state party, saying, “Unfortunately, however, I have had to spend far too much time dealing with intra party power struggles, and local intra party animosities that continued after primaries and County Chair elections. … We have Republicans who would rather fight other Republicans than engage in the harder work of defeating incumbent Democrats.”
One explanation for Tracy’s timing was the recent ousting of the former vice chairman of the Illinois GOP, Mark Shaw. When one looks into the drama surrounding Shaw’s ousting, a dysfunctional and fundamentally unserious party is discovered. It is alleged that Shaw had voted as a delegate at the party’s state convention despite not being a delegate. Upon being challenged by another party member, Shaw allegedly threatened to “kick his ass.”
In response, Lake County GOP Chairman Keith Brin stated, “We now have people who ‘identify’ as delegates. It doesn’t matter that they weren’t actually delegates. … I should tell my Democratic Chair counterpart the Republican Party is now woke! We are election woke!”
To defend himself, Shaw published a 10-page meltdown. The first subheading read, “LIES, DAMN LIES AND POLITICAL HYPERBOLE.” Later in the paper, Shaw accused one of his intraparty critics of defending an employee who was a pedophile.
Regardless of the legitimacy of Shaw’s vote, these divisions reflect a party incapable of presenting a solid political choice to Illinoisans. This is in a state with a Democratic governor, and a Democratic supermajority in both legislative houses, and it sends two Democratic senators and 14 Democratic representatives to Washington. The GOP only sends three congressmen to the federal House of Representatives.
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This chaos is not limited to the Illinois Republicans. Intraparty chaos has reigned across many state parties and even within the national party. Flawed choices in the 2022 primaries led the Red Wave to be merely a trickle. After national party Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel’s ouster and the accession of Michael Whatley and Lara Trump in the Republican National Committee, potential employees are now allegedly questioned whether they believe the 2020 election was stolen.
A Republican Party that wants to win and effectively govern does not choose candidates clearly unsuited for a general election or public office and does not aggressively relitigate an embarrassing election for the GOP. A Republican Party that wants to win and effectively govern does not devolve into petty interpersonal squabbles. A Republican Party that wants to win and effectively govern first has to demonstrate it can govern itself.