Actually the majority of Republicans in this state are conservative. But they split their vote and the Combine Publicrats almost always win.
Just look at the Republican primary for governor: Dillard, Brady, Proft, Andrzejewski are all conservatives and they got 65 % of the Republican primary votes. Thankfully Ryan and McKenna split the liberal Republican vote and it looks like Brady will win over Dillard by a hair—in this case, both wings split their vote and we, for the first time in decades, many decades, get a conservative candidate for governor and a super-conservative for Lt. Governor (Plummer is top-notch).
So Kirk won because there simply was no decent conservative alternative. But the party as a whole in this state is not liberal. Its leadership has been in a cozy relationship for decades with the Democrats and they’ve always managed to coopt or divide and conquer the majority grass-roots conservatives.
Reply to your post #79.
Something like that...
The Repukelican powers that be in Illinois better consider this a wake up call!
Conservatives did well in Illinois... except
too many of them ran and Hughes could have used some support/endorsement from the Conservative/gubernatorial candidates and vice-versa.
Run Patrick Run!