Rick Heidner hopes Illinois Republican primary voters will forgive him for making millions in campaign donations to the state’s most notorious Democrats.
Heidner says he’s conservative now. But his is a recent about-face.
As recently as two years ago, Heidner was a major campaign donor to Democrats. That’s including convicted felon, former House Speaker Michael J. Madigan (D-Chicago), Chicago Mayors Richard M. Daley and Rahm Emanuel, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle (D-Chicago) and her anti-police acolyte, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.
“The Kim Foxx thing. That was a huge mistake. That, I apologized to everyone for,” Heidner said, when confronted over the donations at a January candidate debate in downstate Tazewell County. “That one there, I cannot even forgive myself for. I apologize for that.”
The video gambling magnate also says he’s also sorry for giving $25,000 to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who wants to defund the Chicago police and is calling for white, hispanic and asian Illinois residents to pay slavery reparations.
Heidner said he gave Johnson the money because he wanted to expand his gambling business into the city of Chicago.
“I do a tremendous amount of business in the city of Chicago. I have many, many buildings. And I have always wanted to have one of my businesses expand into Chicago,” Heidner said. “So a dear friend of mine called me on the phone and said, ‘Rick, would you help me with this. Brandon Johnson has a lot of debt from his campaign.’ He said, ‘I can get you in front of him. You can talk about your businesses and this or that, and give him your opinions.'”
“So, really, out of respect for my friend, I did it,” Heidner said.
The State of Illinois legalized video gambling in 2009, but municipalities need to individually opt-in to allow it.
The City of Chicago technically approved video gambling last month, as part of its 2026 budget, but Johnson is stalling implementation, calling for more non-white vendors to be included.
Heidner, of Barrington Hills, is running for the GOP gubernatorial nomination against Wirepoints.com publisher and policy analyst Ted Dabrowski of Wilmette, DuPage County Sheriff Jim Mendick and farmer and former Illinois State Sen. Darren Bailey of downstate Clay County.
The 2026 primary election is on March 17.
