Prairie State Wire

In a Tweet posted on March 31, Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Louisville), who is running for governor in a bid to unseat incumbent J.B. Pritzker, went after a Republican opponent, implying that Richard Irvin's "tough on crime" boasts may not be what they seem.

"Democrat @RichardIrvin4IL plays a tough on crime conservative on TV, but behind the scenes he praised other Dems for passing radical anti-police legislation. We need a Governor who stands up & defends law enforcement and fights with them to keep families safe in real life. #twill," Bailey tweeted.

The Chicago Tribune reported that though Irvin was quoted by Newsmax on March 11 that criminal justice reform legislation would 'defund the police' and calling them, "I hate the police" bills, he had, as Pritzker signed the package into law on Feb. 22, 2021, "sent a letter commending Sen. Elgie Sims Jr. on his leadership in its passage, lauding the measure's goals and saying he thought his police department had already met or exceeded the new law's requirements."

In January, WTTW called Irvin's claims in TV ads about his reaction to the 2020 protests "questionable." The report said Irvin, "erroneously claims he deserves credit for 'calling out' the Illinois National Guard once the protests turned violent on June 1 and falsely claims that Chicago officials 'did nothing to stop looting.'"

Bailey recently announced that his name would be at the top of the ballot for the Republican gubernatorial primary. "GOOD NEWS: we're first on the Republican Primary ballot to fire JB Pritzker. Thank you so much to everyone who has helped fuel our movement to reform Springfield and restore Illinois!!! #twill," Bailey posted on Twitter on Wednesday.