Prairie State Wire

Republican gubernatorial nominee state Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) has responded to incumbent Gov. JB Pritzker's recent ad that attacked Bailey for accepting pandemic assistance for his farm.

"JellyBelly [Pritzker] put up a new ad that accuses Darren Bailey of hypocrisy - being opposed to government benefits, but taking farm subsidies and PPP," Chicago's Morning Answer co-host Dan Proft said. 

In the ad, a voice said, "Bailey got caught taking a fortune in PPP money." The voice went on to note that Bailey did not "say thank you," and it also implied that Bailey is running his campaign with taxpayer dollars.

"The PPP money...did you hear that, Illinois businesses?" Proft said. "You're supposed to thank Governor Pritzker...for the Payroll Protection money that you got when they shut down your business... Otherwise, obviously, you're ungrateful... On the farm subsidies piece of it - and by the way - 'got away with' taking...what do you mean, 'got away with it'?...Did he commit a crime? I don't believe he's been accused of committing a crime, so what did he 'get away with'? Accessing a program that was set up by the government to compensate people for taking their businesses?"

"Friends, I wanted to take a moment to address out-of-touch billionaire JB's latest attack," Bailey told Chicago's Morning Answer. "Get this–JB Pritzker has the gall to run a TV ad attacking me for running a business and doing whatever it takes to keep people employed during tough times. JB Pritzker, you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth. You inherited billions of dollars from your family, you have millions stashed away on islands that most folks have never heard of, let alone visited. You've never woke up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, worrying about keeping a job or managing payroll. You've literally never worked a day in your life, and you're criticizing me for how I run my farm? How dare you? You're the trust fund kid on the school playground, pushing all the regular kids around and making fun of their bagged lunches. You're the guy who ignores the speed limit on your custom-made, one-of-a-kind boat, while the rest of us worry about the price of gas.

"Let me tell you what a hard day's work looks like. It's waking up before the sun comes up to pack 18 hours of hard, physical labor into a single day during harvest. It's putting on your work boots, running tractors, plowing fields, and bandaging up calloused hands so that you can wake up the following day and do it all over again. It's worrying about crops when the weather is too dry, too wet, too hot, or too cold. It's exhaustion in every bone in your body, but knowing that people and jobs depend on you to keep putting one foot in front of the other. All over Illinois, there are people like me: farmers, yes, but also truck drivers, plumbers, electricians, grocery workers, mechanics, and so many others who put in the hours and sweat to provide for their families. These regular working folks make our state great, and they'll be the driving force behind our state's recovery.

"People like you and your Gold Coast friends are running our home into the ground. Governor Pritzker, you're spending millions of dollars of your family's money to attack me for how I run my business - the business that I built with my own two hands. You sat around with your soft hands, laughing with your snooty friends at the downstate farmer who thinks that he can make a difference. Well, you got one thing wrong. I don't think I can make a difference; I know I can make a difference, because I know what it takes to work hard and build something, and you don't have a clue." 

Pritzker's ad said, "Guess who's really paying for Darren Bailey’s campaign for governor? You are." But Mediaite pointed out that Pritzker donated $24 million to Bailey's primary campaign.

Bailey defeated five Republican challengers to win the primary nomination in Illinois' gubernatorial race, a Ballotpedia report said. Bailey and Pritzker will face off in the Nov. 8 general election.

Pritzker is the richest politician in the country, with a net worth of approximately $3.6 billion, Forbes reported. The heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune took office in 2018.