Senate GOP Leader talks Republican chairman exit ahead of convention

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WCIA) — There are only a couple of weeks left until the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, but the Illinois Republican Party is struggling its way onto the convention floor after chairman Don Tracy announced that he will be resigning due to turmoil within the party.

“He’s been a good steward of the party. He’s been very energetic, both in his role as administering the party and also on the fundraising track,” Sen. John Curran (R-Lemont) said. “So you know, he’s done a very good job.”

Tracy’s resignation came after 3 years as the head of the party. During that tenure, he acknowledged that he consistently had to deal with infighting in the party.

“When I took on this full-time volunteer job in February 2021, I thought I would be spending most of my time fighting Democrats,” Tracy wrote in his resignation letter to GOP leaders. “We have Republicans who would rather fight other Republicans than engage in the harder work of defeating incumbent Democrats by convincing swing voters to vote Republican.”

Senate Republican Leader John Curran said that Tracy did a good job trying to keep those sides together.

“You know, we have an ever-expanding tent in the Illinois republican party, and we are constantly bringing in new people, new supporters that are really disaffected or they’re very turned off by what the majority democrats are doing to the state of Illinois,” Curran said. “There’s going to be natural tensions within that, but we have continued to work in a very collaborative manner.”

That infighting Tracy discussed grew as former president Donald Trump became the flag bearer for the national republican party. Republicans are going to officially nominate Trump as their candidate in Milwaukee. And Curran — who is seen as a more moderate Republican, is standing by him.

“President Trump is our candidate. I thought his debate performance was very good the other night. I think he displayed a lot of vigor for the for the office he’s seeking to return to,” Curran said.

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