Illinois Governor JB Pritzker Attacks GOP Opponent for Christian Faith
In his campaign to win election for a third term as Illinois’ governor, JB Pritzker is attacking his Republican opponent, Darren Bailey, for holding traditional Christian beliefs.
Bailey, a former state senator from downstate Illinois, is an evangelical Christian, and founded a private Christian school with his wife.
Pritzker’s campaign has published press releases attacking Bailey for his and his school’s theological stances. On October 14, for example, the campaign mocked Bailey because his school upholds biblical positions on the family, including that a husband “leads the family” — as opposed to the radical social agenda taught in government schools.
Pritzker campaign spokesperson Leah Hurwitz disingenuously claimed that “Darren Bailey has used his own school to indoctrinate children into his extreme views.” In reality, government schools have indoctrinated millions of American children into rejecting biblical principles and adopting actual extreme views such as Marxism and critical race theory.
Not the First Attack
This was not the first time that Pritzker’s campaign attacked Bailey’s Christian faith. On September 17, it launched a television ad attacking Bailey because his school uses curriculum that teaches biblical creation. In a press release published the following day, the campaign labeled the school’s curriculum “extreme,” and smeared biblical creation as a “false dinosaur hoax.”
Pritzker’s attack effectively targeted millions of Americans. For example, Gallup polling indicates that a plurality of Americans believe in biblical creation. Additionally, many scientists continue to openly reject evolution as scientifically unsound.
Responding to this attack, Bailey said that he wanted “to talk about high property taxes [and] high utility costs.” He called the attacks — and the media’s fixation on them — a “perfect example of JB Pritzker being successful by diverting the message.”
Perhaps not surprisingly in a blue state, Pritzker’s campaign has also attacked both Bailey and his running mate for opposing abortion.
The Illinois Democratic Party has joined in attacking Bailey’s Christian faith. In a Facebook post on October 14, David Smith, executive director of the Christian-conservative Illinois Family Institute, highlighted an anti-Bailey mailer that he received, paid for by the party. Headlined “Darren Bailey: Not this extremist b******t again,” the vulgar mailer attacked Bailey’s Christian beliefs, including “believ[ing] God intended for men to be the head of households” and “oppos[ing] the right to an abortion.”
Pritzker’s and Bailey’s Records
In his post, Smith noted that “the hypocrisy is staggering coming from JB Pritzker, who repealed parental notification of abortion, expanded taxpayer funding for abortion, [and] legalized assisted suicide. His ‘culture of death’ agenda is extremism on steroids.”
Bailey served in the Illinois House of Representatives from 2019 to 2021, and in the Senate from 2021 to 2023, earning an 83-percent lifetime Freedom Score. By contrast, the Illinois General Assembly’s average Freedom Score currently sits at a dismal 23.4 percent.
America’s Biblical Foundation
Pritzker’s attacks on Bailey’s Christian faith illustrate how far the United States has drifted from its biblical foundation — a foundation that no informed American can miss. For example, the Declaration of Independence acknowledges that “all men … are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,” including the rights to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Additionally, in his 1796 Farewell Address, President George Washington noted that, “of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.” In a 1798 letter to the Massachusetts Militia, President John Adams declared, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” And in its 1892 decision in Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court declared explicitly that the United States “is a Christian nation.”
Instead of upholding America’s founding principles, a large segment of American leaders, including Pritzker, advocate policies such as abortion, euthanasia, gun control, and draconian government regulations that blatantly violate them — and many are openly condescending of traditional Christian principles. This trend is not limited to a single party, as The New American’s Freedom Index demonstrates.
Defending Biblical Principles
With America’s biblical foundation under attack, traditionally minded Americans must push back. For example, parents must get their children out of government schools and instead homeschool them or place them in vetted private schools, such as FreedomProject Academy. Indoctrination via government schools and universities has been a key cause of America’s moral decline, and parents must not allow it get hold of their children.
Americans must also educate their family, friends, and neighbors about their elected officials’ records. Few people are aware of how their leaders govern, or even know who their representatives are. The New American’s Freedom Index, which evaluates federal and state legislators based on their adherence to the U.S. Constitution and America’s founding principles, is an excellent place to start.
Restoring adherence to America’s founding principles requires an informed and activated electorate. The John Birch Society, the parent organization of The New American, has been working tirelessly for nearly 70 years to educate Americans and motivate them to action, spearheading organized action in local communities to influence elected officials.
This fight is not hopeless; by working together to educate others and influence our officials, we can successfully uphold America’s biblical foundation.
