Pritzker and Bailey clash in contentious discussion about taxes, Trump and bears | Chicago News

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Pritzker and Bailey clash in contentious discussion about taxes, Trump and bears

This candidate forum is also available in Spanish.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and his Republican challenger Darren Bailey faced off Tuesday in a sometimes heated debate, as the two gubernatorial candidates fought over numerous policy positions ranging from taxes and education to President Donald Trump and the future of the Chicago Bears.

The two-term Democratic incumbent and former upstate Republican lawmaker gathered Tuesday for their first and only meeting this election cycle in a forum hosted by WTTW News.

The discussion became contentious between the two men at times, as the candidates talked over each other and accused each other of lying in their statements.

Bailey criticized Pritzker for not doing more for Illinois residents with a Democratic supermajority in the state legislature, while Pritzker repeatedly linked Bailey to Trump.

“It’s time for Governor Pritzker to take ownership of Illinois’ failures and problems,” Bailey said Tuesday when asked about the potential loss of billions of dollars in funding for Illinois hospitals, adding that he planned to count how many times his opponent would mention Trump by name during Tuesday’s forum.

“Now what Darren Bailey doesn’t tell you is how he fought back,” Pritzker responded. “That’s not the case. He thinks everything is fine. He stayed silent while Donald Trump took these things away from the people of the state of Illinois.”

Governor JB Pritzker, Democratic candidate for governor of Illinois, speaks to reporters after a WTTW News forum on October 13, 2026. (Ken Carl for WTTW)

The two previously faced off in the 2022 election cycle, when Pritzker won and won a second term, defeating his upstate opponent by nearly 13 points.

This time around, Bailey sought to garner more support from northern Illinois. He stopped his anti-Chicago rhetoric — he previously called the city “hell” but has since apologized — and moved into an apartment on the Near South Side earlier this year after receiving about 15 percent of the city’s vote during his previous campaign.

The lifelong farmer was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives in 2018 and then to the state Senate in 2020; he served until 2023. Bailey won the Republican primary in March in a landslide, setting the stage for a rematch with Pritzker in November.

While Bailey, 60, has fully embraced his support of Trump in 2022 – saying he intends to “roll out the red carpet” for him – he has been less vocal about supporting the president this year.

Bailey focused more on localized issues of safety, affordability and education, and promised not to restrict access to abortion in Illinois. On Tuesday, he called for the repeal of the criminal justice reform law known as the SAFE-T Act, saying too many violent offenders have been released following the state’s elimination of cash bail.

“That’s the problem, it doesn’t work,” Bailey said. “Something has to change.”

Bailey on Tuesday called for a forensic audit of the state budget — modeled after the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency — to eliminate spending on undocumented residents that comes “at the expense of our veterans and our elderly citizens.”

He called Pritzker’s “wasteful spending” throughout his two terms “enormous” and “pathetic.”

“I think it’s clear, you have a choice of four more years of an out-of-touch billionaire governor who has never worked for anything,” Bailey told reporters after the forum, “or you can choose someone who lives and works in exactly the same conditions, paying my own bills like everyone else.”

Pritzker, 61, is seeking to become the third governor in Illinois history to serve three terms, and the first Democrat to do so.

Considered a possible 2028 presidential candidate, the billionaire businessman and philanthropist, during his last campaign, repeatedly targeted Trump and sought to connect Bailey to the president’s agenda. Pritzker said in August that the president’s second term was “the government that Darren Bailey supported.”

Pritzker scored several legislative victories during his last term, implementing the state’s assault weapons ban in 2023, raising the statewide minimum wage to $15 and guaranteeing paid leave for Illinois workers. The governor also sought to secure Illinois safe-haven status for abortion rights and helped the state achieve 12 credit rating upgrades since he was first elected.

Responding to Bailey’s comments on the SAFE-T Act, Pritzker said his opponent wants to return to a criminal justice system where “the most violent criminals can buy their way out of prison.”

“Darren Bailey has no alternative,” Pritzker said, “he has no public safety answer except that he thinks more guns on the streets are the solution.”

Bailey lashed out at Pritzker’s possible run for the White House, saying he was not running for president, but rather, “I’m running for what I can do as governor here in the state of Illinois.”

Darren Bailey, the Republican candidate for governor of Illinois, speaks to reporters after a WTTW News forum on October 13, 2026. (Ken Carl for WTTW)

“I’m flattered that you think I could be elected president of the United States,” Pritzker responded, “but I’m running for re-election for governor of the state of Illinois.”

A week after meeting with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell amid the Chicago Bears’ potential move east to Indiana, Pritzker said Tuesday he believes state lawmakers will be able to “do something to keep the Bears in the state of Illinois.”

He said a team valued at $9 billion doesn’t need the state to build a stadium, and that if a deal is reached to keep the Bears in the state, it won’t come “at the expense of taxpayers.”

But Bailey said Indiana Gov. Mike Braun has already “assured” him that the team’s move to Hammond is a done deal.

“I’m just glad I’m not known as the governor who lost the Bears,” Bailey said.

After the forum, Pritzker told reporters that the state had continued negotiations with the team and he believed both that “we are closer now than before” and that the state could potentially give the Bears the option of moving to a site in suburban Arlington Heights or remaining in the city of Chicago.

“I think,” he said, “that’s the best way to do it.”

Video: WTTW News reporter Matt Masterson breaks down key takeaways from the forum. (WTTW News)