Metro East Sun

Republican state Sen. Darren Bailey is going on the attack against Gov. J.B. Pritzker and President Joe Biden after a federal appeals court cast the president’s vaccine mandate on large-sized businesses as “fatally flawed.”

Now seeking the GOP nomination for governor and the right to take on Pritzker, Bailey took to Twitter to declare “after a federal court ruling, OSHA suspends plans to enforce Biden’s vaccine mandate on businesses. This is a victory for freedom, working families and businesses. Just like liberal @JBPritzker, @JoeBiden doesn’t have the authority to mandate or the backbone to lead.”

Bailey recently took his campaign to Bedford Park, West Cook News reported, where he met with voters during an outing he later called a “great event.”

“We discussed (how to) restore respect to law enforcement and work to keep our communities safe and more,” he posted on social media.  “We are building a movement for change and together we will restore Illinois.”

Bailey has long argued that all starts with showing Pritzker the door in Springfield.

"Pritzker and the Democratic Party have completely abandoned the working people and families of this state,” he recently tweeted. “He continues to strip individual freedoms and make decisions that should be between an individual and their doctor.”

Bailey holds an edge over his GOP competitors, per an October Ogden & Fry poll, Prairie State Wire reported. The veteran lawmaker recently responded to a Democratic Governors Association ad targeting him by reasoning they’re “terrified” of him.

“They know [J.B. Pritzker] is vulnerable, and they see our campaign as the top contender to defeat him next November,” his campaign posted on his Twitter. "Pritzker has failed working families across the state and has been unable to keep communities safe. He is nothing but a mandate candidate who wants to unilaterally control private businesses, shut down churches, and force children to wear masks.”

Bailey has also strongly pushed back against an amendment to the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act, which was enacted to protect doctors from being forced to perform medical procedures that they were morally opposed to, namely abortions.

Bailey has also made no secret of his opposition to vaccine mandates, according to the Prairie State Wire.

“I will always support ensuring vaccines and information are readily available for those who seek it and need it, but I will never support forcing and threatening individuals and families with continued government force,” he added in a post. “A few months ago, we called healthcare workers heroes; now Pritzker wants to ensure they can be fired if they don't submit to his tyrannical rule. These never-ending mandates and radical attacks by Pritzker on individual freedom must stop."

Having officially launched his campaign for governor back in February, Bailey has also launched legislation aimed at insuring election integrity across the state, the news outlet also reported.  

“My team and I are dedicated to ensuring the integrity of our election process in Illinois,” he tweeted. “Thousands of Illinoisans are concerned with the process and we must work to improve and restore confidence in our elections moving forward.”

He said the measure will include changes to make the voting process more efficient and trustworthy.

“This means we put in place common-sense processes that make it easy for Illinoisans to register and vote and easy for us to identify and eliminate any potential fraud,” he said. “I'm proposing annual cleaning of voter rolls in every county, individual ballot tracking of mail-in ballots, a random 1% audit of voter signatures and ballots for every election, and mandatory voter ID while allowing free IDs for those who do not already have a driver's license or state ID.”