Metro East Sun

Despite coming up short in his bid to unseat incumbent Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, State Sen. Darren Bailey on Tuesday night promised to keep fighting for Illinois residents.

Bailey also shared that he offered his congratulations to Pritzker, who won another team as Illinois’ governor in Tuesday’s general election.

“Friends, I can promise you this I may not be going to Springfield as your next governor, but I will never stop fighting for you,” Bailey said in his statement. “I will never stop listening to your voices. I can't. My family depends on it. I just spoke to Gov. Pritzker and congratulated on his win tonight. The challenges are many, but I'm going to do what I always have, what Americans always have. I'm going to roll up my sleeves and I'm going to go back to work. My priorities will continue things that unite us protecting our freedoms bringing jobs to our state and safety to our streets.”

According to the New York Times, Pritzker received 2,071,142 votes (54.3%) to Bailey’s 1,638,743 votes (42.9%). According to NBC Chicago, Bailey also thanked his wife, Cindy, for the journey to become governor of the state.

“Cindy's my high school sweetheart and has been by my side every step of the way, being my strength on the good days and on the hard days. I love my family who has sacrificed so much while we were out on the campaign trail, fighting for the future of this great state that we love,’ he said, according to the station. “And Stephanie, thank you for joining our team. Stephanie and bill have worked so hard all across this state to help us get our shared message out, and I'm very excited about her future. and our thank you to the people of Illinois thank you for our amazing team and everyone who worked so hard everyone who voted everyone who donated everyone who prayed to help us in our fight to restore.”

In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Bailey said “I love Illinois. This is our home, our future and our fight. We will reform Springfield and restore Illinois."