Illinois has a new face running for governor in the 2026 Republican primary.
Conservative Ted Dabrowski announced his candidacy this month. Dabrowski is the president of Wirepoints, an Illinois-based economy and government research organization. Prior to this, he was president of policy at the Chicago-based Illinois Policy Institute [IPI], a right-leaning think tank.
Dabrowski said his parents were his inspiration to run; both are immigrants.
“They came here for the land of opportunity, freedom and the American Dream,” Dabrowski said. “Today, Illinois is not that state, and I think we should be a top five state in the country for economic opportunity, for job growth, wage growth [and] for education. I’m running because I want to restore the greatness that Illinois had.”
As a first-time candidate, Dabrowski has described himself as not from the political system but still knowing the system and knowing the players.
“I’ve worked with a lot of legislators, I’ve helped craft legislation, I’ve helped craft messaging [and] I probably know pensions better than any legislator in the state,” Dabrowski said, referring to his advocacy work through the IPI.
Former state Sen. Darren Bailey, the 2022 GOP nominee, is running again alongside Dabrowski. DuPage County Sheriff Jim Mendrick and Lake Forest resident Joe Severino are also running for the Republican nomination.
“I am different from Darren Bailey,” Dabrowski said. “He didn’t do well in the suburbs as we know. I’m from Cook County, I’m half Hispanic [and] half Polish, so I have a chance to reach more people in Cook County and the suburbs.”
Former leadership in Illinois
Dabrowski said Illinois under Gov. JB Pritzker, who has served two terms and will run for a third in 2026, has been significantly weak.
“I think what we have to do first is to acknowledge the problems that Illinois has under Gov. Pritzker. We continue to shrink in population, our SAT scores for high school students have dropped every single year, our job growth is the fourth worst in the country in the last seven years, so we have a lot of challenges,” Dabrowski said.
Illinois has experienced a steady decline in residents for twelve years, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The average SAT scores statewide have dropped steadily since 2017 with Pritzker having taken the helm two years later.
Job growth in Illinois has lagged behind the national rate. Illinois' labor force dropped 1% over the last year.
Dabrowski said one of his first points of action would be to lower property taxes and gas taxes.
“Illinoisians are paying the second highest gas taxes in the country. We need to make ourselves more affordable for everyday Illinoisians,” he said.
“One of the things we should do is move immediately to 401[k]s for all new workers. We should stop digging the pension hole,” Dabrowski continued.
Republicans in Illinois have pushed that idea previously, but has gone nowhere. Lawmakers took no action on pension reform during the spring session.
Dabrowski listed Caterpillar and Boeing as two companies that have moved their headquarters out of Illinois due to taxes and other financial strains. Caterpillar has announced it will relocate from Deerfield to the Dallas-Fort Worth area in Texas, though the heavy equipment maker still employs thousands in the Peoria area. Boeing relocated from Chicago to Arlington, Va., in 2022.
Dabrowski said according to ATTOM Data, the highest property taxes in the country were found to be charged in Rockford with Chicago and Naperville close behind.
“Of the ten highest, we have six of them. We have to freeze taxes—we should be freezing taxes and not raising them—and then finding ways to provide tax relief,” Dabrowski said.
Dabrowski said removing excess units of government is another strategy he would like to implement, citing having multiple school districts for small areas as one example.
“We’ve got schools in Chicago that are almost empty,” Dabrowski said. “They have maybe 5% capacity. Why are we running empty schools?”
The state has reported that only one in three students can read well in what is described as a literacy epidemic.
“Forget all the other stuff they’re teaching in schools—teach literacy and numeracy,” Dabrowski said. “We spend more than every state in the Midwest right now on education. Why aren’t our kids reading?”
“Gov. Pritzker, instead of admitting that we have a problem in education, he keeps highlighting the high graduation rates which don’t tell you the truth about what’s happening in our schools,” Dabrowski continued.
Dabrowski said students of color are reading at very low levels with some groups as low as nine percent while Chicago Public Schools spends nearly $30,000 dollars per student each year.
“He [Pritzker] has laughed off the facts [in a] gubernatorial debate—he laughed off the facts that our kids can’t read. He said, ‘It’s not true.’” Dabrowski said.
Another school-related issue Dabrowski said he wishes to tackle has to do with material children are reading.
“They’re reading books that, to me, go far beyond what they should be reading, whether it’s on sex ed or transgenderism,” Dabrowski said. “It’s tough being a kid in the fourth grade. You shouldn’t be confused about issues like that.”
“Boys in girls sports—he’s really pushing for that—and I think we’ve seen the rest of the country go ‘no, that’s an 80-20 issue the other way,” Dabrowski continued. “I think most people just want that normalcy of girls sports and boys sports and girls bathrooms and boys bathrooms. Gov. Pritzker is more willing to lean into that incursion to happen.”
Dabrowski said the bulk of the federal budget goes towards education, but that people are still wondering what their money is being spent on significantly.
“When Gov. Pritzker took office in 2019, the budget was $39 billion,” Dabrowski said. “Today it’s about $55 or $56 billion—that’s almost 40% more. Where did the money go—that’s what people want to know.”
While the federal budget is publicly available, Dabrowski said there are still things missing.
“I do this for a living and it’s really hard for me to know where the billions are going. Who’s getting the money, how’s it getting spend [or] is there any accountability on that money?” Dabrowski said.
Dabrowski said the crime and murder rates are something he would address if elected governor, as well.
“We have led the country and Chicago for 13 straight years in total murders,” Dabrowski said.
After President Trump referred to Chicago as the “murder capital of the world” on his platform Truth Social earlier this year, Pritzker claimed that the murder rates in red states are much higher on an episode of Face the Nation in late August. Prior to his appearance on Face the Nation, Pritzker said crime rates in Chicago were dropping significantly.
The last Republican governor
Dabrowski also expressed disapproval of former Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner and former speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives, Mike Madigan, who preceded Pritzker.
Dabrowski said he would not demand such strong reforms or allow Illinois to operate without a state budget as the Rauner administration did.
“I think it was mismanagement by Rauner and Madigan; they shut down the government,” Dabrowski said.
“When we have the highest property taxes in the country, when we have the third highest out-migration of people in the country [and] the gas taxes—this has largely been done by Democrats but of course some Republicans have also been complicit; they voted for some of these things as well,” Dabrowski continued. “Gov. Rauner didn’t make his case to the people. I think Gov. Rauner tried to do everything in the State House and you have to bring the people along with you.”
Rauner signed the Trust Act into law in 2017, which significantly limited the opportunity for collaboration between local and federal law enforcement on illegal immigration cases.
Dabrowski praised Florida's government for their mandate on local law enforcement to work with federal law enforcement, specifically U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] on these issues.
The mandate announced by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis earlier this year follows the 287(g) program, inspired by a specific code from the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1996.
“You don’t see ICE going to Florida. You don’t see that because they cooperate,” Dabrowski said.
“I argue that they are putting the people above the criminals, so if there’s a bad guy—a criminal illegal alien—the local authorities will just him over directly to the federal authorities. They have to cooperate—they must cooperate—and that to me is the smartest way to bring safety,” Dabrowski said.
Dabrowski said he believes there is a true chance for change in Illinois and that it starts with removing Gov. Pritzker.
“This is a moment for me to try to persuade people that the way I look at things are more appropriate,” Dabrowski continued. “I dream of an Illinois that’s competing in the top five—competing with Tennessee and the Carolinas and Texas for growth and opportunity, and our governor doesn’t think that way.”
