More from Election Night: Wilmette’s Dabrowski bested by Bailey; Stratton tops packed senate field; Preckwinkle dominates

After years of criticizing Illinois’ Democratic leadership, Wilmette resident Ted Dabrowski put a lot of money where his mouth was as he competed for the Republican slot in the governor’s race.

But his efforts apparently have come up short. According to unofficial results in the gubernatorial Republican primary, Dabrowski and runningmate Dr. Carrie Mendoza finished behind favorites Darren Bailey and Aaron B. Del Mar.

The Associated Press called the race at 8:35 p.m. Tuesday with Bailey collecting 53.8%, or 293,378, of the votes. Dabrowski claimed 28.6% (155,800), while former DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick and Rick Heidner were safely behind at 9.6% and 8%, respectively, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Dabrowski did not issue an Election Night statement and did not immediately respond to messages from The Record.

With victory in tow, Bailey’s campaign on social media posted a clip from the film “Gladiator” in which the protagonist yells to the crowd, “Are you not entertained?”

He also wrote on the platform X, “To every voter who showed up tonight—whether I was your first choice or not—I want you to know I hear you and I will fight for you. Illinois is our home. It’s worth saving and we’re going to do it together. And we start by firing JB Pritzker.”

Throughout the campaign, Dabrowski held the title of the Republican race’s top fundraiser. He reportedly had raised more than $1.5 million, including $250,000 of his own funds, within a month of entering the race, according to Daily Herald reporting.

Dabrowski is a founder and former president of Wirepoints, a conservative media outlet that uses data to comment on statewide issues. He formerly served as the vice president of policy for the Illinois Policy Institute, an organization that advocates for smaller government; and as a local conservative activist with organizations such as Open New Trier, which fought for a more open high school during the COVID-19 pandemic, and New Trier Neighbors, a group that has battled DEI initiatives.

In the state’s U.S. Senate primaries, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton (40%) won the Democratic nomination over U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (33.2%) and Robin Kelly (18.2%) in a race for the seat of retiring Sen. Dick Durbin.

The Republican nomination apparently went to Don Tracy (39.9%) over Jeannie Evans (22.8%) and four other challengers.

In the race for Cook County president, Toni Preckwinkle (68.5%) handily bested Brendan Reilly for the Democratic slot. And for county assessor Pat Hynes (52.5%) is out in front of incumbent Fritz Kaegi with 87% of the votes in.

Stay tuned to TheRecordNorthShore.org for updates to this story.

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