Republican candidate for governor received a death threat via voicemail this week

Posted on November 4, 2022
State Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia). (Photo courtesy Kent Casson)

By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – When news broke of a graphic death threat on State Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) and his family, the gubernatorial challenger immediately blamed Democrats.

A voicemail says the caller would skin the senator alive and feed members of his family to him. Bailey said the trigger is Gov. JB Pritzker and his policies.

“I think the rhetoric continues,” Bailey told reporters Thursday after casting his ballot during early voting in Louisville, Ill. “Even the people that drafted Gov. Pritzker, the president of the Senate, the speaker of the House, they continue to still misunderstand and not understand and misconstrue the message of what the Safe-T Act brings, and you see that message across the board.”

Bailey said Pritzker is the one who called him “a threat to democracy” and suggested a Pritzker television commercial inflamed the caller. 

The governor and others have condemned the threat, of which a 21-year-old Chicago man is accused.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]

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