Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – For the second consecutive time, former state lawmaker Darren Bailey (pictured) will try to unseat Gov. JB Pritzker. Bailey Tuesday received about 53 percent of the vote in a four-way Republican race.

“I’ve been part of the divisiveness in the years past. That’s gone,” Bailey told reporters at his election night event at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Springfield. “We have to work together as a Republican party. We have to listen to the other voices out there – the Democrats who feel their party has left them behind. The independents.”

Bailey, who served in both chambers of the Illinois General Assembly, knows he must do something different from 2022 if he is to win in 2026.

“We’re going to be spending the next five months in Chicago and the suburbs. That’s what we’ve learned. We’ve learned a lot from four years ago,” Bailey said. “We have a game plan. We are going to be hitting the streets. We are going to be hitting the wards and the townships and talking to many of the groups that maybe we didn’t hear from, that maybe we didn’t get to the last time.”

The general election is Nov. 3.