Illinois GOP set to select one of three finalists for state chair

Illinois’ Republican leaders are set to meet virtually Friday to select a successor to Don Tracy, who resigned the state GOP chairmanship last month in frustration over party infighting.

The private meeting of the Illinois Republican State Central Committee, made up of one representative from each of the state’s 17 congressional districts, comes just days before the state GOP’s 64-member delegation heads to Milwaukee to formally designate Donald Trump as the party’s nominee for president.

Seeking to replace Tracy, who spent three years as party chair, are Aaron Del Mar, the Palatine Township Republican committeeman, Kathy Salvi of Mundelein, the party’s 2022 unsuccessful candidate for the U.S. Senate, and state Rep. John Cabello of the Rockford suburb of Machesney Park.

Cabello was seeking the post on an “interim” basis only through the Nov. 5 general election, casting some doubt on the viability of his candidacy.

The election of a new party chair comes amid long-simmering party tensions that boiled over following the GOP’s state convention on May 25. Weeks after the convention, vice chair Mark Shaw of Lake Forest was stripped of his title over his failed attempts to leverage his political roles for the post of Republican National Committeeman. Tracy, of Springfield, questioning whether Shaw had received “due process” by the state central committee and citing constant infighting, resigned two days later, effective upon the selection of a new chairman.

The Illinois GOP has long been beset by fighting between moderate and conservative wings. That conflict also has become a geographic battle between hard-core conservatives downstate and the more populous suburban areas, even as that region’s reputation as a moderate Republican stronghold has faded and Democrats have made major inroads. Democrats now control all statewide offices, the Supreme Court and have supermajorities in the Illinois House and Senate.

Del Mar previously served in the Palatine Village Council and is also a former chairman of the Cook County Republican Party. In the 2022 Republican primary for governor, Del Mar was the running mate to Bull Valley businessman Gary Rabine, who spread COVID-19 pandemic misinformation and questioned the efficacy of the vaccines. Rabine finished fourth in the primary election.

Salvi, an attorney, mounted an unsuccessful challenge to Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, of Hoffman Estates, in the 2022 general election. She also ran for Congress in 2006 but lost in the Republican primary. Her husband, Al, was elected as a state representative in 1992 and served two terms before making unsuccessful bids for U.S. Senate in 1996 and for Illinois secretary of state in 1998.

Cabello co-chaired the Illinois delegation to the national GOP convention in Cleveland in 2016 when Trump was first nominated for president. Cabello, who has worked as a detective for the Rockford Police Department, is in his second stint as an Illinois House member, taking his northwestern Illinois seat last year after initially serving in the chamber from 2012 to 2021.

One frequently mentioned potential candidate for the state party chairmanship, state Sen. Jason Plummer, of Edwardsville, told the Tribune on Thursday that he ultimately decided not to run for the position and declined further comment.