State GOP chair walking away, blames Republican backstabbing, friction

Three years after he became Illinois Republican Party chairman and vowed to unify members, Don Tracy announced his resignation citing infighting and acrimony in its ranks.

Tracy said his resignation would be effective once a successor is picked, preferably by mid-July.

The move comes weeks before the Republican National Convention kicks off in Milwaukee on July 15.

On Wednesday, Tracy said “unfortunately, however, I have had to spend far too much time dealing with intra-party power struggles, and local-intra party animosities that continued after primaries and county chair elections.”

The Springfield businessman and lawyer took the job in February 2021, and stated, “my No. 1 priority is to give every Republican a seat at the table and give every Republican a voice.“

But now, “we have Republicans who would rather fight other Republicans than engage in the harder work of defeating incumbent Democrats by convincing swing voters to vote Republican,” Tracy said in a statement.

He referenced the “infatuation of some members of the State Central Committee ... with certain individuals they call ‘grass roots’ leaders.”

That “portends a direction of the state party I am not comfortable with,” Tracy said.