The road back from November’s electoral disaster begins with a new Contract with Chicago — and a commitment to common sense, unity, and the hard work of rebuilding from the ground up
One thing that is manifestly clear, and probably merits universal bipartisan agreement, is the Republican Party has fallen on extremely hard times. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the city of Chicago, where the party is virtually extinct as a political force. Cook County is scarcely better. You can’t fall off the floor. Things aren’t much more encouraging in the state of Illinois, where Republicans have once again been thoroughly shellacked, and now the national party has suffered its worst electoral catastrophe in decades. Democrats have captured both houses of Congress, while here in Illinois, Governor JB Pritzker has won a third term, Democrats have swept statewide offices, and their legislative supermajorities have grown even larger.
The carnage of November 3 recalls the Republican debacle following Watergate in 1974, when the party appeared headed for political oblivion. For those of us who believe that one-party government is inherently unhealthy, these are dark days indeed.
But every cloud has a silver lining, and this one is no exception. The Republicans who were devastated in 1974 came roaring back just six years later, electing Ronald Reagan president in a landslide in 1980. They had considerable help, of course, from Democrats whose policies had produced inflation, economic stagnation, and a crisis of confidence in American leadership. We may reasonably expect our opponents to help us again. But waiting for Democrats to fail is not a political strategy. Republicans must offer voters something worth supporting, and that means rebuilding a party that has become almost irrelevant in Chicago, Cook County, and much of Illinois. We have some determined activists, including organizations such as Chicago Flips Red, working to revive the Republican presence in this overwhelmingly Democratic territory. Those of us at Chicago Contrarian are doing our part to advance conservative ideas and challenge the prevailing political orthodoxy. But the task is much larger than any one organization or publication. What we need now is a coherent agenda around which Republicans can unite and, more importantly, around which voters can rally.
Perhaps the model is Newt Gingrich’s celebrated Contract with America, which helped Republicans capture control of the House of Representatives in 1994 for the first time in four decades. Gingrich understood something that seems to have escaped today’s Republican leadership: Elections ought to be about something more than personalities, slogans, and denunciations of the opposition. They ought to present voters with a recognizable program and a commitment to enact it. We need something similar today, beginning here in Chicago. Call it a Contract with Chicago, with an accompanying agenda for Cook County and Illinois. The following is hardly an exhaustive program, but it offers a starting point for the discussion that needs to take place.
First, develop a message that actually means something to voters. Where was the Republican message in 2026? Why weren’t Republicans relentlessly comparing the economic performance of Illinois with neighboring states such as Indiana and Wisconsin? Why weren’t they talking about the cost of gasoline, unemployment, the exodus of businesses, and the crushing burden of taxation? Why weren’t they reminding voters that Boeing and Citadel moved their headquarters out of Chicago, or discussing the broader implications of corporate departures and shrinking business operations? Why weren’t they talking about the failures of Chicago Public Schools, the consequences of the SAFE-T Act, or the enormous liabilities associated with our public pension systems? After eight years of Pritzker, Illinois remains dead last among the 50 states in public pension funding, with an estimated funded ratio of just 54 percent. That is an extraordinary indictment of fiscal stewardship, yet how many voters heard Republicans make the case? The fundamental question every campaign must answer is simple: What will electing a Republican actually mean for my family and me? If we cannot answer that question clearly and persuasively, we have no business expecting anyone to vote for us.
Second, offer an economic program based on independence rather than dependency. Republicans should make the economic contrast between Illinois and its neighbors a centerpiece of their message. We should be advocating lower taxes, responsible spending, regulatory reform, pension stabilization, and an end to the crony capitalism that allows politically favored businesses to receive taxpayer subsidies while ordinary employers struggle to survive. Projects involving companies such as Gotion and Lion Electric deserve rigorous scrutiny, particularly when public money is placed at risk. We should be asking why Illinois taxpayers are expected to finance an ever-expanding government while businesses and productive citizens contemplate leaving. We should challenge the assumption that every social or economic problem requires another government program, another subsidy, or another tax. The alternative is not indifference to people in need. It is a commitment to creating the conditions in which people can support themselves, businesses can prosper, and government can concentrate on its essential responsibilities. Independence rather than dependency ought to be a defining Republican principle.
Third, make public safety and government accountability central to the agenda. Chicagoans should not have to accept violent crime as an unavoidable feature of urban life. Republicans should demand a serious examination of the SAFE-T Act, particularly its implementation and the decisions that permit dangerous repeat offenders to return to the streets. The party should insist upon transparency in judicial decision-making, meaningful accountability for prosecutors and judges, and protection for the law-abiding public. It should also address the failures of public education, where enormous expenditures have not produced satisfactory academic results. Term limits, redistricting reform, and greater transparency in government contracting should be part of the same effort. A Contract with Chicago should promise something very basic: Government that protects its citizens, educates their children, spends their money responsibly, and answers to the people who pay its bills.
Fourth, rebuild the party organization from the precinct level upward. Political parties do not win elections merely by issuing press releases and posting messages on social media. They need volunteers who knock on doors, distribute literature, register voters, recruit candidates, and make sure supporters actually vote. Every Republican committeeperson should be expected to build a functioning precinct organization. A reasonable goal might be recruiting at least 20 active volunteers, with performance evaluated regularly and ineffective leadership replaced through appropriate party procedures. We cannot afford ceremonial positions occupied by people who do little more than attend meetings. Chicago Republicans are vastly outnumbered, which makes organization more important, not less. The Democrats have spent generations building a formidable political apparatus. Republicans cannot defeat that apparatus with wishful thinking.
Fifth, stop wasting scarce resources fighting one another. Contested primaries have consumed enormous amounts of money and energy that Republicans desperately need for general elections. The party should develop a credible process for recruiting, evaluating, and endorsing candidates well before the primary season begins. That means identifying people with the character, qualifications, political skills, and resources necessary to compete. It means encouraging weaker candidates to step aside when a stronger alternative is available. And it means providing organizational and financial support to candidates who have earned the party’s endorsement. We should not attempt to deny voters their lawful choices or eliminate legitimate competition, but neither should we celebrate destructive primary warfare as though it were a virtue. A party struggling for survival cannot afford to spend its limited ammunition shooting at itself.
Sixth, put money behind the message. Every credible Republican candidate for significant state or federal office should have access to a basic level of campaign support, conditioned upon a commitment to a broadly agreed-upon platform. That support should include assistance with ballot access, professional campaign materials, social media, voter outreach, and coordinated messaging. Signs should do more than display a candidate’s name. They should communicate recognizable Republican objectives: Safe Streets. Lower Taxes. Pension Reform. Term Limits. Fair Elections. Better Schools. The point is to build a recognizable political brand that voters encounter repeatedly, regardless of which candidate happens to be running. Individual candidates should be free to emphasize their own priorities, but the party needs a common identity. Otherwise, every election becomes another disconnected collection of personalities, each trying to invent a campaign from scratch.
Seventh, make election integrity and equal application of the law part of the contract. Republicans should advocate reasonable voter identification requirements, accompanied by provisions ensuring that every eligible citizen can obtain acceptable identification without undue expense or difficulty. They should support accurate voter rolls, transparent election administration, and prompt, reliable reporting of results. They should also demand an honest assessment of Illinois’ sanctuary policies, including their fiscal costs and implications for law enforcement. What benefits have Illinois taxpayers received from these policies, and what have they cost? The same scrutiny should apply to taxpayer-supported benefits, including tuition assistance for people without lawful immigration status. These are legitimate questions of public policy that deserve straightforward answers rather than ideological denunciations.
Eighth, defend common sense without allowing cultural controversies to consume the entire agenda. Republicans should be willing to defend their positions on biological sex, parental rights, religious liberty, and freedom of expression. But they must also recognize that most voters are primarily concerned about their ability to pay their bills, raise their children, obtain medical care, and live in safety. A political party that talks endlessly about cultural controversies while neglecting the cost of living is not likely to persuade the people whose support it needs. The objective should be to articulate clear principles without making every disagreement a test of ideological purity. There is room in the Republican Party for people who agree on most things but differ on some. Indeed, there had better be, because there aren’t enough of us to begin with.
Ninth, insist upon a credible national Republican agenda. The failures of 2026 were not confined to Illinois. National Republicans failed to make an adequate case for important elements of their program, including voter identification legislation, energy policy, healthcare reform, and fiscal responsibility. They did not sufficiently explain the economic sacrifices associated with the conflict with Iran or why confronting the Iranian regime’s nuclear ambitions and support for terrorism might justify those sacrifices. They did not offer a convincing program for making healthcare affordable, beginning with a serious examination of hospital consolidation and the competitive barriers that drive up medical costs. They did not adequately explain their tariff policies or reconcile those policies with their commitment to lower consumer prices. Nor did they make a persuasive case for controlling federal spending and deficits that impose an enormous burden upon future generations. The national party must learn that good intentions, even when accompanied by sound policies, are politically worthless unless voters understand what is being proposed and why it matters.
Tenth, make unity a governing principle rather than an occasional campaign slogan. Republicans have an unfortunate tendency to treat disagreements among themselves as matters of existential importance while overlooking the much larger disagreements that separate them from their political opponents. That is a luxury we can no longer afford. We need conservatives, moderates, libertarians, traditional Republicans, and independents who share a basic commitment to limited government, fiscal responsibility, public safety, and individual liberty. We do not have to agree about everything. If we agree about 80 percent of the issues, we ought to be able to work together on that 80 percent rather than spend our time fighting about the remaining 20 percent. Political coalitions are built through compromise, mutual respect, and a recognition of common interests. The Democrats understand that principle rather well, even when their own ideological factions are at war. Republicans need to relearn it.
None of this will be easy. Indeed, the magnitude of the task is almost overwhelming, particularly here in Chicago, where the Republican Party has been reduced to something approaching a political curiosity. But the very weakness of the party offers an opportunity to rebuild without the encumbrances of an entrenched establishment. We have little to lose and much to gain. We can begin by assembling a coalition of activists, business leaders, community organizations, elected officials, and ordinary citizens who are dissatisfied with the status quo. We can develop a Contract with Chicago that identifies a manageable number of specific reforms, explains why they matter, and commits Republican candidates to pursuing them. We can recruit candidates who are credible representatives of their communities rather than merely convenient names to fill empty ballot positions. And we can establish measurable objectives for rebuilding the organization, election by election and precinct by precinct.
We should also recognize that the political landscape can change much more rapidly than conventional wisdom suggests. In 1974, Republicans appeared to be facing a generation in the wilderness. Six years later, Ronald Reagan was elected president and ushered in a political transformation that would shape American government for decades. Democrats contributed mightily to that transformation through the failures of their own policies, just as they may contribute to another Republican revival in the years ahead. But Reagan did not win merely because Jimmy Carter failed. He won because he offered Americans a compelling alternative, expressed in language they understood and grounded in a confidence in the country and its people. That is the lesson Republicans must recover.
For those of us who believe in limited government, free enterprise, individual responsibility, and the preservation of the American constitutional republic, November 3 was a bitter disappointment. But despair is neither a strategy nor an acceptable response. The Republican Party has survived worse disasters, and it can survive this one. The first step is to acknowledge the magnitude of the defeat, abandon the internecine warfare that has weakened us, and begin the patient work of rebuilding. We should not expect miracles, and we should not imagine that our opponents will refrain from making mistakes. On the contrary, their policies will provide abundant opportunities to demonstrate the superiority of our own. But we must be prepared to take advantage of those opportunities with a serious program, credible candidates, and a functioning political organization.
There is much work to be done. So let us begin. Let us resolve to fight the good fight, to build rather than bicker, and to offer the voters of Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, and ultimately the nation a genuine alternative to the political monopoly under which so many of us now live. Our opponents may have persuaded most of the voters this time, but political fortunes are never permanent. As Abraham Lincoln, the most famous Republican from the Land of Lincoln, is often credited with observing, you can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.
The task before us is to make sure that when the voters finally decide they have had enough, that they won’t get fooled yet again, and there is a Republican Party ready, willing, and able to offer them something better.
John Foley is an insurance executive with Benefit Consulting Group in Northfield. A resident of Evanston since 1990, Mr. Foley is quietly referred to as “The Lone Republican.” Though he and his wife remain in Illinois, his three adult sons have fled the state.
