September 2025 incident in Chicago deserves an explanation
With the March 17 primary seven days away, an unfortunate incident involving staffers and loyalists associated with the Darren Bailey campaign for governor has reemerged. Rather than be a man with answers, to date, Mr. Bailey has not fully or clearly offered a plausible explanation for the incident which took place in September 2025.
This incident demands a response from Mr. Bailey, for if Bailey continues to defer offering clarity on the incident, Governor JB Pritzker will certainly use the episode as a cudgel to bludgeon Bailey if he prevails in the GOP primary.
At issue is an incident which took place on the evening of September 25, 2025, after Bailey announced his campaign for governor.
Allegations by a young woman are detailed in a police report, primarily concerning a bus filled with Bailey staffers and supporters who departed the Drake Oak Brook to visit a nightclub in downtown Chicago and returned to the hotel later the same evening. The woman who lodged the allegations accompanied Bailey campaign staffers and supporters on the same evening.
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Though Mr. Bailey was not a passenger on the bus, his running mate, Aaron Del Mar, is alleged to have traveled on the bus.
An Oak Brook Police Department body-worn camera video of the aftermath of the incident can be found here.
It is our position not to deliver any judgment over this incident. We will leave it to our audience to absorb what we have furnished and allow voters to rely on what we have provided to render their own verdict on what occurred.
We do, however, suggest Mr. Bailey finally, and mercifully, address this matter and articulate what steps he took, if any, to get to the bottom of this incident immediately, and disclose whether he held any conversations with or took any necessary disciplinary action against staffers who were passengers on the bus.
