Every year during the Illinois State Fair in Springfield there is Governor's Day (for the party in power) and either Democrats Day or Republican Day for the opposition party.
Democrats currently hold all statewide offices in Illinois and on Governor's Day Gov. J. B. Pritzker on Wednesday spoke at the fair and called Donald Trump "a loser". Not exactly news, but J.B. did it in a great way.
Thursday was Republican Day at the fair and the best Illinois Republicans could do was get Trump's former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker. Whitaker served in between Jeff Sessions and Bill Barr. Some of Whitaker's views may be odious but apparently he's not particularly weird by GOP standards.
So Illinois Republicans know they have a major problem with the public perceptions of their candidates – especially at the top of the ballot.
Regardless of state, we need to remind voters that Trump, Vance, and many GOP candidates for Congress and state offices are way out of the mainstream and have views which are far from the norms of American society. In short, Republicans are weird.
