One of the biggest unsung winners in the fight for control of the Democratic Party of Illinois is House Speaker Chris Welch.

Ogden and Fry conducted a poll in the days leading up to former President Donald Trump’s visit to the Quincy area for a US Representative Mary Miller endorsement in late June. The poll of Republicans in the Downstate 15th Congressional District taken June 22-24 (Trump’s visit was June 25) found Representative Miller leading fellow US Representative Rodney Davis by eight points, 46-38. When undecideds were pushed to decide, Miller’s lead jumped to 10 points, 55-45. She won by fifteen points, 57.6-42.4.

“We're not the party of Trump,” Senate Republican Leader Dan McConchie told an interviewer a couple of months ago. “I'm in the Republican Party and the party of Lincoln. And at the end of the day, the important thing is that we're standing up for ideas and ideals and not a personality. And that is what the Republican Party has been about for decades and what I believe we're going to be going forward.”

The state’s political world may have been shocked, but I doubt many in that world were surprised at the level of vitriol in Representative Sam Yingling (D-Grayslake)’s press release last week which claimed he’d been “attacked” by Governor JB Pritzker. Governor Pritzker’s “offense” was endorsing Representative Yingling’s Democratic primary opponent Mary Edly-Allen in the race to replace retiring state Senator Melinda Bush (D-Grayslake).