The chairman of the Illinois Republican Party has called it quits.
On Wednesday, state GOP chair Don Tracy said in his resignation notice that party infighting is largely to blame for his decision.
“When I took on this full-time volunteer job in February, 2021, I thought I would be spending most of my time fighting Democrats, helping elect Republicans, raising money to pay for more Party infrastructure, and advocating for Party unity,” state GOP chair Don Tracy wrote in his resignation notice.
“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,” he continued.
Tracy also noted the recent controversy involving former vice chair Mark Shaw at the Republican National Committee (RNC) election which resulted in his ouster.
“Recent events including the RNC Committeeman election, immediately followed by the retribution sacking of the losing candidate Vice-Chair Mark Shaw, a long time State Party leader and worker, without due process and without taking any step to disciplining others for alleged or admitted Convention misconduct, portends a direction of the State Party I am not comfortable with,” Tracy wrote.
Tracy’s resignation comes less than a month before the Republican National Convention will be held in Milwaukee.
In his letter, Tracy refuted claims that his resignation had already been reported by a Chicago Tribune story published the day before, where anonymous sources suggested to the news outlet that Tracy could soon see himself removed as well.
“My resignation has nothing to do with today’s anonymously sourced Chicago Tribue article. I made my decision to resign early yesterday morning, communicated it to Matt Janes before our 10am staff call yesterday, and began drafting this notice yesterday shortly before or after the staff call,” Tracy wrote.
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