Bailey again apologized for calling the city a 'hellhole' and made something of a campaign stump speech in City Hall.
meeting, where he also expressed regret for calling the city a "hellhole" during his previous campaign.in social media posts and recently moved to Chicago as he campaigns against Gov.
JB Pritzker in November’s general election.
"Now, to this city, I owe you something. I owe you an apology," Bailey said.
"I said some things about Chicago that were wrong. What I meant was the political class is failing us, and I should have been more clear, and I wasn’t, so I apologize.
" Bailey spent the bulk of his comments giving something of a campaign stump speech to the crowd. The former state legislator said he would focus on affordability, public safety, and education, if he were elected, and said: "nowhere in Illinois do all three of those converge more urgently than right here and on the South and on the West Sides of Chicago.
" He said he wanted to use public housing tools to "turn renters into owners and build generational wealth in neighborhoods that have been promised development for 50 years. "Bailey also criticized Pritzker, to whom he lost in the 2022 election, for rejecting a federal tax credit scholarship program pushed by the Trump administration to help lower-income families send their children to private schools.
While Bailey said the decision left 15,000 kids, mostly from Black and Latino families, without the financial aid, critics of the program have argued"I know this city believes in investing in schools," Bailey said.
"As a path to educational equity, I respect that conviction. I believe every family deserves the freedom to choose the school that’s right for their child, and that competition makes every school better.
"a helicopter crash last year . He said for him and his wife, the tragedy "accelerated our fervor to want safety for our children, and I don’t mean that in a judging way. It’s coming from a place of care and concern.
" It’s very unlikely for Bailey to defeat Pritzker in November, especially when Democrats are expected to see higher turnout and potentially recapture at least one chamber of Congress. But Bailey has taken a notably different strategic approach to his campaign this year, explicitly courting more Chicago-area voters after losing in Cook County in 2022 by large margins.
"JB Pritzker has been governor for seven years. Chicago is still waiting for fully-funded schools, still waiting for a plan," Bailey said.
"Friends, I’m not interested in waiting, and I know you are not either. "The information in this story was taken from Darren Bailey's public comments and previous Fox Chicago reporting.
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