CHICAGO (WLS) — Republican candidate for governor Darren Bailey spoke with ABC7 Chicago for the first time about the tragic helicopter crash that took the lives of four of his family members back in October.

Bailey took some time off from the campaign trail, but is now back at it.

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It is an uphill battle for Republicans looking to hold any statewide office in Illinois, but Bailey believes he is up for the fight this time around. His family tragedy was a devastating blow, but it’s also something that’s motivating him more than ever to try and bring about change.

“Well, it’s tough, and it has been life changing,” Bailey said. “One of the biggest things that has taken place is just our renewed passion for life.”

Six weeks ago, a tragic helicopter crash in Montana took the lives of his son, Zach; daughter-in-law, Kelsey; and two grandchildren, 12-year-old Vada Rose and 7-year-old Samuel. Finn, 10, was not onboard.

Zach was piloting the chopper.

“I’ve never lost anyone close to me, you know, especially anyone, even unexpectedly like this. So, my compassion for people has also kind of been heightened,” Bailey said.

Bailey remembers getting the news while campaigning in Freeport, Illinois.

“You see in movies, sometimes how everything is in slow motion. As I think back to that, that’s exactly what, that’s exactly how my mind is playing out,” he said.

Bailey and his wife then rushed to Montana to break the news to their grandson, Finn.

“He just looked up, and he said, ‘papa, what are you doing here?’ So I just said, ‘well, grandma, honey, and I wanted to come out and see you, to come outside and get your shoes on, and she’s waiting in the car for you,’” he said. “Soon as he opened the door and saw Cindy, he knew what was going on. So just to watch that set of emotions that took place then was just, was just, I’ll never forget that.”

They got Finn a new puppy, a golden lab named Reagan, to replace the dog who died in the helicopter crash.

“We’re just staying busy doing things and just regaining a new appreciation for everyone. This puppy, I can already tell you, is going to be, is going to be solidify things even more,” Bailey said.

The tragedy drew his downstate Illinois family closer despite the void at Thanksgiving.

Bailey and his wife, Cindy, are now raising their grandson, Finn, with the help of other family members, who he says support his second campaign for governor.

Bailey lost by more than 12 points to incumbent Gov. JB Pritzker in 2022. This time he’s learned some lessons.

“Probably one of the big things that we learned is, is targeting the low-propensity voter and informing them and making things available to help them understand whether to vote early. Do we need to come and pick you up?” Bailey said.

Bailey remains a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump despite harsh Democratic criticism of the president’s policies, including the aggressive immigration enforcement campaign in Chicago and the suburbs.

Trump endorsed Bailey in 2022.

“I think that if JB Pritzker and Brandon Johnson, if they would have addressed this years ago, if they would choose to work with President Trump, I don’t know that we would have seen these issues,” Bailey said. “He’s the president. And I think that in time, I think that many of his policies are going to prove to be the right thing that’s going on.”

And that includes President Trump’s tariffs on soybeans, which Bailey says are a means to an end to help farmers.

Bailey also supports using the National Guard to battle crime in Chicago if that’s what it takes.

Bailey says he’s sorry if anyone thinks he’s trying to use this tragedy to help his campaign.

He says what it is for him is a motivation to try and make Illinois a better place for his 11 grandchildren, and a 12th one now on the way.

Bailey is one of seven candidates currently running for the Republican nomination, with the primary next March.

Hundreds of gallons of milk are being recalled from Woodman’s Markets grocery stores across Illinois and Wisconsin after it was found that the cartons may be contaminated with “food-grade cleaning agents,” which could lead to illnesses if consumed.

The recall was initiated Nov. 25 by Prairie Farms of Edwardsville, a release from the Food and Drug Administration announced, and applies to select Prairie Farms Gallon Fat Free Milk products at its Dubuque, Iowa facility. Before the issue was discovered, approximately 320 gallons of the milk were distributed to 18 Woodman’s stores in Illinois and Wisconsin, including many in the Chicago suburbs and surrounding areas, the release said.

Only a specific segment of the milk’s production was impacted, the release said. The recall only applies to gallons of fat free Prairie Farms milk with a code date of Dec. 8, 2025, UPS code of 7273023117 and a PLT19-145 plant code produced during a time window of 17:51 to 21:23, the FDA said.

Prarie Farms was first made aware of the quality control issue Nov. 24. Those who purchased the product with the above code dates should not consume it, the release said. Customers should dispose of it or return it to the store for a refund.

“All remaining affected product has been removed from store shelves,” the release added. NBC Chicago reached out to Prairie Farms for more details.

According to the release, the product was distributed to the following Woodman’s Markets grocery stores:

Illinois
Bloomingdale
Buffalo Grove
Carpentersville
Lakemoor
North Aurora
Rockford

Wisconsin
Appleton
Beloit
Green Bay
Janesville
Kenosha
Madison
Menomonee Falls
Oak Creek
Onalaska
Racine
Sun Prairie
Waukesha

Nearly 200 lawmakers convene at the Illinois State Capitol building in Springfield every year to craft bills, negotiate them with various interest groups and pass them onto Gov. JB Pritzker.

It’s a job often done in relative obscurity, and sometimes those lawmakers get a bad rap for how seemingly little they do.

But the Center for Effective Lawmaking, a nonpartisan think tank involving Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia, identified those it says actually get things done.

Unsurprisingly, because of their legislative supermajorities, Democrats in the Illinois House and Senate ranked the highest on the researchers’ list of legislators’ deemed to be the most effective, with House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Hillside, and Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, leading the way.

While right-leaning, conservative Republicans occupied the bottom of the group’s lists, a few downstate Republicans bucked that trend, including state Sen. Sue Rezin, R-Morris.

“I’m all about trying to solve complex problems that affect everybody in my district and across the state,” she said.

The researchers assigned each legislator a score, determined by how many bills they introduced, how many were passed and, ultimately, how many were enacted by the governor during the 2023-2024 session of the General Assembly.

Rezin introduced 66 bills. A third of them got called up in a committee, and three were signed into law by Pritzker.

During the two-year legislative cycle studied by the group, Rezin was able to carry through a measure that she said, transcended party lines — a partial lift on a 1987 moratorium to construct small, nuclear reactors.

“It took a tremendous amount of education, but I’ve built up credibility with many people in the Senate and the House,” said Rezin, who has served in the state Legislature for 15 years. “It’s very helpful when you are trying to work and get large pieces of legislation passed in a bipartisan manner.”

Rezin said because Republicans comprise a legislative super-minority, it’s impossible for her not to work with Democratic colleagues.

Rezin said sometimes, she’ll even give a bill to a Democratic senator to increase its chances of getting passed.

“When I’m in my district, there’s no ‘R’ or ‘D,’” Rezin said. “As long as I can continue to make a difference and pass legislation with my colleagues … I’ll continue to do what I’m doing.”

Craig Volden, a University of Virginia public policy professor and co-author of the research, said there are many factors that contribute to a lawmaker’s “effectiveness” at getting bills passed, such as a legislator’s ability to work with members of the opposing party or their expertise in a certain policy area.

Being in the majority party did not guarantee a top spot on the list. For Democratic state representatives and senators ranked at the bottom, most reported only a handful — or even no bills at all — getting past the first committee.

“It’s not enough to just say, ‘Hey, I have this great bill,’ but then don’t do anything with it,” Volden said. “How do they build a coalition? Are they active in committee? Are they active on the floor? Some of those coalitions are bipartisan. Sometimes, there are some negotiations back and forth across chambers.”

After Welch, the top five House Democrats singled out by the group included Rep. Jay Hoffman, Rep. Katie Stuart, Rep. Anna Moeller and Rep. Kelly Cassidy.

On the House GOP side, the group identified the top five most effective legislators as House Minority Leader Tony McCombie, Rep. Norine Hammond, Rep. Charles Meier, Rep. Daniel Swanson and Rep. Amy Elik.

Among Senate Democrats, after Harmon, the group singled out Sen. Laura Fine, Sen. Julie Morrison, Sen. Ram Villivalam and Sen. David Koehler.

And the group’s top five Senate Republicans were Senate Minority Leader John Curran, Sen. Jil Tracy, Sen. Chapin Rose, Rezin, and Sen. Thomas Bennett.

Cassidy, a progressive Chicago Democrat, said her philosophy is to build coalitions.

Cassidy said she’ll have trouble convincing more-centrist Democrats to buy into legislation. One example was a measure removing barriers for a person to legally change their name, due to their gender identity. Cassidy said it took endless meetings with her colleagues in the House, as well as trans-rights activists.

“These are going to be really sensitive issues, and the most important thing we can do is to humanize them,” Cassidy said. “It’s really easy to ‘other-ize’ an issue and pretend that you’re never going to know somebody who’s directly impacted by it.”

Reyna Ortiz, a Chicago-based activist for transgender rights, said it took enormous work to move Cassidy’s bill.

“The process is so long, [the bill] was not coming out of committee. I remember screaming one year at Kelly Cassidy because I was so fed up. I just didn’t understand,” Ortiz said.

But she and Cassidy prevailed.

The experience “just taught me. I was, like, in school,” Ortiz said. “I was learning about building a bill … [we] built a beautiful relationship with Kelly Cassidy, and we’re very grateful for the work that she did put into the battle for trans women of color.”