Rep. Mike Bost (R-IL) survived an intraparty primary challenge from Republican state Sen. Darren Bailey during Tuesday’s Illinois 12th Congressional District GOP primary.
Bailey was backed by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who feuded with Bost during last year’s ouster of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Bost had the backing of former President Donald Trump.
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The Associated Press called the race for Bost at 10:14 a.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, a day after voters in Illinois cast their votes. Bost had 51% of the vote to Bailey’s 49%.
Bost and Gaetz’s complicated relationship stems back to McCarthy’s ouster from the speakership last year.
Bost famously screamed at the Florida congressman as he was speaking on the House floor in January 2023 while he and several Republicans held back support for McCarthy’s speakership.
The Illinois congressman allegedly lunged at Gaetz during a closed-door hearing last October after McCarthy had been ousted. “If you don’t sit down, I’ll put you down,” Bost said.
The reported physical altercation is one more sign of fracturing among the GOP, which is slowly becoming dominated by firebrands such as Gaetz and those in the House Freedom Caucus.
Bailey lost the 2022 gubernatorial race to Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) by 13 percentage points before losing to Bost on Wednesday.
During the 2022 race, Trump supported Bailey and Bost in their separate races but decided to go with Bost, chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, during this year’s primary race.
Bailey remained undaunted by the Trump snubbing.
“Nothing changes. I stand with President Trump,” he posted on X at the time. “We expected the swamp to make deals to protect their loyalist. We are leading in this race, and we will fire my amnesty-loving opponent, secure the border, fight the swamp, and win for the people.”
In the run-up to the primary, Bailey slammed Bost as “Amnesty Mike” for his stance on immigration and building a southern border wall to deter immigrants from illegally entering the United States.
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“I will be a true fighter for Southern Illinois in Washington, not a surrenderer of our values,” Bailey said. “I’m ready to fight to finish Trump’s wall, secure our border, and ALWAYS put our families and America First.”
Bost has represented the overwhelmingly Republican rural 12th District since 2015.
Rachel Schilke contributed to this story.
