Will County Gazette

Philip Nagel, who recently lost his bid for the Illinois State Senate (District 40), made it a point that he did carry some counties.

“I carried Will County pretty comfortably, Kankakee I lost by couple hundred votes and Cook County I got hammered,” said Nagel.  “Looking back the issue in Kankakee County seemed to be Democrats and Republicans in Illinois working together. I tried working with fellow Republican Jackie Haas and she turned me down. In my opinion, the Republican Party in this state is gone and we need to build something different.”

Democrats have controlled the Illinois Senate since 2003. Democrats have also controlled the Illinois House since 1997, according to Ballotpedia.

Many of Illinois' counties are Republican, but election results are dominated by Chicago and its surrounding suburbs, which are extremely Democratic, according to Fox News.

Nagel’s takeaway from his failed bid is that the Republican party in the state needs new leadership and we’ve got to reestablish what we stand for as a party.

Nagel’s belief is the party needs a complete rebuild.

“We took a thrashing and we’re in need of new leadership in the state,” Nagal said. “We lost many key races across the state and we did it because we focused resources on the wrong candidate and in the wrong races. At the end of the day, we’ve got to rebuild the party and my platform is based on exposing the truth. I believe it’s important to put the people first, no matter what party you say you represent. We need more open debate in this state; one-party rule is not the way.”

Nagel is still figuring out his political future. He won’t run again without an actual, tangible plan for success. Right now, he’s still working through what that looks like, he said.

Democrat Gov. J.B. Pritzker was re-elected to serve a second term. He said in a tweet, "To the many Illinoisans who exercised their civic duty at the polls or by mail: thank you for believing in our democracy. "