An independent candidate for Illinois governor will remain on the November ballot after a challenge to his nominating petitions was dropped.
According to the Daily Herald, Republican candidate Darren Bailey’s campaign withdrew its objection Wednesday to petitions filed by independent candidate Collin Corbett of Palatine. State election officials had already determined Corbett submitted more than the required 25,000 valid signatures needed to qualify for the ballot.
Corbett’s campaign says his candidacy makes him just the third independent candidate for Illinois governor in the last 86 years. “Perennial candidate Darren Bailey’s campaign did whatever they could to keep us off the ballot, but they couldn’t stop our common sense movement of everyday Illinoisans,” Corbett said in a statement. “To get on the ballot in this rigged system, we needed five times the number of signatures as the two political parties, and we faced far stricter rules on who could circulate, but that didn’t stop us from making history. Now, Independents, disaffected Republican and Democratic voters, and Illinoisans who haven’t voted in years will have a candidate to vote for in November,” he said.
The Bailey Campaign has made no official statement about the ruling. Capitol News Illinois reports that Corbett is the founder of center-right leaning political consulting firm Cor Strategies. He left the Republican Party earlier this year after expressing concerns that it supports violent immigration raids and no longer welcomes opposing opinions.
Corbett will face incumbent Democratic Governor JB Pritzker, Republican Darren Bailey and Green Party candidate Griselda Romero in the November general election.