Irvin, Bailey to square off Thursday in first TV debate with all 6 GOP primary candidates

CHICAGO - All six Republican primary candidates for governor will appear together on stage for the first time Thursday in a high stakes televised debate.

The debate will be the first chance for voters to see the apparent frontrunners, Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin and state Sen. Darren Bailey, R-Xenia, go head-to-head. ABC 7 on Tuesday confirmed that all six Republican candidates, which also includes former state Sen. Paul Schimpf, businessman Gary Rabine, Hazel Crest attorney Max Solomon and venture capitalist Jesse Sullivan have agreed to participate in the debate on Thursday at 7 p.m.

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The debate, also in partnership with the League of Women Voters of Illinois and Univision, comes a week after the candidates split off in separate events that aired consecutively on NBC and WGN, amid network and campaign drama. Irvin, Solomon and Schimpf appeared in the NBC debate, while Rabine, Bailey and Sullivan participated in the WGN debate.

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Bailey painted the WGN debate as the "true Republican" debate and claimed Irvin didn’t want to face him, but Irvin was the first to commit to the NBC debate. Independent polling, and Irvin’s own campaign polling, has showed the race is close, with Irvin taking the lead and Bailey trailing close behind. There are also plenty of undecided voters.

Election Day is June 28, although early voting began in most of Illinois last week and in Chicago on Tuesday.

Thursday’s debate will air Friday on Channel 7 at 10:35 p.m.