Illinois State Senator Darren Bailey, a Republican representing the 55th district, announced on Monday that he is running for governor.

Bailey has been an outspoken critic of current governor JB Pritzker and has been especially critical of Pritzker’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Notably, Bailey was escorted out of a special sessions of the House in May when he was still a representative for refusing to wear a mask.

This was after he filed a lawsuit against challenging Pritzker’s authority to enforce emergency orders meant to mitigate the spread of COVID.

We at The Daily Eastern News think that Bailey’s stance on the COVID-19 pandemic shows that he would be unfit to serve as governor.

The pandemic will hopefully be over long before he would take office should he win the election, but the fact that he seemingly did not take the pandemic seriously shows a serious lack in judgement and a lack of faith in science and medicine.

He certainly should take science more seriously regarding the virus, considering that approximately one out of every 439 people in Illinois’ 55th district has died from COVID compared to one out of every 650 nationally.

This past year has proven that we need people in power that believe in science. Bailey is not one of those people.