(The Center Square) – Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey denied being aware of or having met a sex offender who contributed to his campaign, and his running mate said the funds that were scrutinized by J.B. Pritzker’s campaign would be donated to charity.

Campaign contribution filings and state sex offender records confirm that Victor D. Barr, a 69-year-old Rockford man, and his household made two contributions totaling $1,100 to Bailey’s 2026 campaign and another $2,000 in 2022.

Records detail that Barr was found to have sexually abused a 17-year-old, who was a student at the school he taught math at roughly 22 years ago.

Pritzker’s campaign is using that information to take a swing at his Republican opponent, who doesn’t have a say in who contributes to his campaign.

During an event Thursday at the Illinois State Fair‘s Republican Day, Bailey and his running mate, Aaron Del Mar, vehemently denied any connection to the donor and said the funds would be donated to charity the following day.

“It’s an automated system, so we don’t check every single person that comes through,” Del Mar said. “We don’t know exactly who donated, but that money came through, which I’m questionable who actually donated it. We’re going to be donating it to a charity, we’ll have that out within the next 24 hours.”

Communications staff for the Bailey-Del Mar campaign didn’t provide a statement to The Center Square about if the funds had been donated Friday.

Bailey also denied that he visited the place Barr serves as a pastor, Faith Center in Rockford.

“I did not go there, and I do not recall – don’t ever remember meeting him,” Bailey said.

There’s no evidence to suggest Bailey met Barr or knew of his past, but the candidate did attend a service at the Faith Center on June 14, according to a Facebook post by the center. 

The Pritzker campaign pointed to an appearance Bailey made this month on a program aired on radio station WFEN – owned and operated by the Faith Center. The station shared a recording of that interview online Thursday.

Following the candidates’ comments Thursday, Pritzker’s campaign said Bailey “treated voters to lies, misinformation, and excuses for taking money from a child sex predator,” in a news release.

Bailey called into questioned claims of the man’s job.

“From my research, the man’s not even a pastor, so absolutely not. I do not know the person,” Bailey said.

Barr is listed on the Faith Center’s website as Pastor Vic Barr, the center’s chief business officer, further confirming reporting from the Sun Times, who spoke to a member of the center’s staff.

A review of Pritzker’s campaign filings between 2022 and the present revealed few individual donors listed in public filings, and Pritzker is widely self-funded to the tune of $439 million since 2017.

A search conducted by The Center Square revealed most outside contributions to Pritzker came from other organizations, obfuscating the underlying donated funds and making it difficult to confirm he hasn’t also accepted the money of a sex offender.