Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin speaks to employees at a manufacturing facility in Wauconda on June 21. [Ben Szalinski/The Daily Line] 

Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin spent much of this year as the front-runner for the Republican nomination for governor. But Democratic organizations poured millions of dollars into ads attacking Irvin, and as the June 28 primary approached, Irvin found himself trying to stop Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) from claiming the nomination.