CHICAGO — Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton won Tuesday’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, edging out two sitting members of the U.S. House to advance to a November general election against Republican nominee Don Tracy, former state party chair.
The retirement of U.S. Sen Dick Durbin, the Senate’s longtime No. 2 Democrat, triggered a competitive campaign on the Democratic side, drawing as candidates Stratton and U.S. Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi and Robin Kelly, among others. Furious fundraising and sharp elbows marked the race, which tested the influence of Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker. The governor, whose name has been floated as a 2028 presidential contender, backed Stratton.
From questions about the cryptocurrency and AI industries to immigration enforcement to fracturing U.S. support for Israel, the state’s voters confronted such issues as super PACS poured in millions of dollars into hotly contested races.
A spate of House retirements led to open seats with crowded contests across the Chicago area where the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and PACs supporting the cryptocurrency and AI industries spent big on several contests. Most primary winners in the Democratic stronghold are expected to win in November, shaping a new generation of leadership in the state’s congressional delegation.
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Stratton was among 10 Democrats and six Republicans in the race.
Krishnamoorthi dominated fundraising and the airwaves and was the first on television with ads in July. He started 2026 with over $15 million on hand after spending more than $6 million and raising more than $3.5 million in the final three months of last year, according to campaign finance records.
By comparison, Stratton started the year with $1 million after raising about the same amount and spending just under $1 million in the last three months of 2025. But last month Pritzker put $5 million in a super PAC largely aimed at helping get her elected.
She campaigned on Pritzker’s endorsement and lit into Krishnamoorthi at debates, particularly on the five-term Democrat’s voting record and donations from a contractor tied to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“That is not the example of somebody who’s going to stand up to Donald Trump and fight for all of our communities,” Stratton said during a debate in January. “I want to abolish ICE.”
Krishnamoorthi, who has called to dismantle the agency, said he donated the money to immigrant rights groups. He argued that Stratton zeroed in on him because she “didn’t have any policy ideas. She had to attack.”
Meanwhile Kelly took issue with Pritzker’s involvement, arguing that a sitting governor should not interfere.
Rochelle Brockenborough, 64, said she voted for Stratton at the Dr. Martin Luther King Community Service Center in Chicago.
“I wanted to make sure there was no AIPAC money. That’s important to me,” she said, adding that U.S. tax dollars shouldn’t be used to support Israel.
Candidates touted ties to iconic Chicagoans including President Barack Obama and the late Rev. Jesse Jackson, who died last month. However, an endorsement touted posthumously by Stratton caused a snag as Jackson’s family withdrew it Monday, saying the draft was not meant for public release.
Tracy, an attorney who led the Illinois Republican Party from 2021 to 2024, bested five other candidates in the GOP’s primary. The state last had a Republican in the Senate a decade ago, when Mark Kirk was defeated by current Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth.
Election officials hoped to see busy polls after statewide turnout in the 2024 primary was 19%, the lowest in more than five decades.
Among issues reported Tuesday were complaints that poll workers in Madison County asked voters to show ID, drawing attention from the local elections office and the state attorney general. Officials in the southern Illinois county said the issue in one precinct was resolved. Showing an ID at a polling place is not required in Illinois.
Crowded US House primaries
Dozens of candidates ran for five open seats in the Chicago area, where funding from groups supporting Israel and the cryptocurrency industry played an outsize role.
In Kelly’s 2nd district, which spans parts of the South Side and suburbs and dips into the central Illinois farmlands, Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller emerged as the winner of a crowded Democratic field that included former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., son of the late civil rights leader, and state Sen. Robert Peters. Miller will face off in November against Republican Michael Noack, who was unopposed.
Miller was backed by AIPAC, and that support prompted retiring U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, of the 9th District, to withdraw her endorsement of Miller.
The open seat in Krishnamoorthi’s suburban 8th District attracted eight Democratic candidates and four Republicans. Former U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean won the Democratic nomination.
Two other House members are retiring after long careers.
The 7th District of Rep. Danny Davis, who was first elected in 1996, covers parts of downtown, the West Side and suburbs. Thirteen Democrats were in the race including front-runners state Rep. La Shawn Ford and Chicago City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin.
Conyears-Ervin conceded to Ford late Tuesday, though The Associated Press has not declared a winner. Chad Koppie won for the GOP.
The primary field for Schakowsky’s 9th District seat was the most crowded. Among the 15 Democratic candidates were Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, digital creator Kat Abughazaleh and state Sen. Laura Fine. Four Republicans were running.
Another open Chicago area seat was that of Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, who announced that he would not seek reelection citing health and personal reasons. The Democratic primary was uncontested after Garcia quietly schemed to place his chief of staff, Patty Garcia, on the ballot without any Democratic competition.
Patty Garcia, who is not related to the congressman, will face Republican Lupe Castillo, who also ran unopposed, in November.
Pritzker seeks a third term as governor
Pritzker, an heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune who was unopposed in his primary, is the first governor to seek a third term since the 1980s.
One of President Donald Trump’s most vocal critics, Pritzker used his victory speech to tout his efforts to oppose the aggressive federal immigration crackdown in Chicago last year. He criticized Republicans’ agenda, called Trump’s presidency an “unmitigated disaster” and vowing to help Democrats across Illinois win in November.
“This is the fight of our lives,” he told supporters at a downtown Chicago hotel. “Everything we care about is under siege from Washington.”
Pritzker also made digs at Republican candidate Darren Bailey, a former state senator whom he handily defeated in 2022.
Bailey, among four Republicans vying for the nomination, said he was now doing things differently. For one, he focused more on Chicago voters by choosing running mate Aaron Del Mar, who leads the Republican Party in Cook County.
Bailey criticized Pritzker’s leadership, including blaming him for rising costs, saying, “He’s just another billionaire who has never once felt the pain he’s inflicted.”
Also in the Republican primary were Ted Dabrowski, a real estate developer; Rick Heidner, a video gambling magnate; and DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick.
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Associated Press journalists Mike Householder in Chicago and Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed.
