Multiple political storylines will converge in Illinois on Tuesday when the state holds primaries shaped by attempted comebacks, the retirement of longtime incumbents and the looming 2028 presidential campaign, the Associated Press reported.
The primaries will determine nominees for a full slate of offices, including governor, U.S. Senate, U.S. House, the state Legislature and local offices. Voters will choose candidates in races topping the ballot: the contest to succeed Democratic U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, who is retiring after five terms.
Durbin’s seat is set against a backdrop of limited recent turnover. AP reported Durbin took office in 1997 and is only the second person to hold the seat in more than 40 years, while the state’s other U.S. Senate seat recently ended a streak of five consecutive occupants who served for one term or less.
In the Democratic U.S. Senate primary, AP listed U.S. Reps. Robin Kelly and Raja Krishnamoorthi and Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton among the candidates. AP said Stratton has Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker’s endorsement. On the Republican side, AP reported the field includes former state Republican Party chair Don Tracy and attorney Jeannie Evans.
AP said fundraising figures at the end of February showed Krishnamoorthi “dwarfed both fields” with about $6.6 million in the bank after transferring more than $19 million from his U.S. House campaign account. AP said Tracy was the top fundraiser among Republicans, with about $1.8 million in the bank.
For governor, AP reported Pritzker is unopposed in his bid for renomination. AP said President Donald Trump’s return to office in 2025 has heightened Pritzker’s national profile and that the two-term incumbent is among a handful of Democrats dominating speculation about the 2028 Democratic presidential race. In the Republican primary, AP reported four candidates look to thwart Pritzker’s reelection bid in November, including former state Sen. Darren Bailey, who lost to Pritzker in the 2022 governor’s race.
Cook County is expected to play a key role in multiple primaries, with AP saying Chicago’s Cook County is “by far the largest prize.” In the Senate race, AP reported eight of the 10 Democrats running are from Chicago or its nearby suburbs in Cook County, potentially diluting any hometown advantage in the region. AP also said statewide Democratic primary winners typically have an advantage entering November, citing recent key statewide general elections won by Democrats with more than 55% of the vote.
In U.S. House primaries, AP said the Senate bids by Kelly and Krishnamoorthi and the retirements of longtime Democratic U.S. Reps. Danny Davis and Jan Schakowsky have produced crowded fields seeking replacements. AP said, in the 2nd Congressional District Democratic primary, Jesse Jackson Jr. is running to replace Kelly, who replaced him in 2013 following his conviction in a campaign fraud case. AP reported Jackson Jr. is the son of civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who died Feb. 17, and that Jackson Jr.’s primary opponents include Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller and state Sens. Robert Peters and Willie Preston.
AP reported that in the 8th Congressional District Democratic primary, former U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean is running to replace Krishnamoorthi, in a field that includes Neil Khot, Junaid Ahmed and Dan Tully. AP said Durbin’s pick in the race is his former aide Yasmeen Bankole.
Illinois polls close at 7 p.m. local time, or 8 p.m. ET, and any eligible voter may participate in any party’s primary. Illinois also allows voters to register on Election Day, and AP said the state does not register voters by party. AP reported that, as of Friday, Illinois had about 8,976,000 registered voters and that more than 535,000 ballots had already been cast in the primary.
For vote-counting timing and releases of early or absentee ballots, AP pointed to past presidential primary reporting, saying it first reported Illinois results at 8:09 p.m. ET in 2024 and that the last update that night came at 2:11 a.m. ET with about 92% of total votes counted. AP said a handful of counties may release early and absentee vote results at the start of the night, while most merge those counts with Election Day results throughout the night or release them toward the end of tabulation.
AP also laid out its approach to declaring winners, saying it will declare a winner only when it determines there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap, and that if a race has not been called it will continue covering newsworthy developments such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. AP noted Illinois does not have an automatic recount law, and said candidates who receive at least 95% of the first-place candidate’s vote may request and pay for a limited recount that is nonbinding, while a court may also order a recount as part of an election contest case.