Multiple Illinois election races are set for Tuesday’s primary, with party contenders seeking nominations for offices that range from the statehouse to Washington. The Associated Press said Illinois voters will choose nominees for a full slate of offices, including governor, U.S. Senate, U.S. House, the state Legislature and local races.
The AP’s rundown also framed the day as a convergence of several political storylines, including an open U.S. Senate contest in Illinois because Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin is retiring after five terms. Tuesday’s voting will determine who advances to the general election to succeed him.
At the top of the ballot is the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate seat. Among the Democrats running, the AP listed U.S. Reps. Robin Kelly and Raja Krishnamoorthi, along with Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, who has Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s endorsement. On the Republican side, the AP listed former state Republican Party chair Don Tracy and attorney Jeannie Evans as candidates.
The AP also highlighted fundraising as one of the datapoints that shaped how the race entered the primary. It said Krishnamoorthi “dwarfed both fields in fundraising at the end of February,” with about $6.6 million in the bank after transferring more than $19 million from his U.S. House campaign account. The AP said Tracy was the top fundraiser among Republicans with about $1.8 million in the bank.
For governor, the AP said Pritzker is unopposed in the Democratic primary. The AP linked his national profile to President Donald Trump’s return to office in 2025, and it described Pritzker as one of several Democrats now seen in speculation about a possible 2028 presidential campaign. The AP said four Republicans appear positioned to try to thwart Pritzker’s reelection bid in November, including former state Sen. Darren Bailey, who lost to Pritzker in the 2022 governor’s race.
In the U.S. House primaries, the AP said crowded fields are forming in part because retirements by longtime Democratic U.S. Reps. Danny Davis and Jan Schakowsky have opened up seats. The AP said the Senate bids by Kelly and Krishnamoorthi have also contributed to the crowded races created by those candidacy moves.
The AP said the effort to replace Kelly includes a Democratic primary in the 2nd Congressional District with a political comeback attempt by Jesse Jackson Jr. It described Jackson Jr. as running to replace Kelly, who replaced Jackson Jr. in 2013 after his conviction in a campaign fraud case. The AP said Jackson Jr.’s primary opponents include Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller and state Sens. Robert Peters and Willie Preston.
For the 8th Congressional District, the AP said former U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean is running to replace Krishnamoorthi in a field that includes Neil Khot, Junaid Ahmed and Dan Tully. The AP also said Durbin’s pick in that race is his former aide Yasmeen Bankole.
As ballots are counted, the AP said it does not make projections and would declare a winner only when it determined that “no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap” exists. The AP said if a race is not called, it will continue to cover developments such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory while explaining that it has not yet declared a winner.
The AP also laid out Illinois recount rules. It said Illinois does not have an automatic recount law, but candidates who receive at least 95% of the first-place candidate’s vote may request and pay for a limited recount; the AP said recount results are nonbinding and would not change the election outcome. The AP said a court may also order a recount as part of an election contest case, and it said it could declare a winner in a race subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.
Beyond the race-by-race landscape, the AP included operational details for readers following results. It said polls close at 7 p.m. local time (8 p.m. ET), and that the AP will provide vote results and declare winners in contested primaries for U.S. Senate, U.S. House, governor, secretary of state, comptroller, state Senate and state House, along with some local races in Cook, DuPage, Kane and Will counties. It said other statewide offices such as state attorney general and treasurer will also be on the ballot, but those races are uncontested aside from the write-in option.
The AP said any eligible voter may participate in any party’s primary, and it noted that Illinois allows voters to register on Election Day. It also provided turnout context, saying that as of Friday there were about 8,976,000 registered voters in Illinois, and that it does not register voters by party.
The AP reported that about 857,000 votes were cast in the 2022 Democratic U.S. Senate primary and about 715,000 in the Republican primary, and it said roughly 33% of the total vote was cast before primary day. It further said more than 535,000 ballots had already been cast in the primary as of Friday. It said that in the 2024 presidential primaries, the AP first reported results in Illinois at 8:09 p.m. ET and that the last vote update was at 2:11 a.m. ET, with about 92% of total votes counted.
Finally, the AP said that while some counties might release early and absentee vote results at the start of the night, the bulk of counties would merge those results with Election Day results throughout the night or release them toward the end of tabulation. The AP said readers looking for how the count progresses can expect continuing updates throughout the night as results come in across the races on Tuesday’s ballot.