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A large field of Democrats are vying for an open seat vacated by the incumbent, Representative Jan Schakowsky, who is retiring after nearly three decades in Congress. The frontrunners include Daniel Biss, the mayor of Evanston, Ill.; Laura Fine, a state senator; and Kat Abughazaleh, a content creator and researcher. The campaign has been especially roiled by the influx of money tied to AIPAC and the candidates’ positions on aid to Israel.
Winner
Race called by The Associated Press.
Democratic Primary race called
Winner
Race called by The Associated Press.
Republican Primary race called
Mike Ollen, Gov. JB Pritkzer’s top political adviser, is taking victory laps after Juliana Stratton’s win tonight. “A lot will be written about JB Pritzker tomorrow — and for good reason,” he told me. “But this is Juliana’s win. She’s a great candidate and will be a great fighter against Trump. That’s why she won.”
Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the top House Democrat, issued statements congratulating Donna Miller and Melissa Bean on victories in Democratic congressional races. Jeffries said Miller ran a “positive, forward-looking campaign” and that Bean would “hit the ground running” in Congress. Miller and Bean were each boosted by a group tied to AIPAC. Jeffries privately offered Miller encouragement Monday, she said in an interview, but he did not publicly endorse her.
Kat Abughazaleh, coming within a few percentage points of defeating Daniel Biss, a veteran Illinois politician, and outrunning Laura Fine, who received millions of dollars in super PAC support, made an impressive showing, given where she began her long-shot campaign a year ago. She called out establishment politics in her exit.
Kat Abughazaleh, who lost a Democratic House primary, held back tears in her concession speech and called out the millions of dollars spent against her by groups tied to AIPAC, the pro-Israel group. “We had millions in AIPAC spending, dark money smear campaigns, institutional power tipping the scales, and we made them use their entire arsenal,” she said.
If elected to the Senate in November, Juliana Stratton would be poised to join the progressive wing of Democratic senators. She has called for a $25 hourly minimum wage and has said she will not support Chuck Schumer as the chamber’s Democratic leader.
Juliana Stratton is celebrating her victory right now. “We did it,” she said. “Tonight we showed whats possible when you listen to the people and give the people what they want.”
Gov. JB Pritzker says what everyone watching the Senate race has known. “A lot of people have suggested that this was personal to me,” he said. “They were right, it was. Because I wanted to be there for Juliana in all the ways that she was there for me.”
JB Pritzker is speaking at Juliana Stratton’s victory party. He is taking a victory lap for himself and for Stratton. “I am so proud that in seven months we get to call her senator,” he said. (Stratton will begin the general election as a strong favorite in the Senate race in a heavily Democratic state.)
It wasn’t just the AI industry’s federal super PACs that spent big tonight in Illinois. Meta set up its own pro-AI group, called Making Our Tomorrow, with $750,000 to spend in four state legislative elections.
AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobbying group, had not formally acknowledged its role during some of these primaries before voters had cast their ballots. But on Tuesday, after the results were in, the group suggested in a post on X that it was behind the efforts in Illinois’s Ninth District, where groups linked to AIPAC had spent for Laura Fine, and against Daniel Biss and Kat Abughazaleh.
This victory for Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton is a triumph for Gov. JB Pritzker and his political operation. Her campaign raised just a fraction of what Raja Krishnamoorthi’s did, but Pritzker came to her rescue with millions spent on a super PAC while vouching for her in campaign stops, ads and media appearances.
Daniel Biss, a progressive, won in the Ninth Congressional District primary despite the presence of a candidate running to his left and a barrage of attacks from super PACs tied to AIPAC, the pro-Israel group, which were backing a more moderate candidate. He had strong local ties and an array of endorsements from Illinois politicians.
Stratton’s supporters have been in a victorious mood for the past hour, but a news flash that Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi had conceded drew a fresh round of cheers and a fluttering of signs that had been passed around earlier.
Our maps showing who leads in different types of counties show how Stratton’s margins in urban Cook County, along with many smaller cities downstate, were enough to overtake Krishnamoorthi’s success in the Chicago suburbs and rural parts of the state. Illinois U.S. Senate Primary Election Results ›
Going into tonight, one key concern in the Democratic Senate primary for Juliana Stratton was that she would split Black voters with Robin Kelly, which could narrow her path to victory. It remains to be seen the extent to which that vote was actually split, as Chicago has not yet reported detailed neighborhood-level results. But Stratton’s victory over Raja Krishnamoorthi appears to have been the result of a more broad-based coalition. She performed well in not only urban areas, but also in suburbs such as Will County and some more rural areas downstate — places Krishnamoorthi had expected to win handily.
Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi addressed supporters, telling them in a brief speech that he’d called opponent Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton to concede the Democratic primary election for Senate and offer his full support to her campaign going forward. “I’m proud of the race we ran and I’m honored by the support we received from every corner of the state,” he said. The Associated Press has not yet made a call in the race.
Melissa Bean’s win in the Eighth Congressional District represents a triumph for big-money outside groups that spent heavily in Illinois. She received support from the three largest political groups exerting their influence on the Illinois primaries: $4 million from a political group affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, more than $1 million in support from the artificial intelligence super PAC Think Big and more than $550,000 in support from the cryptocurrency political group Protect Progress.
The number of voters in the Illinois Democratic Senate primary has now surpassed the total in any Democratic Senate primary held in a non-presidential year over the past three decades. Total turnout is expected to exceed the 2004 primary, when Barack Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate in Illinois, which saw approximately 1.25 million voters participate.
Representative Robin Kelly, running a distant third place in the race for the Democratic nomination for Senate, is speaking at her watch party on the South Side, and has conceded defeat. “I am going to be OK,” Kelly said. “I don’t have any big speech, but I do know the people who supported me are the brave ones. And I can still look at myself in the mirror.”
McHenry County reporting means that Cook County and its five surrounding collar counties have now reported votes. Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi leads in most of the collars, including McHenry, where he is up by 20 points. But it has so far not been enough to overcome the lead built by Juliana Stratton, who has had strong showings in Cook and Will Counties. Roughly 128,000 votes are still expected in Cook County.
The state comptroller’s race was a lower-profile test of JB Pritzker’s influence, and his chosen candidate, Margaret Croke, has a healthy lead over Karina Villa, a progressive who was backed by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
This map shows Stratton’s strong lead in Cook County, where Chicago is, and in other, smaller cities, which has been enough to blunt Krishnamoorthi’s margins in the suburbs outside Chicago.
Even in Peoria, where Raja Krishnamoorthi grew up, he is taking just 53 percent of the vote so far. It is a healthy margin over Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, who has 30 percent, but not big enough.
Stratton’s relative strength outside of the Chicago media market is a bit of a surprise, given that Krishnamoorthi had an enormous advantage in advertising in the smaller cities and towns that populate the rest of Illinois.
The cryptocurrency industry bet big on Illinois races through its super PAC, Fairshake, but the night is not going well for the group so far. It spent nearly $10 million to oppose Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, who is leading Raja Krishnamoorthi in the U.S. Senate primary, preliminary results show. The super PAC also spent nearly $2.5 million to oppose La Shawn Ford in the Seventh Congressional District. He currently leads with more than 80 percent of the vote in, preliminary results show.
Raja Krishnamoorthi had counted on winning big margins in the collar counties that surround Chicago and in the vast expanse of downstate Illinois to counteract Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton’s advantage in Cook County. While Stratton is winning in Cook, the two are running about even in the rest of the state, not nearly enough for Krishnamoorthi to catch up.
Some nervousness has set in at the watch party for Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi’s Senate campaign. The campaign stopped sharing live results on a big screen in the room. “Fingers are crossed, I’m a little nervous at the moment,” said Ankit Jain, 34. He and others said they remained remain hopeful that the race would tighten.
The crowd is getting more boisterous at Daniel Biss’s watch party, and partygoers are gathering around the stage. More local politicians are rolling in, including progressive Alderman Matt Martin, whose ward covers parts of Chicago’s North Side.
Juliana Stratton leads in the Democratic Senate primary by wide margins in counties that contain major universities: McDonough (Western Illinois University), McLean (Illinois State University), Jackson (Southern Illinois University), and Champaign (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign — Stratton’s alma mater).
Juliana Stratton has taken a lead in suburban Will County, with more than half of the county’s expected vote reported. The county represented only about 5 percent of the Democratic electorate in recent primaries, but Stratton’s strength there is notable, since Raja Krishnamoorthi was expected by many to dominate in the Chicago suburbs.
Jesse Jackson Jr. addressed his supporters in Chicago by complimenting Donna Miller for her win and saying she “will do a fine job on behalf of the people.” He urged more civility in politics and for leaders to talk about issues that unite people. “America must be measured by what we give back to the world,” he said. “It’s time that every American, every community, feels new hope by what we can be together. We must not only keep hope alive, but we must demand better discourse by all elected officials.”
Retiring Representative Jan Schakowsky just arrived at Daniel Biss’s watch party, expressing optimism that Biss would win in the Ninth District. “I think things are going very well,” she told reporters. “Democrats have a really bright future and he’s going to do a terrific job.”
The Illinois governor’s race is set, and it will be a rematch of 2022. Darren Bailey, a former state legislator aligned with President Trump, ran up huge margins in rural downstate counties to clinch the Republican nomination. He will enter the general election campaign against Gov. JB Pritzker as an underdog.
In the Ninth District race, the mood at Daniel Biss’s watch party at Double Clutch Brewery in Evanston is restrained but optimistic. “Hopeful, excited, proud,” Drina Nikola, an Evanston resident, said of her mood. “Feeling like we’re gonna get some good work done.”
With the majority of votes counted in Cook County, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton leads by 10 percentage points, fueled by a commanding 20-point advantage in Chicago, which is home to more Black Democratic primary voters than the rest of the state combined. Stratton’s strong showing suggests Robin Kelly isn’t splitting enough of that vote to prevent Stratton from building a lead over Raja Krishnamoorthi. In the Cook County suburbs, which is seen as a key area for Krishnamoorthi, he and Stratton are currently tied.
The crowd continues to grow at a downtown Chicago watch party for Democratic Senate candidate Raja Krishnamoorthi, with many Indian American supporters here, excited about Krishnamoorthi’s historic candidacy. “It’s nice to see that other people like [Representative] Ro Khanna have really made a voice for themselves in U.S. politics,” said Shameeta Thanki, who is here with many friends and family. “We’re really hopeful that Raja will make it to the Senate especially with such a large Indian community in the [Chicago] suburbs.”
At Jesse Jackson Jr.’s election party in Bronzeville on Tuesday, the mood remains hopeful despite the numbers: He is 12 percentage points down with 73 percent of the vote in. “I don’t care what the numbers look like now. This is Chicago. Things can change in a half-hour,” Ron Baker Jr., the host and a comedian, told the crowd. “Rise, Jesse, rise.”
With Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton winning Chicago’s Cook County by a wide margin, Krishnamoorthi needs to win the rest of the state by double digits merely to stay competitive. He’s doing that in his home base — the suburbs around Chicago — but Stratton is winning many of the smaller cities and suburbs elsewhere in the state that Krishnamoorthi might need, like Peoria, Springfield, Bloomington or East St. Louis. Illinois U.S. Senate Primary Election Results ›
Candidates backed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and its affiliated groups are trailing in unresolved contests in two congressional districts. In the Seventh Congressional District, Melissa Conyears-Ervin is trailing La Shawn Ford with two-thirds of the vote in. She received a $5 million bump from AIPAC’s official super PAC, United Democracy Project.
Juliana Stratton’s supporters were upbeat, with some even showing signs of relaxing, as their candidate remained at least five points ahead of Raja Krishnamoorthi with more than half of the votes counted.
Groups aligned with AIPAC staked millions on boosting Laura Fine in the Ninth District. After the organization’s preferred candidate lost a New Jersey special election for a House seat earlier this year to a more progressive opponent, the pressure is on for AIPAC and its allies in the Illinois primaries.
The room burst into cheers at Juliana Stratton’s election night party at CineCity Studios in Chicago when the returns projected onto movie screens showed her leading Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi by more than five points with a third of votes tallied.
The mood is tense at Kat Abughazaleh’s watch party in the closely watched Ninth Congressional District. “We all knew this was going to be tight,” said Andrew Do, a supporter and volunteer. The Democratic contest has drawn a torrent of spending from groups linked to AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobbying organization.
For the first time tonight, Representative Robin Kelly, a Democratic Senate candidate, is ahead in a county. As of 8:50 p.m. Eastern, with 42 percent of the vote reported, she leads Raja Krishnamoorthi in Kankakee County. Since most of that county falls within her congressional district, a strong showing there was expected.
Source: Election results and race calls are from The Associated Press.
By The New York Times election results team: Michael Andre, Neil Berg, Matthew Bloch, Lily Boyce, Irineo Cabreros, Nico Chilla, Nate Cohn, Annie Daniel, Saurabh Datar, Andrew Fischer, Martín González Gómez, Jasmine C. Lee, Alex Lemonides, Zach Levitt, Ilana Marcus, Alicia Parlapiano, Dan Simmons-Ritchie, Caroline Soler, Charlie Smart, Jonah Smith and Christine Zhang. Additional contributions by Sarah Cahalan, Amanda Cordero, Patrick Hays, Jacob Meschke and Jessica White. Additional reporting by Tim Balk, Julie Bosman, Reid Epstein and Mitch Smith. Edited by Wilson Andrews, Lindsey Rogers Cook, William P. Davis, Kenan Davis, Amy Hughes, Ben Koski and Allison McCartney.
Source: Election results and race calls are from The Associated Press.
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