The verdict of the Illinois primary elections has come as a big success for the Democrats. llinois Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton won the Democratic nomination for the Senate. She beat more strongly funded opponents, Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi and Representative Robin Kelly.
Stratton won by a huge margin in Chicago and received a strong response from the suburbs. Her campaign featured a controversial television advertisement involving President Donald Trump.
The primary election consisted of four House vacancies and an open Senate seat.
Stratton issued a strong statement right after her win, where she made a clear note of her priorities ahead. She said, “We will fight for Medicare for all, we will fight to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), we’ll fight for a real living wage, and we will fight to defend our rights and claw our democracy back from the brink. Courage will bring this fight straight to Donald Trump’s door.”
Thank you, Illinois. Tonight’s message is clear – we’re ready to take our democracy back into our own hands. pic.twitter.com/26t6rRntXA
— Juliana Stratton (@JulianaStratton) March 18, 2026
If Stratton ultimately ends up winning the seat, she would become the sixth Black woman serving in the Senate. She now stands as a strong opponent against Republican party nominee, Don Tracy.
Voters will fill the remaining seats in November. Despite the success, the deeper divides in the Democratic party on the basis of ideological differences and generational gap were visible.
Democrat candidates who were backed by pro-Israel and cryptocurrency groups won in some key regions but had to accept defeat in the remaining. For instance, in one Chicago-area house contest, the winner was backed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
Governor JB Pritzker won the nomination for a third term with no opposition in his primary. Pritzker allegedly spent millions of dollars to support Stratton in the race.
After his win, Pritzker criticized Trump. On Tuesday, March 17, he claimed that the president was a “carnival barker in chief,” while calling out his Republican and Congress supporters for corruption. He concluded his remark by stating, “Everything we care about is under siege from Washington.”
The elections also marked a second chance for two Democrats to get their political careers back in track. Former Representative Melissa Bean won in the primary for the Eighth District seat. In the Second District, candidate and former Representative Jesse Jackson lost his bid to win back his old seat.
Juliana Stratton defeats Raja Krishnamoorthi in Senate Democratic primary battle for Dick Durbin’s seat https://t.co/o8wLd4p0S5
— Local Beat News (@Local_Beat_News) March 18, 2026
In the Ninth District race, Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss won despite being backed by an anti-AIPAC group. He defeated 26-year-old candidate Kat Abughazaleh, who is Palestinian American.
Interestingly, the voter turnout has also startled many. Turnout for Illinois’ Democratic primary was very high — about 1.1 million votes were cast as of Tuesday, March 17.
