Governor J. B. Pritzker is running unopposed in the Democratic primary. His running mate, Christian Mitchell, a former state representative and Pritzker’s former deputy governor, declared his candidacy after the current lieutenant governor, Juliana Stratton, announced plans to run for the Senate.

Election 2026
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In the Republican primary, Darren Bailey, a former state senator and the G.O.P. nominee for governor in 2022, has maintained a sizable polling advantage over the rest of the field. His running mate, Aaron Del Mar, is the chair of the Cook County Republican Party and a local highway commissioner. Other candidates include Rick Heidner, a real-estate developer, and Ted Dabrowski, the former president of Wirepoints, a conservative research organization based in Illinois.

The Democratic primary became unexpectedly competitive after Dick Durbin, the longest-serving U.S. senator in Illinois history, announced his plans to retire last year. Stratton, the lieutenant governor, and Raja Krishnamoorthi, a congressman representing Illinois’s eighth district, are the front-runners. Stratton is the first African American woman to serve as lieutenant governor in the state. She is running on a progressive platform, highlighting policy proposals like Medicare for All and a twenty-five-dollar minimum wage. In addition to Pritzker’s support, Stratton has picked up endorsements from national progressive leaders such as Elizabeth Warren and Tammy Baldwin.

Krishnamoorthi, a member of the New Democrat Coalition, a caucus of moderate and centrist House Democrats, has mounted a surprisingly successful challenge to Stratton. Stratton has drawn the bulk of support from the Democratic establishment in Illinois, but Krishnamoorthi has built a large fund-raising advantage, with progressives attacking him for accepting money from Trump allies and figures in the tech world. Fairshake, the largest cryptocurrency super PAC in the country, has spent more than five million dollars on ads attacking Stratton’s campaign.

Robin Kelly, a congresswoman from Chicagoland, has been endorsed by the New Jersey senator Cory Booker and the former Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot. Durbin has declined to endorse any of the candidates.

In the Republican primary, Don Tracy, the former chair of the Illinois Republican Party, is running against Jeannie Evans, an antitrust enforcement attorney based in Chicago, and Casey Chlebek, the former president of the Polish American Congress. Tracy has been endorsed by the former Illinois senator Mark Kirk, and all three Republican members of the Illinois congressional delegation.