Illinois held a Democratic primary that resulted in the nomination of five new candidates for open U.S. House seats, culminating what observers characterized as an exceptionally costly election cycle. The races attracted roughly $70 million in independent expenditures from outside groups and $54 million in direct campaign spending across five competitive contests for Senate and House positions.
The high level of spending was driven by an unusual convergence of retirements among state Democratic representatives. U.S. Senator Dick Durbin announced he would not seek another term, leading two House members to pursue his seat. Combined with the departures of three other Chicago-area Democratic representatives, the primary featured more than one-quarter of Illinois’ U.S. House seats as open contests for the first time in at least seven decades.
The Senate race alone generated over $34 million in independent expenditures, a level that exceeded the outside spending in only nine Senate general election campaigns in 2024. In Illinois’ expensive Chicago media market, ten PACs each reported at least $1 million in independent expenditures. Gov. JB Pritzker’s Illinois Future PAC contributed at least $5 million, while the cryptocurrency-backed Fairshake spent more than $10 million across the races. Crypto, artificial intelligence-backed PACs, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee also deployed significant resources.
Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton won the Senate Democratic primary while benefiting from more than $16 million in outside support compared to approximately $11 million spent in opposition. By contrast, U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who trailed Stratton by roughly 7 percentage points, expended nearly $24 million from his own campaign while facing more than $4 million in opposing outside spending. In four of five open House primaries, outside groups spent more money than all candidates combined—a pattern OpenSecrets noted occurred in fewer than 50 federal races nationwide during the 2024 general election.
Some major spending groups, including Affordable Chicago Now which spent over $4.3 million, have not yet disclosed their donors. Filing deadlines for PACs remain outstanding, meaning the sources of substantial portions of the spending will become public only later in the month.
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