Illinois held primaries for multiple open federal positions, with voters selecting five new Democratic nominees for U.S. House seats positioned to remain in Democratic hands during the general election. The contests featured significant financial activity, including roughly $70 million from independent outside groups and $54 million in direct campaign spending across five competitive races for Senate and House seats.
The elevated level of spending and number of open positions reflected an unusual situation for Illinois. U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin’s announcement that he would not seek another term prompted two House members to run for his seat. Combined with retirements by three other Chicago-area Democratic representatives, the state had more than one-quarter of its U.S. House delegations available for election for the first time in at least seven decades. The cascade of open seats drew large candidate fields and attracted attention from national political organizations.
The Senate primary alone generated over $34 million in independent expenditures, a spending level that exceeded all but nine Senate general election campaigns nationwide in 2024, according to OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan campaign finance tracking organization. Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton won the primary while receiving more than $16 million in outside group support and reporting approximately $2.8 million in campaign expenditures. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who trailed Stratton by roughly 7 percentage points in partial returns, spent nearly $24 million from his campaign while facing over $4 million in outside opposition spending.
Outside spending exceeded candidate spending in four of the five House contests, a pattern that OpenSecrets noted occurred in only 49 of roughly 470 federal races during the 2024 general election. Multiple political organizations invested heavily in Illinois races, including groups backed by cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence interests, as well as advocacy organizations focused on specific policy areas. Several major spenders, including Affordable Chicago Now, Elect Chicago Women, and Chicago Progressive Partnership, had not yet disclosed their funding sources as of the report date.
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