Illinois held primary elections this week to nominate candidates for five open U.S. House seats and one open Senate seat, all favored to remain in Democratic hands in the general election. The contests drew substantial financial involvement, with approximately $70 million in independent expenditures from outside groups and $54 million in direct campaign spending across the five most competitive races.
The scale of spending reflects unusual circumstances in Illinois politics. U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin’s announcement last year 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, this created an exceptionally high number of open seats—more than one-quarter of the state’s House delegation for the first time in at least seven decades.
The Senate Democratic primary alone generated more than $34 million in independent expenditures, a figure that exceeds outside spending in all but nine Senate general election campaigns from 2024. In the contest, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton won the nomination while benefiting from more than $16 million in outside support compared to roughly $11 million spent in opposition against her. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who trailed by approximately 7 percentage points, invested nearly $24 million of his own campaign funds.
Multiple interest groups deployed substantial resources across the races. Cryptocurrency-backed PACs and artificial intelligence-focused organizations spent heavily in four Illinois races, while the American Israel Public Affairs Committee also made significant expenditures. Gov. JB Pritzker’s Illinois Future PAC reported at least $5 million in independent spending, and Fairshake spent more than $10 million. In four of the five House primaries, outside groups collectively spent more money than all candidates combined—a pattern that occurs infrequently in federal races.
Some major outside spenders have yet to disclose their funding sources, with several PACs including Affordable Chicago Now, Elect Chicago Women, and Chicago Progressive Partnership required to file donor information later in the month. The winners in the open House races included Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller in the 2nd District and Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss in the 9th District.
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