Four years ago, candidates braved a mix of rain and snow. Two years ago, it was bone-chilling cold. But on Monday, the sun was shining with an Autumn crisp in the air as hundreds of candidates gathered in Springfield to file petitions for the primary election.
“Oh, my God, it's like summer compared to the times that I had to be out here in the cold,” said state Rep. La Shawn Ford, D-Chicago, who’s running for the Illinois 7th Congressional District seat held by retiring Democratic U.S. Rep. Danny Davis. “You needed to have triple layers. It's pretty warm — and the lines are not as long as they used to be.”
The once-every-two-year spectacle is the formal kickoff to campaign season, with candidates for state, federal and judicial offices filing hundreds to thousands of signatures to secure their place on the March 17 primary ballot.
While the filing period is open through Nov. 3, it’s tradition for candidates, their staff and supporters to line up outside of the Illinois State Board of Elections before doors open at 8 a.m. The first candidates arrived on Saturday and several spent Sunday night in line.
But any candidate in line when doors open is technically considered “first,” meaning they will be included in a drawing next month to secure the first spot on the ballot in their respective race, according to State Board of Elections spokesman Matt Dietrich.
“I've never found any scientific evidence or any academic study showing definitively that where you are placed on a primary election ballot influences your chances of winning the nomination,” Dietrich said. “But, it's become such a tradition that I think people are just in the habit — and I also think it's maybe a way to get your staffers to pay their dues.”
For the superstitious who think ballot placement matters, winning the lottery might mean more this election cycle given the sheer amount of candidates contesting races.
According to the board of elections, 397 candidates were in line at 8 a.m., and all were processed within three-and-a-half hours.
The retirement of Democratic U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin has set off a political domino effect. Two Democratic incumbents, Rep. Robin Kelly of Lynwood and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Schaumburg, are giving up their congressional seats to run for Durbin’s seat.
Those, along with the retirements of Davis and Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Evanston, have drawn dozens of hopefuls eager to take advantage of a once-in-a-generation turnover in state politics.
But the ground underneath them could still shift. U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, has urged Illinois Democrats to redraw the state’s congressional map to counter mid-decade redistricting efforts in GOP-led states, adding a layer of uncertainty to the races.
Bailey’s future uncertain
At the state level, Gov. JB Pritzker filed petitions Monday to seek a third term, while the Republican primary to take him on remains in flux.
Three Republican gubernatorial candidates filed their petitions as they compete for the right to take on Pritzker, who filed for reelection.
Darren Bailey’s running mate, Cook County Republican Party Chair Aaron Del Mar, turned in 12,000 signatures for the campaign, but the ticket’s future in the race remains up in the air. Bailey’s son, daughter-in-law and two of his grandchildren died last week in a helicopter crash in Montana.
Read more: 4 members of Illinois GOP candidate Darren Bailey’s family killed in helicopter crash
Del Mar told reporters that Bailey is “taking time to think” about how to proceed.
“If Darren decides that he wants to run, I will stand by him and we will run hard,” Del Mar said. “If he decides that he doesn't want to run, then I will stand by him in that decision as well.”
Bailey has at least one influential voice urging him to stay in the race: President Donald Trump. Del Mar confirmed that the president called Bailey on Saturday and offered “strong encouragement” to stay in.
“Darren's taking that information, and it's going to be part of our calculus of what we want to do,” Del Mar said.
Other candidates are working to carve out a lane in the GOP primary. Exactly how many candidates will be running will be clearer next Monday after the deadline to turn in petitions.
“You need somebody that has the investigatory skills and the financial skills combined and somebody’s whose been in government and managed people within a government system,” DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick told Capitol News Illinois. “I’ve done all those things.”
Ted Dabrowski, a conservative researcher, is attempting to carve out a hard-right lane in the primary. Asked about instances of federal immigration authorities using racial profiling to make arrests, the Wilmette resident first dismissed the claim as a Pritzker-invented talking point before pivoting.
“I think it’s a pretty tough thing to say,” Dabrowski said when asked if he denies it’s happening. “Most people came from the border, from Latin America and other places. It’s kind of a fact.”
Dabrowski also declined to take a side when asked if he agreed with Trump’s assertation that Pritzker should be jailed for unspecified reasons.
Other races
Democratic voters around Illinois will see several competitive primaries on their ballots this year, including for U.S. Senate. So far, Krishnamoorthi, Kelly and Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton are largely focused on their opposition to Trump.
Voters “want stability, they want civility, they want their government working for them and right now Donald Trump’s government is not working,” Krishnamoorthi told reporters.
In U.S. House races, Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss is one of potentially more than a dozen candidates who will be on the ballot to replace Schakowsky in the 9th District. He told Capitol News Illinois immigration arrests in his community by “masked, anonymous agents” are “motivating” his bid for Congress. Biss previously served in the Illinois Senate and lost the 2018 primary for governor to Pritzker.
“It’s hard to explain how angry I am and how high the stakes are in this moment,” Biss said. “I’ve never felt motivated like this to win a race.”
Crowded Democratic primaries are also expected in the 2nd, 7th, and 8th congressional districts.
Comptroller Susana Mendoza is also not seeking reelection next year, leading three state legislators and Lake County Treasurer Holly Kim to compete for the statewide office.
Kim said she hopes her experience currently working in a similar role will resonate with voters.
Meanwhile, Rep. Margaret Croke, D-Chicago, an ally of Pritzker, is hoping the governor will endorse her before the primary but said she has not yet discussed it with him.
“If I could have somebody like JB behind me, that would be incredible,” Croke told Capitol News Illinois. “He’s the guy I look up to.”
Croke represents one of the state’s most densely populated House districts on Chicago’s near North Side but said she’s “fined tuned” a message she believes will resonate with Democrats throughout the state.
State Rep. Stephanie Kifowit, D-Oswego, and state Sen. Karina Villa, D-West Chicago, are also in the comptroller’s race.
On the Republican side of the aisle, House Minority Leader Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, is optimistic her caucus can make a dent in Democrats’ 78-member supermajority by focusing on economic issues. In 2024, McCombie hoped to pick up five seats in the House but didn’t win any. This year, she’s keeping her cards a secret.
“Obviously we want to keep the 40 that we have and that we're going to play pretty strong in a couple of them,” she told reporters. “You know, one thing about being the leader the second time around, I've learned my lessons: Not to give you all a lot of scoop on this one.”
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
