U.S. Senator Dick Durbin is not running for re-election. So far, it’s a crowded field of candidates lining up to succeed him in Illinois.
Election dates
The primary election will be held Mar. 17, 2026. The general election will be held on Nov. 3, 2026. Durbin has held the office since 1997.
Year-round preparation
Even though the primary is still months away, county clerks statewide are already preparing by updating voter rolls, testing machines and recruiting election judges. Don Gray is the Sangamon County Clerk. He expects turnout in next year’s primary and general election will be high for a mid-term election. He spoke with WNIJ at a press day hosted by the Illinois News Broadcasters Association, the Illinois Press Association and the Public Affairs Reporting program at the University of Illinois Springfield on Oct. 11, 2025.
Engaged electorate
Gray says United States Senate seats are “instantly identifiable to the public.”
"They deal with issues that are extremely relatable and [voters are] passionate about, and they're usually very well financed," Gray said. "The top of the ticket is open, and it's been in the hands of Senator Dick Durbin for many decades. The public is going to pay attention, and it's going to drive turnout."
Gray says since 2016 and through the COVID-19 pandemic area, there have been steady increases in even-year elections.
"The public is definitely paying more attention on how elections are affecting their daily lives," Gray said. "It's being reflective in the steady increase of participation. Illinois has become much more accessible in being able to register to vote and be able to cast your ballot in more convenient ways. So, we've been doing all the right things to secure those elements while giving great open access and opportunity. Now that we've got some really open contests of some high offices that will be very well covered, I think we're going to see another, probably extraordinary year of turnout."
County clerks field common voter questions
He says there are a couple of questions that his office has been getting in recent years:
- Is my vote actually counted?
"Yes, it is," Gray emphasized. "How you mark your ballot is reflective to how our tabulators are going to record your votes. We go through a lot to certify very sophisticated and accurate equipment for utilization in tabulating everybody's votes. We go through a very lengthy testing procedure of every piece of equipment that gets elicited into the election in every jurisdiction."
- Do foreign governments really have an interest in attacking the system?
"They do," Gray said. "It is a real threat, and it's one that we've taken very seriously. It's one that Illinois had been affected by in the past. We're in the forefront of the best security provisions of data, the transmission of that data from jurisdiction to the public in the evening of election, [more] than any other state in the union. So have confidence in what we're doing. We're making the right investments. We've got the right security controls in place.
Year-round campaigning
While election authorities fine tune their processes, candidates are ramping up their efforts to stand out from the pack. Matthew Geras is a Professor in the School of Politics and International Affairs at University of Illinois Springfield. Even though the primary election is still months away, he says candidates are doing what they can to stand apart from their challengers. Right now, that means fundraising.
"During primary elections, particularly this early in the race, that's one of the things that candidates are focusing on," Geras said. "Of course, they want to get their name recognition up there by doing events like this [media press day] and speaking to voters. But another big thing they're doing in this early in the race is they're gathering endorsements."
That doesn't mean they're not talking about the issues at this point in the race.
"Right now, every politician is asked about their views on the Trump administration and the government shutdown," Geras noted. "Obviously, an important issue for the Democratic Party right now, and part of the government shutdown, is related to health care, and, of course, Republican voters also care about crime and immigration. I think those nationalized issues are going to be the same issues we hear about in this race quite a bit."
Polarization continues to loom large
"[There's] increasingly what political scientists call negative partisanship," he notes. "That's the idea that voters might like one political party, but they often dislike the other political party more than they sometimes even like the party. Because of this, they're often voting against something, as opposed to voting for someone."
Geras says that encourages parties to continue to be polarized and be on a unified message.
"At other periods throughout history and American politics," he said, "when we've been less polarized and less nationalized, we often do see sometimes state and local issues come up at the state level and the local level that maybe aren't discussed at the same degree in Congress. But I think in our modern environment, where we are nationalized and polarized, they're going to be increasingly talking about some of the same issues, particularly in our present moment, where on top of everyone's mind is the government shutdown and the Trump administration and Trump's view of executive power."
Party messaging in 2026
Geras says both parties will be working out their messaging to voters in 2026.
"The Democratic Party currently is kind of at a crossroads," he said. "This is not necessarily unique to the Democratic Party, but anytime a party loses a presidential election, and particularly loses control and is out of power at the federal level, they need to kind of reevaluate their message and what types of issues they're going to run on going forward. And I think that's something that a lot of people are keeping an eye on. And similarly, on the Republican side, I think researchers and media are going to be interested in [what] voters are going to be interested in, to see what the Republican Party looks like in a post Trump era, and we might get some glimpse of that, since Trump himself won't be on the ballot in this race."
