Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton’s victory in a Democratic Senate primary on Tuesday is also a win for Gov. JB Pritzker and a loss for cryptocurrency industry leaders who sought to block her ascent.
Stratton, who was twice elected on a ticket with Pritzker, won 40% of the vote compared with 33% for Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi and 18% for Rep. Robin Kelly, according to an Associated Press tally of about 87% of the estimated total vote.
In Democratic-leaning Illinois, Stratton will be a clear favorite in the November general election to defeat Don Tracy, a former state Republican Party chair. Republicans last won a Senate election in Illinois in 2010, and the state favored Kamala Harris over Donald Trump by 11 percentage points in the 2024 election. Sen. Dick Durbin (D) is retiring.
Stratton led Kelly and Krishnamoorthi by about 20 percentage points in Chicago and edged Krishnamoorthi in suburban Cook County abutting the city. Those two jurisdictions together cast more than half of the statewide Democratic primary vote. Stratton also held her own in more rural downstate counties against Krishnamoorthi, the early frontrunner who dominated the airwaves.
Stratton overcame a significant fundraising deficit against Krishnamoorthi and about $10 million in spending by Fairshake, a super PAC funded by the cryptocurrency industry. Stratton is No. 2 to a governor who signed legislation to regulate crypto companies and combat fraud. One of Stratton’s endorsers, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), is a leading critic of the industry.
“Even as crypto super PACs spent millions to defeat her, she stood firm and proved that candidates who refuse corporate money can win in tough races when they run against corruption,” Tiffany Muller, president of End Citizens United, said in a statement.
Stratton got a big boost from the Illinois Future PAC, a super PAC that spent more than $12 million supporting her or opposing Krishnamoorthi. Pritzker, a billionaire who may seek the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination if he’s reelected as governor in November as expected, gave at least $5 million to the super PAC.
Stratton’s win also is a setback for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). Stratton was the only leading Democratic candidate to explicitly state she wouldn’t support Schumer for party leader in the next Congress.
If Stratton is elected to serve with Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D), Illinois will become the first state with two women of color serving as senator simultaneously. Duckworth, who’s Asian-American, endorsed Stratton, who’d become the sixth Black woman to serve in the Senate.
The crypto industry also took a loss in the 7th District, where state Rep. La Shawn Ford won the key Democratic nomination and overcame about $2.5 million in spending from Fairshake. Ford, who was endorsed by retiring Rep. Danny K. Davis (D), said the industry attacked him because he supported legislation to regulate cryptocurrency and strengthen consumer protections.
AIPAC Impacts
Illinois’s primaries also were punctuated by more than $20 million in spending by super PACs linked to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which has fallen out of favor in Democratic circles for intervening in party primaries and accepting large sums from some Republican donors.
According to an NBC poll released this week, Democrats overwhelmingly said they sympathize more with Palestinians than with Israelis in the ongoing Middle East conflict.
It was a mixed bag Tuesday for AIPAC. It took a big loss in the 7th District, where its United Democracy Project super PAC spent about $5 million to support Chicago City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin, who lost to Ford.
In the 9th District, a heavily Jewish area in some north Chicago suburbs, Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss won the key Democratic primary and is a shoo-in to succeed Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D), who’s retiring after almost three decades in office.
AIPAC’s preferred candidate, state Sen. Laura Fine, finished in third behind Biss and runner-up Kat Abughazaleh, a Palestinian-American progressive influencer who was the least supportive of Israel among the major candidates. Biss, who’s Jewish and a grandson of Holocaust survivors, was endorsed by J Street, which styles itself as a more liberal counterweight to AIPAC.
Biss’s backers included the Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC, which is aligned with about 100 of the most liberal members of Congress.
“Daniel won this race by relentlessly campaigning on a progressive agenda focused on Medicare for All, standing up against ICE and mass deportations, and restricting weapons transfers to Israel, all while calling out the influence of AIPAC and Republican-backed Super PACs in Democratic primaries,” Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC co-chairs Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Greg Casar (D-Texas), and Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) said in a statement.
AIPAC did get a win in Krishnamoorthi’s suburban 8th District, where ex-Rep. Melissa Bean topped a Democratic field that included runner-up Junaid Ahmed, a technology businessman who supports an arms embargo on Israel.
Bean served in the House from 2005 to 2011. Her supporters included the center-left New Democrat Coalition Action Fund. Junaid ran as a more progressive candidate who supported a Medicare for All health insurance program.
AIPAC’s preferred candidate also won in Kelly’s 2nd District. Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller benefited from more than $4.3 million in spending from the Affordable Chicago Now super PAC aligned with AIPAC and also raised $2 million through Feb. 25 to lead the Democratic field.
Miller defeated Democratic rivals, including ex-Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and state Sen. Robert Peters, who was backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and the Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC.
Bean and Miller’s backers included the Elect Democratic Women group led by Rep. Lois Frankel (D-Fla.), who said in a statement that both women “have built a career fighting for their communities, expanding opportunity, strengthening health care access, and supporting working families.”
To contact the reporter on this story:
To contact the editors responsible for this story: