Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton projected to win Democratic primary for U.S. Senate
Illinois Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton is expected to win the heated and crowded Democratic primaries for US Senate seat which Dick Durbin has held for nearly 30 years, according to CBS News analysis, topping a field of 10 candidates, including U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi and U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly.
With 80% of the vote, Stratton is in the lead with 39.4% of the vote, Krishnamoorthi is second with 33.6% and Kelly is third with 18.4%. None of the other seven candidates are in double digits.
Stratton will face Don Tracy, an attorney and former chairman of the Illinois Republican Party, who is the expected winner of the Republican primary for the Senate seat, according to CBS News projects.
If Stratton wins, she would be the fourth African American elected to the U.S. Senate from Illinois, joining Carol Moseley Braun, Barack Obama and Roland Burris.
Stratton will be the heavy favorite in the November general election. Illinois has elected only two Republicans to the U.S. Senate since Durbin’s first election in 1996: Peter Fitzgerald to one term in 1998 and Mark Kirk to one term in 2010.
Durbin, the fifth-longest-serving member of the Senate and Senate Democratic whip, has held his Senate seat since 1997. He is retiring at the end of his term, and the race for his seat has become one of the most closely watched and expensive Senate races in the country.
He is the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he led the confirmation process of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson in 2022. He also serves on the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee. His retirement is expected to provide impetus to a broader shake-up of Senate Democratic leadership.
The race to replace Durbin was one of the most expensive Senate elections in the United States in 2026.
According to federal campaign finance records, Krishnamoorthi has significantly outperformed his opponents in the race, having brought in more than $30 million for his campaign – the second largest among all U.S. Senate candidates. Stratton raised more than $4 million and Kelly more than $3 million. According to Capitol News Illinois, the Illinois Future PAC filled Stratton’s void, spending more than $10 million to boost his bid for the Senate seat. Gov. JB Pritzker funded the PAC to the tune of at least $5 million.
During the final debate between Democratic candidates last week before the primary elections, fundraising remained the number one topic. Kelly took direct aim at Stratton, who claims she doesn’t accept money from corporate PACs. Kelly asked about the huge sums coming from billionaire Governor JB Pritzker.
“A billionaire family donated 73% of what you received, so are you obligated to them?” Kelly said.
Stratton, meanwhile, took aim at Krishnamoorthi, who received and then donated money from an executive at Palantir – a company with major ICE contracts.
“Congressman, you didn’t even think about returning the funding until the public asked you to,” Stratton said.
“When you chaired the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association, under your leadership, the DLGA solicited and received tens of thousands of dollars from CoreCivic, the largest private prison operator in the United States which operated the ICE Broadview Center,” Krishnamoorthi responded.
