Illinois Primary Results Expose a GOP Problem

Illinois is widely known as a Democrat stronghold, a blue state, largely because of their solid voting base in Chicago. Much of the rest of Illinois is actually Republican red. We reported a short while ago how Chicago residents have started a grassroots movement to flip Chicago Red. Residents there feel disenfranchised with Democrat Governor J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson after they illegally spent so many Illinois tax dollars on the feeding and care of illegal aliens the past 4 years. They now want to raise taxes even more to cover the shortfalls they have created in the state and city budgets.

The Illinois Primary Election results of yesterday March 17 were very interesting and possibly historic. Some of the candidates who had and spent the most campaign money lost while others with lesser financial backing won. Democrat candidates who are incumbents, like Governor J.B. Pritzker going for a third term, ran unopposed and had to spend very little money thus far.

Many studied what happened yesterday and ended the day with mixed emotions. For example the race to fill the Illinois Senate seat left by outgoing Senator Dick Durbin, a 30 year veteran of the office, was most interesting. The Democrats had 5 candidates running for his seat as did the Republicans. The one with the most prominence on the airwaves as well as steaming on the Internet was Democrat Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi. He announced his intention to run a year ago and spent millions of dollars to woo voters in a massive public relations campaign.

While it appeared he was a shoo-in yesterday morning, his dreams came crashing down last night as he placed second after Pritzker-backed Juliana Stratton Illinois’ current lieutenant governor. There were many reasons why Raja may have lost. Tops on that list seemed to be the following:

1. He is an foreign immigrant and talked about that himself in his commercials and Middle-Eastern immigrants are not popular in Illinois right now.

2.  In every commercial he talked about “fighting Trump” but never said anything of substance on how he would make Illinois better. He basically ran a campaign of hate.

3. He spent time in some commercials demonizing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after ICE agents were attacked and several protesters were killed in Minnesota. To many voters this seemed painfully opportunistic.

4. There were persistent rumors he was funded by Soros money while his incessant non-stop “hate Trump” commercials became annoying to the public.

CONCLUSION:

After the dust settled yesterday I did some research on an issue I have concerns about and that is the unification and organization of Republicans compared to the Democrats and this could cost Republicans the 2026 Midterm Election coming in November. As I always say, “The math never lies.”

Looking at the Illinois Senate race primary from yesterday to fill Dick Durbin’s seat we saw something very unsettling. As noted before, each party had 5 candidates which only splits the vote and confuses voters.

But besides the math in the number of 10 candidates to fill 1 senate seat in D.C., we also have this inconvenient truth:

1,115,848 – Total votes cast for Illinois Democrat Senate Candidates

   480,461 – Total votes cast for Illinois Republican Senate Candidates

This means Democrat voters in Illinois showed up to the polls yesterday at more than twice the rate of Republican voters and that should be a big red flag to all political pundits. Voter turnout for Illinois Democrats was not as high as the 2018 Midterm primaries but it was higher than both the 2022 and 2014 Midterm primaries. Interestingly, there were more votes cast for the 4 Republican gubernatorial candidates than the 5 Republican senate candidates, 540,387 and we are not sure what to make of that.

Illinois is a known blue state so of course Republicans will be outpaced at the polls and I respect that comment, but it actually it is not as simple as that as the data below illustrates. The majority of Illinois voters are not tied to either political party blue or red!

For reference, the source reports:

• Total Registered Voters: 8,399,862
• Democrats: 3,235,084 (38.51%)
• Republicans: 1,693,992 (20.17%)
• Other/Independent: 3,470,786 (41.32%)

With recent legal and illegal immigration since the 2020 census, it is believed somewhere north of 12.9 million people now live in Illinois despite recent out-migration thanks to Democrat’s failed leadership. Also, Illinois is one of the blue states refusing to allow the Trump Administration to inspect their state voter rolls and therefore are being sued by the Department of Justice (DOJ), so we really do not know how accurate the above numbers are. 

Expert political pundits say I live in one of the reddest counties of Illinois and yesterday my local polling place was dead! My wife and I showed up to vote at 9:00 in the morning, 3 hours into the voting, and we were the only people there to cast our ballots. The poll workers commented on how glad they were to see us as they were bored!

Illinois is ready to flip red. We pay some of the highest taxes and utilities in the nation and if Pritzker gets a third term, things are promised to get worse. He is proposing a state tax to help balance the budget that will raise our property taxes 100%! Illinois Democrats have driven out many major corporations that have called Illinois home for years… recognizable giants like Boeing, Caterpillar, and Tyson.

While I do not believe MAGA is in decline or fractured, I do believe Republicans need to take a lesson from Democrats on “unity”. President Trump once said about detractors, “I am very big on loyalty.” I think most Americans are the same, and quite honestly, with the apparent defection of some of the biggest conservative talking heads, many MAGA Americans are angry and pondering aloud, “What the hell is wrong with these people?!”

Come November, all Republican voters better get out and vote like their futures depend on it, because it does!

© 2026 by Mark S. Schwendau

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Thinking Conservative.