What to Watch in the Illinois Primaries

Voters in Illinois will head to the polls on March 17 to nominate candidates for Congress and other offices ahead of the 2026 midterms. The most closely watched race is the Democratic primary to succeed longtime Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who announced last year that he would not run for reelection. The top candidates in the latest polls are Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) and Robin Kelly (D-Ill.), as well as Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, who has been endorsed by Gov. JB Pritzker. The candidates hold similar positions on most issues. In a Jan. 29 debate on ABC affiliate WLS-TV, all three candidates supported major changes to federal immigration enforcement and called for abolishing or dismantling Immigration and Customs Enforcement, while supporting pathways to citizenship for Dreamers and other long-term illegal immigrants....