Election Day wrapped up with Illinois’ statewide races looking like where they have been for decades — with a full slate of Democrats taking the reins.
The state hasn’t seen a Republican as secretary of state in nearly 30 years, as attorney general in more than 20 years or as comptroller for at least a decade.
Tuesday night ensured at least four more years were tacked onto those counts.
Just over an hour after the polls closed, Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias took the stage at Mid-America Carpenters Hall in River North to a roaring crowd, declaring victory with a near 360,000-vote lead as about 26% of votes were counted and results continued to roll in for a number of statewide races.
By the time the race was called just before 11 p.m., he led by more than a million votes with 64% of ballots cast in his favor with 80% of precincts reporting.
But his victory comes with the complication that he’s also considered a front-runner for the fifth floor of City Hall. If he wins both races, it would allow fellow Tuesday night victor Gov. JB Pritzker to appoint a secretary of state for the better part of a full term.
Less than an hour before he declared his win, Giannoulias’ family arrived, his wife Jo Terlato beaming as results started rolling in, showing the incumbent’s early and large lead.
“Thanks, Illinois,” Giannoulias remarked simply, to yet another roar from the crowd. “Tonight, what I'm hearing is that there is a blue wave coming, and I'm so excited.”
Giannoulias has focused on maintaining “momentum on modernization” on the campaign trail, while touting the introduction of online appointments for secretary of state office visits and the installation of DMV kiosks.
He was propelled forward by millions of dollars in campaign funds, being left with $21.85 million in cash on hand in the second quarter, with more pouring in as he announced his mayoral run. Republican candidate Diane Harris raised more than $6,000 in the same span, nearly the same amount Giannoulias spent to hold a single fundraiser in April.
Giannoulias’ rollback of testing requirements for older drivers became a point of contention on the campaign trail, as well as his views on automated license plate reader cameras.
He has said he wants to make his office’s audits of license plate readers more proactive, and that he wants to establish pathways for accountability after prior investigations found Illinois license plate reader data was accessed by federal immigration agents.
But no amount of money, nor his track record, allowed him to outrun the lingering question of his simultaneous run for mayor. Harris jabbed that the state deserved “someone who’s committed to serving this state’s office” in a Sun-Times candidate questionnaire response earlier this year.
When asked about his mayoral campaign, Giannoulias said he was “focused on today.”
“We're not finished with our modernization push, so people are going to continue to see changes that help eliminate the time tax, that focus on customer service, that focus on efficiencies,” Giannoulias told reporters after his speech. “So we're not done yet, and I'm excited about the future.”
Raoul also held an early lead against former two-term 2nd Ward Ald. Bob Fioretti that he never gave up. By the time the election was called, he led by more than 805,000 votes with 80% of precincts reporting.
The incumbent state attorney general won his last two elections by a more than 11-point margin.
Raoul, along with other states’ attorneys general, has successfully won the release of millions of dollars in federal dollars the Trump administration has tried to retract over sanctuary city policies, including funding for disaster relief funding and transportation.
Other lawsuits from Raoul's office have restored medical research funding cut by the Trump administration and reversed a Trump administration attempt to cut federal funding from medical institutions providing gender-affirming care to patients under 19.
State Rep. Margaret Croke, in line with the incumbent Democrats, took the race for the state’s chief financial office over Republican Bryan Drew by 760,000 votes with more than 80% of precincts reporting.
In a victory speech, she pledged to “protect taxpayer dollars, pay our bills on time, and bring greater transparency and accountability to state spending.”
“I’m proud to represent a new generation of leadership committed to building a stronger future for our state,” Croke said.
On the campaign trail, Croke laid out a modernized vision of the office, outlining a transparency system in which residents could see the path of public dollars from appropriation to payment. And in response to the recent investigation of a South Side funeral home for mishandling of human remains, she backed moving the regulation of funeral home licensing solely under the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.
Croke — who was backed by a contingent of Springfield Democrats, including Pritzker — landed nearly 35% of the vote in a four-way split primary, beating out more progressive candidates with boosts from suburban and downstate counties after she raised $1.8 million in the primary alone.
She pointed to her statehouse ties as a positive for the office and cited her time on the House Revenue and Finance Committee and as chair of the Financial Institutions Committee as strengths heading into the state’s head financial office.
