Where big spending won – and lost – in the Illinois primary

WASHINGTON – It turns out it takes about $125 million to reshape a congressional delegation.

On Tuesday night, Illinois Democrats ushered in a new generation of lawmakers, picking five new nominees for Congress in open seats that are favored to remain in Democratic hands this fall.

But it came at the end of a messy, expensive primary season, with around $70 million in spending from outside groups and $54 million in campaign spending across five competitive races for open U.S. Senate and House seats.

That kind of crowded, high-stakes action isn’t typical for Illinois, a state better known for its machine politics than wide-open contests. But this year was different: An unusually high number of retirements created opportunities for new representation up and down the ballot. U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin announced last year he wouldn’t seek a sixth term, prompting two House members to run for his seat. The cascading effect of Durbin’s retirement, plus those of three other Chicago-area Democratic representatives, meant that for the first time in at least seven decades, more than one-quarter of the state’s U.S. House seats were open.

All of that brought in a flood of candidates — and money.

The Senate primary alone racked up more than $34 million in independent expenditures. For context, only nine Senate general election campaigns in 2024 saw more outside spending, according to OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan group that tracks political spending.

And in a state with a pricey media market like Chicago, that kind of money is easy to spend. Ten PACs each reported at least $1 million in independent expenditures across the five competitive races. Two of them — Illinois Future PAC, which got at least $5 million from Gov. JB Pritzker, and the cryptocurrency-backed Fairshake — spent more than $10 million.

Crypto- and artificial intelligence-backed PACs, in particular, spent big in four Illinois races. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, an advocacy organization that lobbies for U.S. support for Israel, also spent millions.

In four of the five contested primaries for open House seats, outside groups spent more money than all the candidates combined. That in and of itself is unusual: According to OpenSecrets, in the 2024 general election there were only 49 federal races, out of close to 470, where outside groups spent more than the candidates.

In the Senate Democratic primary, that outside spending was tilted strongly in favor of the eventual winner, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton. She was both the biggest beneficiary and the biggest target. Outside groups spent more than $16 million in support of her campaign, compared to about $11 million spent in opposition. She reported just shy of $2.8 million in campaign spending to the FEC.

Meanwhile, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who was trailing Stratton by about 7 percentage points as of Wednesday morning with nearly all of the vote counted, spent nearly $24 million from his own campaign coffers. Outside groups spent more than $4 million opposing his candidacy.

These outside spending totals come from 24- and 48-hour reports filed with the Federal Election Commission as of Tuesday night, while campaign spending reflects the latest FEC filings, covering campaign expenditures through Feb. 25.

The only other race where outside spending topped $10 million was Illinois’ 9th District, covering Chicago’s North Shore suburbs. That contest started with more than a dozen candidates, but three — a mayor, a state senator, and a former journalist with a big online following — ended up drawing most of the outside attention.

Kat Abughazaleh, the former journalist who would have been the first Gen Z woman elected to Congress, was the only one who faced outside spending entirely in opposition. State Sen. Laura Fine benefited from more than $4.3 million in support from Elect Chicago Women, a new super PAC. The winner of the primary, Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, got more than half a million each from 314 Action Fund and the Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC.

Elect Chicago Women also spent more than $1.4 million opposing Biss.

The three other open House races with large candidate fields each saw between $8 and $9 million in total spending. The 2nd District led the way: The winner, Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller, was boosted by more than $4.3 million from an outside group called Affordable Chicago Now, which has yet to disclose its donors.

While some groups have clear ties to industries like cryptocurrency and AI, exactly who is behind some of the other big spenders remains a mystery. In addition to Affordable Chicago, Elect Chicago Women and Chicago Progressive Partnership haven’t yet disclosed their donors, meaning the source of all of this money will be unclear until the PACs filing deadlines pass later this month.

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Leah Askarinam and Pablo Barria Urenda contributed to this report.