Illinois 2026 Primary Election Day: Here are 5 things to watch as voters head to the polls

CHICAGO - Primary Election Day is here in Illinois.

Today is the culmination of months of campaigning, political ads, voter canvassing, and heated debates, at least until the fall.

Fox Chicago will have you covered all day with the latest results for key races at the federal, state, and local levels.

As the polls close at 7 p.m. in Illinois, Fox Chicago will have election coverage on WPWR, FoxChicago.com, and the FOX LOCAL app until 10 p.m.

As we wait for results, here is a breakdown of five key things to keep an eye on, from voter turnout, to the future of the Democratic Party.

A new generation

Amid the heavy focus on the political reaction to President Trump’s second-term policies and the ideological and stylistic differences within the Democratic Party, the 2026 midterm cycle in Illinois might be best remembered for the generational shift in the congressional delegation.

Sen. Dick Durbin, 81, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, 81, and Rep. Danny Davis, 84, all declined to run for another term in their respective seats. Their retirements opened the door for rare wide-open primary contests. It should be noted that all these retiring members are Democrats and it’s widely expected that whoever wins the Democratic primary contests will win the general election in November.

While each lawmaker has their own reasons to retire, it’s hard to fully disentangle their decisions from that of President Joe Biden in 2024, who only belatedly dropped his re-election bid after a disastrous debate performance. The then-81-year-old’s obvious signs of aging and cognitive decline were often cited as a main concern among voters seeking younger representation in Congress.

Regardless of who wins in the Democratic primary races, the average age of members of the Illinois delegation (61 years old), will almost certainly drop. Rep. Bill Foster will likely be the oldest remaining member starting in 2027 at age 70. Younger members have also joined their ranks in recent cycles, like Rep. Delia Ramirez (42), Rep. Nikki Budzinski (48), and Rep. Lauren Underwood (39), who is the state’s youngest member of Congress as of this year.

Pritzker set up for 2028?

There isn’t so much speculation as there is flat-out expectation that Gov. JB Pritzker will be a top contender for the Democratic nomination for president in 2028. He’s been making more appearances across the nation, including in early primary states, and on national media outlets where he’s pitched his policies in Illinois and stances against the Trump administration as successes.

His support of his lieutenant governor, Juliana Stratton, in the open U.S. Senate race is also widely seen as a potential sign of his influence in state politics. (Interestingly, U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, who is also running for that Senate seat, has also run against a Pritzker-endorsed candidate to lead the Democratic Party of Illinois a few years back.)

Stratton has trailed U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi in most polls, but appears to have closed much of the gap in recent weeks as late-deciding voters engage and make their choices. If she can pull out a win, that could serve as a big boon for Pritzker’s image.

For those watching with anticipation for 2028, we usually see a lot of movement in the first months of the new year after a midterm election. In other words, expect the big candidates for president to announce their candidacies, or at least serious interest in running, in the first half of 2027.

Change of the guard in Cook County?

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle has been a constant figure in Chicago politics since the 1980s, served on the Chicago City Council for two decades, and has led county government since 2010.

During that time, she’s accumulated a long record of pushing for progressive policies, overseen the improvement of county government finances, and helped elevate the candidacies of Barack Obama and Brandon Johnson.

But it’s that long record which Ald. Brendan Reilly is challenging, arguing for a changing of the guard. Reilly, has served on the Chicago City Council for nearly two decades. He’s focused his attacks on a growing county budget and high-profile instances of violence in Chicago, pointing fingers, at least in part, to county policies.

Even incumbent County Assessor Fritz Kaegi is facing a primary challenge from Pay Hynes, the Lyons Township assessor. Both candidates agree that property taxes have become untenable for so many residents, but any solutions out of one office will likely only have a limited effect on a complex system.

Will the anti-incumbency wave seen in 2024 extend to Cook County in 2026? We may very well find out Tuesday night.

Direction of the Democratic Party

It could probably be considered a cliché by this point to frame the Democratic primary races as a competition between the party’s progressive left faction and the more moderate, centrist side. But such a cliché may still apply in multiple races in this cycle, though perhaps more in terms of style than substance.

Both Daniel Biss and Kat Abughazaleh have sold themselves to voters as progressive fighters ready to take on the Trump administration, expand health care, combat climate change, and alter course on foreign policy, especially as it relates to U.S. support of Israel. 

Both have denounced AIPAC’s involvement in their primary race, but have spent more time debating issues like whether to call Israel’s campaign in Gaza a genocide. Last year, a United Nations commission determined Israel had indeed committed genocide.

A similar dynamic has played out over several debates among the top contenders for the open U.S. Senate seat, as Stratton has tried to position herself as the progressive fighter in the race. She’s often said she’s the only candidate to not accept "corporate PAC" money, although big money interests have infused millions of dollars into that race. Krishnamoorthi has taken a more measured approach, notably saying he would support abolishing "Trump’s ICE," which is a slight difference from the widely used refrain "abolish ICE."

While President Trump’s poll numbers have him with about a 41% approval rating, according to YouGov, the Democratic Party as a whole is only at around 33.9%. One could imagine the political hangover of an unpopular Biden administration is top of mind for candidates looking ahead to general election contests in November. But more progressive candidates have argued that what the party’s base wants are more fighters in elected office.

A recent NBC News poll found that about 56% of Democratic primary voters prefer a candidate who comes closer to their views on issues, compared to 42% who prefer the candidate with the best chance to win in a general election. By contrast, Republicans in that poll were much more likely to prefer a candidate with whom they agree ideologically (70% to 27%).

Tuesday’s election results could shed more light on which direction the Democrats might conclude is a winning argument in elections to come.

(Relatively) high turnout

Mid-term elections are typically much lower turnout affairs than presidential elections.

It’s only one data point, but a potentially positive sign for Democrats is the very high turnout so far during early voting in Chicago ahead of Election Day.

As of Monday, more than 188,000 early vote ballots had been cast in the city, according to the Chicago Board of Elections.

By comparison, at the same point in the 2022 cycle, two days before Election Day, there were more than 115,000 votes cast. At the same point in 2018, the last time Trump was in office, about 131,000 votes had been cast in Chicago.

The final vote total won’t be tabulated until two weeks after Election Day, but we should have a good idea on Tuesday night if that higher turnout trend holds for this year’s cycle, at least for the primary.

2026 Midterm ElectionsIllinois PoliticsJ.B. PritzkerToni PreckwinkleNewsIllinois