Primary Election Day Preview 2026

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Well, Jeff, here we are. Another primary election day upon us. It's Tuesday, St. Patrick's Day. And it follows a usual pattern where the primary seems like some distant date off in the future. And then all of a sudden we're here and we're in the home stretch and we're talking about Election Day as Tuesday and not some mythical thing many months down the road. It is funny how it sneaks up on us, right? I haven't even had chance to do my like 80s movie montage getting ready training scene yet. You know, or I'm like where, you know, my husband's throwing flash cards. at me. Seventh District, oh, Melissa Conier, you know, I haven't had a chance to do any of that yet. That's the second half of this program, Jeff. Good. Excellent, excellent. You can wing it. In your observation, though, in covering a lot of the campaigns, what are some of the through lines in all the races, whether it's the race for governor, the race for U.S. Senate, Congress, Cook County offices? Is it left versus center? Is it center versus right? Or is it old versus young? Boy, there's a lot of that last part. There is a sense in a number of these races, particularly the Washington-focused races, the U.S. Senate and the congressional races. that there is a changing of the guard here a little bit. I mean, Dick Durbin has been in Congress between the House and the Senate for decades. Jan Schakowski was elected to Congress in the late 90s. Danny Davis has been in Congress. Oh, my gosh. Well, he's the dean of the congressional delegation. He's been in Congress. I think since the 80s, I can't, I'm blanking on when he was first elected, but I think it was the mid-80s. And he was on the city council before that. Before that, exactly. And so what you're seeing is the kind of generational shift in politics that we haven't seen here in a really long time. And in some cases, it's bringing some new campaigning styles into what had been really established. races. I'm thinking here particularly of the ninth congressional district, which the two of the leading candidates are pretty established legislators and elected leaders, Daniel Biss, the mayor of Evanston and former state lawmaker, and Laura Fine, the state senator. And into that fray jumps Kat Abu Ghazale, the social media influencer, who moved to the area specifically to run for Congress and whose... campaign strategy seems to be, I'm going to be the one who's going to flip off Donald Trump.

There's no, you know, her whole appeal is, you know, I'm going to be the left's version of Marjorie Taylor Greene, I guess. That she's just going to be a flamethrower. It's not really about local issues. It's not really about the stuff that, you know, we've traditionally talked about when we talk about local elections. It's just, I'm going to focus on being the person in President Trump's face. And she also jumped into that race when Jan Shikowski was thinking about running for. another term. And you talk about the people who have been in that congressional seat. Only two people have been represented the 9th District of Illinois since the end of World War II. With the exception of one term in the early 60s, it was Jan Shikowsky or Sid Yates. And into that jumps Kat Abugazale. And her appeal, as you point out, is... I'm young. I'm online. And that is both praise and criticism, depending on where you fall on where you fall politically, where you see the issue environment, and whether you enjoy staring at your phone all day. Yeah. And her candidacy also brings up another one of the interesting throughlines in this Democratic primary season. And that is the change and the shift in how Democrats regard the nation of Israel. And I don't mean specifically Jewish people, but I mean specifically actions of the Israeli government, in particular the way they've handled things in the Middle East post October 7, 2023, and more recently in the current military action with the U.S. against Iran. One could ordinarily have predicted that mainstream Democrats would sort of be in lockstep with the Israeli government, particularly in a district like the 9th district, which has such well-established Jewish enclaves in Skokie and in Rogers Park on the north side. But the increase in influence among members of the Arab community and Palestinians have really changed the conversation in the Democratic Party, particularly among progressives, about how to handle Israel. And you see that in the way that... contributions from the American Israel Political Action Committee and its shadow organizations, elect Chicago women is one of them, have become an issue in this race. Who's taking money from APEC? Who's getting money from the supporters of Israel? That has become an issue, and I didn't know that that would ever happen in any congressional race, particularly a race involving such a stalwart blue district. And one, as I see. with a very well-documented Jewish population. That's also interesting you bring up a lot of the campaign finance questions that have been circling around. A lot of these commercials that you see on TV are here on the radio where they have one name and one stated goal, but they could be funded by APEC. They could be funded by cryptocurrency interest. They could be funded by artificial intelligence interests. They could be funded by...

industries that are trying to either play spoiler or split the field or find some way to get their candidate through in a lot of these congressional district races, very crowded fields. Indeed. More than a week ago, a little more than a week ago, I spoke with my predecessor, our dear friend Craig Delamore, about this very thing. And it is, as he pointed out, a legacy of Citizens United, the 2010 Supreme Court decision that ruled that political contributions are tantamount to free speech. Now, billionaires get to talk a lot more than regular people, and that's why they have this mechanism, the Super PAC, to do it. You bring up the crypto thing, which is really interesting. A few weeks ago, we were on the West Side with LaShawn Ford, the state lawmaker and candidate for the 7th Congressional District. He's been endorsed by Danny Davis, the sonorous incumbent in that position, and was coming out against ads placed by the... Pro Crypto Group called Fair Shake, which took... Representative Ford would argue out of context, some details from his legal history. He'd been charged with some financial crimes. Virtually all those charges were dropped by the time the thing got to trial. And yet it's, you know, the whole, you know, ripped from the headlines black and wide. What do we really know about LaShawn Ford kind of thing? And the reason that Fairshake is going after LaShawn Ford is because he voted in favor of regulations on the crypto industry. I mean, they don't particularly have a dog in this fight, but they know who they don't want to win, and that's LaShawn Ford. And you're seeing that and their kind of subsidiaries acting in a lot of these races. And in the seventh, particularly, Melissa Conyers-Urvin has been the beneficiary of ads from APAC-affiliated groups. I think in the second, Jesse Jackson Jr. has gotten some assistance from APAC. and APEC kinds of groups. And so, yeah, that this, in this race, in this cycle, who's donating the money and who's getting it has become a very big deal and a very big issue that runs through a lot of these races. Let's run it back to 11 o'clock p.m. on Election Day in 2024. as we were all getting off the air and we knew that Donald Trump was heading back to the White House. And then there were months of think pieces and essays and people trying to stake out positions as being ahead of the game as to where Democrats need to go in subsequent election cycles. And now we're starting to see the contours of what the issues are and what candidates are using against the Trump administration. Immigration enforcement definitely at the top of the list. Foreign policy definitely at the top of the list. And affordability at the top of the list for many candidates. And how is that showing up on the campaign trail? This week, I spoke with Robin Kelly, who is one of the main candidates in the Democratic Senate primary. She's running against the lieutenant governor Juliana Stratton, her congressional colleague from the northwest suburbs, Raja Christian-Murthy. And there are seven other...

He has, he and his family and extended family. The days are longer. The calendar is filling up, and I want to feel as good as this beautiful summer weather. That's why I've been loving grooms. It's one daily pack of gummies that covers my greens, vitamins, minerals, and even has six grams of prebiotic fiber. So I don't need to juggle a complicated wellness routine on top of everything else. They taste amazing. They're easy to toss my bag on the go. Plus, they're vegan, gluten-free, and HSA-FSA eligible for reimbursement. Save up to 52% off. with code podcast at grooms.co that's code podcast at g r un s dot co when equipment breaks down and operations come to a halt every single second counts so why is your maintenance team spending 60% of their time doing anything but turning wrenches MaintainX is the AI-powered maintenance and asset management system that helps your team get back to actually fixing breakdowns. No more searching for manuals, no more hunting down parts, no more drowning in paperwork. With MaintainX, your team can access manuals from anywhere, create new procedures and minutes, and turn voice notes into clear and complete work order feedback. What used to take hours now only takes minutes. Keep your operations moving and your wrench is turning. Join over 13,000 maintenance teams that are already fixing more and filing less. Try MaintainX for free today. Go to MaintainX.com slash AI. That's Maintain in the letter X.com slash AI. The GLP1 pill you've been waiting for is now on row. Yep, it's finally here with the same clinically proven ingredient. Now in a pill. And now. on row. It's the first FDA approved GLP1 pill for weight loss. At the lowest price available, that's one daily GLP1 pill for big results. Now on row. Go to row.co slash listen to see if you qualify. RX only go to row.co slash safety for serious side effects and boxed warning associated with GLP1s. We have had... just crushing amount of heartbreak off away from politics. Of course, his son, his daughter-in-law, two of his grandchildren were killed in that helicopter crash in Montana last fall. And we just got word this week that his, that. His grandson, Finn, who was the surviving member of that family, his grandson's maternal grandfather died of complications from cancer. So he stepped away from the campaign and issued a statement saying it's been a really hard few months for Finn. We need to be with him. So Aaron Del Mar, who's his lieutenant governor candidate, is taking the ball for a few days of this campaign. And I... And I certainly don't know. And I saw Darren Bailey a few weeks ago when he was doing a get out the vote campaign in Oswego. And we had an opportunity to speak. And I, you know, my heart goes out to the Bailey family. I cannot imagine how much lost one family can possibly bear. But clearly, the fact that he feels as though he's able to take time away from the campaign suggests.

maybe something about where he is, you know, obviously where his priorities are and should be. But he is indeed in a position based on name recognition alone, I think. to win the nomination here for a second time in a row. He is running against James Mendrick, the sheriff of DuPage County, Rick Heidner, the real estate developer, and video poker machine magnate, and Ted de Browsky, who is the founder of Wirepoints, the public policy research firm and the former functionary for the conservative Illinois Policy Institute. One thing I read this week was that a lot of your corporate slash Republican donors who were a big factor in the 2022 race are staying out of this one largely. Ted de Browski's been getting, um, contributions from Richard Uline, the head of the Uline office supplies company, who's a very big Republican donor. Four years ago, Uline was donating to Bailey. This time around, he's with Debrowski. But a lot of the money is staying out of the race, I suspect, so that they will wait to see what happens in the primary and whether Senator Bailey can mount a substantial challenge to J.B. Pritzker. You mentioned... J.B. Pritzker's king making abilities here, and that is seen in the race for U.S. Senate, where the state's lieutenant governor, Juliana Stratton, is running. We've talked about a little bit about her, but she is running with his endorsement and with his Super PAC's assistance to the tune of a $5 million ad buy supporting her and her campaign. That level of advocacy brought the Congressional Black Caucus out a week ago. The caucus has endorsed Robin Kelly in that race. The head of the congressional black caucus described the governor's involvement in this race as heavy handing. That was their term. And suggested kind of ominously that the members of the black caucus aren't going to forget how this went down. Clearly. Whether J.B. Pritzker runs for another office, a higher office, will be determined by a number of factors. But one of them will be if his lieutenant governor can win the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate after trailing most of the campaign to Raja Krishnamorthy and his crushing campaign war chest. How many people in Washington will be watching on Tuesday night to see if J.B. Pritzker's war chest is able to propel his lieutenant governor into the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate? And as you mentioned with the Congressional Black Caucus saying, we're watching. All of that is going to factor into delegate math, assuming.

J.B. Pritzker runs for president in 2028. Yeah, and I think that's a pretty safe assumption at this point for a number of reasons. The state Democratic Party, which he controls. has asked the Democratic National Committee to move the 28 primary from March to February. And the last time they did that was when Barack Obama was running for president. I remember being in the basement of the Hyatt Regency in February of 2008, trying to get a cell signal out in the early days of smartphones. Yeah, can't be done. Still can't be done. They've also, of course, famously asked the Democratic National Committee to... to, for a chance to host the DNC again in 28 and 32. Obviously, if the governor of Illinois is going to be on the presidential ticket, running it back in Chicago would be a very big deal. And you've seen other kind of moments. And I think we've talked about them on this program before when you've been kind enough to have me on, where the governor and his people are clearly trying to set the table for a national campaign. I think a lot of people are going to be watching, watching that, watching the results of the Senate primary in what is really a safe Democratic seat. Whoever wins the Democratic primary. will probably be the next U.S. Senator from Illinois. That's going to be one of the factors they'll watch. The other factor they're going to watch is what J.B. Pritzker's margin of victory will be if indeed he wins over whatever his Republican opponent is. I think Darren Bailey got 44%, 43, 44% in 2022. If J.B. Pritzker does better than that, then that'll also be a really key indicator for the Democratic... policymakers. And before you get too far into the weeds on what margin is good enough, you also have to look at the national environment. And have you heard anything from Republicans who are running for statewide office or for Congress or maybe Senate saying that it's just not shaping up to be their year, just looking at special election results across the country and the generic ballot polls that just show. the Democratic lead going from D plus 2 to D plus 4 to D plus 8? You know, I will say that the indicator for that may not be in what candidates and other politicos will say, but it's in what they do. We talked about this a little bit. The fact that in the Republican primary for governor, a lot of the big money is staying away. And that is probably the biggest indicator that a lot of people who traditionally will help fund Republican campaigns may believe that throwing more money at the GOP in Illinois at this moment.

may not be the right play. They may also be, you know, saving their powder for 28. Although, you know, 20, we said that the March primary felt like a long way away until it wasn't. 2028 seems like a long way away and it won't be either. So, you know, and obviously a lot can happen between now and November. in terms of the viability of any particular candidate or party. So, I mean, we'll have to see. And we also have to point out that four years ago around this time, Joe Biden and the Democrats looked poised to be completely wiped out in the 2022 midterms. And that didn't happen. So even though the polling may suggest. a certain outcome may be inevitable. People still need to vote. And right now, voters are voting. And based on some of the indications we've seen about turnout, they are doing so at a greater level than they did in 2022 or 2018. Yeah, I would be cautious about how to interpret that. Because I think when you talk to election clerks, and I've talked to Max Beaver a few times in this cycle, and we'll talk to him again Tuesday night. and others. What we are finding is that 2020, the pandemic, changed how everybody votes. All of the sort of traditional models about when people vote and how kind of went out the window. You see big chunks of people pulling mail ballots and voting prior to the actual election day. What that... appears to indicate is that those voters would have voted anyway on election day. That demand, if you will, is permanently pulled forward. That it, it, when you, when we actually look at the election day turnout, I think what we're going to see is that it's pretty flat. It's just a matter of when people are voting and how. Let's talk about some of the countywide offices. We do have some action in the race for Cook County Board President, Brendan Riley, the downtown alderman versus Tony Preckwinkle, who is the head of the Cook County Democratic Party and also has been in the job for 16 years. And. Does she appear to be in danger of losing that job? And how are the various interest groups who make or break elections? How are they lining up in this race? This is an interesting race. The short answer is I believe Tony Preckwinkle is going to win this, but I think it's going to be close. Mr. Riley, who has been in the Chicago City Council for years and, in fact, succeeded the great Burton of Terrace. a long time downtown alderman. Quote machine, too. Quote machine, my gosh, man. May he rest in peace. He's really something. But Riley has been in that spot for a long time and has lined up a fair amount of support in his attempt to unseat Tony Preckwinkle, who, you point out, has been the head of the county board for 16 years and was a city council member for a long time before that.

She is a fixture in Cook County politics. And she even... As she, even as you count up the number of years she's been doing this, and it's a lot, she is still a formidable force in politics. And I think that while Riley's campaign has been super energetic, he was on the air first, I think. He was on the air. Interestingly, he was on the air, his first ad on television was an ad talking about his support for a woman's right to choose. which was interesting in that it attempted, I think, to cast him. He is often viewed at city council as being one of the more conservative alders. And this ad was an attempt to sort of define him as being, no, I'm a Democrat. just like you all, and has since gone in on spending in the county this ongoing four-alarm dumpster fire involving Tyler Technologies, this company that the county hired a decade ago to integrate the computer systems at the assessor's office, the treasurer's office, and the clerk's office. which has been nothing but heartache for the last three years or more. Riley has been really trying to hammer the board president on that. He's getting a little bit of company from Maria Pappas, the always colorful county treasurer. But I suspect that she's going to end up winning, but I think it's going to be really, really close. And that dovetails nicely to her discussion about the race for Cook County Assessor. No, it's not Steven Spielberg. It's the incumbent Fritz Kagey versus a familiar name, Pat Heinz, a longtime name in Chicago and Cook County Politics. Indeed, the Lyons township assessor. And his, Mr. Jim Himes' uncle was the state comptroller, I think, back in the day. And, of course, no, his cousin, his cousin was state controller. And his uncle was, yeah, a long time, was the former assessor of Cook County back in there. Tom Jim Himes and Dan Jim Himes. Yes, exactly. And. And the Tyler Technologies thing, the property tax issue that we've been talking about is a major issue in this race. And people getting walloped by very large bills at the end of last year. Treasurer Pappas and I talked about this last fall and her people, including legendary Tribune investigative reporter Haldarduk, who now works in her office, did this whole breakdown of...

of how much property tax assessments were going up in a lot of these neighborhoods on the south and southwest sides. It's crazy. I mean, the sticker shock is unbelievable. And on top of the fact that local units of government were late in getting money. the property tax revenue from all of those assessed properties, which forced some organizations to have to take out bridge loans, some lost, like had their credit downgraded, like it's been a mess all the way around. Property taxes is an easy target. in this county, particularly now. And because Fritz Kegi is the incumbent in this race, he's drawing a lot of the fire. Kegi has said, look, it's not me. It's these rich property owners who are who can pay these attorneys to go in and get their property tax assessments lowered through the board of review. I'm trying to carve out, you know, exemptions for seniors and I'm doing this and I'm doing that. And Heinz argument is we just need to assess property the way the law tells us to and that will be, and that will improve everything. As we wrap things up, what will you be watching on Tuesday night? Well, I think the race that I will be watching most closely will be, I'll be watching two. The first race will be the U.S. Senate race for the reasons we've talked about. The J.B. Pritzker Coat-Tale storyline is interesting. And it'll also be interesting to see to what extent Robin Kelly is a spoiler here. She, as we mentioned, has been endorsed by the Congressional Black Caucus. She was the chairperson of the Democratic Party of Illinois, not that long ago in the post-Madigan era, and was replaced after 14 months ousted, actually, by the current head of the Democratic Party of Illinois, who is aligned with J.B. Pritzker. So this in a way is a rematch. The other race I will be watching is the second congressional district, which is Robin Kelly's old seat in the south side and the south suburbs. The leading candidate won Jesse Jackson Jr. who has been in the news. recently. And once you cast your vote, you can hear the results on Tuesday night. Our election coverage starts when the polls close at 7. I'll be joined by Jeff Buckholes and legendary political reporter Mike Flannery, along with the team of correspondence at campaign headquarters across the city. You can hear it all on News Radio 1059, WBBMNewsradio.com, and the Odyssey app.

And then join us next week on At Issue as we recap the primary results and look ahead to the general election in November. Until then, I'm Rob Hart. News Radio 105.9 WBBM. When equipment breaks down and operations come to a halt, every single second counts. So why is your maintenance team spending 60% of their time doing anything but turning wrenches? MaintainX is the AI-powered maintenance and asset management system that helps your team get back to actually fixing breakdowns. No more searching for manuals, no more hunting down parts, no more drowning in paperwork. With MaintainX, your team can access manuals from anywhere, create new procedures and minutes, and turn voice notes into clear and complete work order feedback. What used to take hours now only takes minutes. Keep your operations moving and your wrench is turning. Join over 13,000 maintenance teams that are already fixing more and filing less. Try MaintainX for free today. Go to MaintainX.com slash AI. That's Maintain in the letter X.com slash AI. Presented by T-Mobile, the official wireless partner of Odyssey Sports. With an awesome network and great savings, there's never been a better time to join T-Mobile. Visit your neighborhood store to make the switch today. Diamond Dynasty has all new Red Diamond cards and World Baseball Classic content in MLB the Show 26. Collect your favorites and compete against the best. MLB the Show 26 is available now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series XS, and Nintendo Switch. Rated E for everyone. Officially licensed by MLB Players Inc.

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