When Illinois Senator Dick Durbin announced he would not seek re-election last spring, it opened up a coveted seat that had not been open in three decades.
The Democratic primary this month, which will likely decide the overall winner of that senate seat in deep blue Illinois, has come down to three frontrunners: Congresswoman Robin Kelly (IL-02), Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL-08), and Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton.
Krishnamoorthi led in polls conducted in January by WGN and the independent group Victory Research with an average of 31.5 percent of respondents saying they supported his candidacy. Stratton averaged about 15.5 percent while Kelly was polling around 9.5 percent.
Candidates Steve Botsford, Sean Brown, Awisi Bustos, Jonathan Dean, Brian Maxwell, and Kevin Ryan are all polling under 2 percent.
Since President Donald Trump’s administration began targeting Chicago in his barrage of immigration raids over the last year, voters have pushed the senate candidates to declare their stance on immigration enforcement. The phrase “abolish ICE” has become the new “defund the police” this campaign cycle, a shorthand for measuring candidates’ progressive bona fides and willingness to get rid of the troubled Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Stratton has emerged as the only candidate to commit to abolishing ICE, while Krishnamoorthi and Kelly have pushed to reform the agency.
As the affordability crisis worsens, the three candidates have taken varied approaches to the fight for an increased minimum wage. Illinois’ minimum wage is $15 an hour, while Chicago’s minimum wage is $16.60. But the government has not raised the federal minimum wage, which stands at $7.25 an hour, since 2009. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders proposed a bill last year that would raise the federal minimum wage to $17 by 2030, which both Kelly and Krishnamoorthi support. Lt. Gov. Stratton, meanwhile, has called for a statewide $25-an-hour minimum wage.
Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi:
- First elected to Congress in 2016
- Born in New Delhi, India and raised in Peoria, Illinois
- Policy adviser for Barack Obama’s senate campaign
Healthcare and affordability: Krishnamoorthi is one of 169 Democrats who have cosponsored Sanders’ companion bill in the House to raise the minimum wage.
“I think that we have to balance two things,” Krishnamoorthi said in a February 19 debate on WGN. “On the one hand, we have to make sure that the minimum wage is raised. On the other hand, we have to make sure that small businesses are able to continue to hire to grow.”
Krishnamoorthi is not advocating a Medicare for All plan. Instead, he has pushed to expand Medicaid coverage and a public option available on the health insurance marketplace. He previously cosponsored Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal’s bill that proposed lowering Medicare eligibility from sixty-five to sixty. He has also proposed expanding the number of drugs subject to negotiation under Medicare, building on a provision included in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
Krishnamoorthi said he would vote to reverse Republicans’ cuts to Medicaid.
Would vote to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies that expired? Yes
ICE and immigration: On March 4, the day before Trump fired Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Krishnamoorthi moved to subpoena Noem to testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform about abuses by DHS, ICE, and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) under the Trump administration. House Republicans blocked the motion.
While Stratton has declared that she wants to “abolish ICE,” Krishnamoorthi has taken a more moderate stance, saying he wants to “abolish Trump’s ICE.” In a Jan. 29 debate on ABC7, he added that he wants to “revamp” CBP and DHS. He criticized Stratton’s suggestion to transfer ICE’s duties to CBP, noting that the federal agency employed Greg Bovino, as well as the two agents charged in the fatal shooting of Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti.
“I think that would be a grave mistake,” Krishnamoorthi said.
Krishnamoorthi has called for various reforms to ICE, including unmasking officers, requiring them to wear body cameras, ending warrantless arrests, installing an inspector general within the agency and requiring a third-party investigation into use-of-force incidents.
Foreign Policy: When asked whether he would vote in favor of Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib’s resolution declaring Israel’s actions against the Palestinian people as genocide, Krishnamoorthi demurred.
“I want to see the language,” Krishnamoorthi said during a February 19 debate on WGN. “But I need to be comforted right now that this type of resolution doesn’t get in the way of progress right now for Gazans.”
In the same debate, Krishnamoorthi did not swear off contributions from the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC.
Indian Prime Minister and Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi has enjoyed wide popularity among Hindus in the U.S. The congressman draws a large part of his donors from the Indian diaspora and has appeared alongside Modi several times, including the “Howdy, Modi” event with President Donald Trump in 2019. When Jayapal, the first South Asian American woman elected to the House of Representatives, circulated a letter in Congress urging Joe Biden to discuss human rights during his June 2023 meeting with Modi, Krishnamoorthi did not sign on.
Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton:
- Grew up in Calumet Heights
- Has represented the 5th District in the Illinois House since 2016
- Elected lieutenant governor alongside Governor JB Pritzker in 2018
Healthcare and affordability: Stratton has called to raise the federal minimum wage to $25 an hour. She’s hoping to take a page from the state of Illinois, which approved a six-year phase-in which was completed in 2025.
Her opponents have criticized her approach as unrealistic and have pointed to progressive senators like Sanders, who have proposed an incremental approach toward $17 an hour.
Stratton supports Medicare for All.
“I think right now, Americans should be heading to look at big, bold ideas and do whatever we can to get people the health care coverage that they need,” Stratton told IPM News. “I would support the Medicare for All bill. But what I could say is, there’s lots of different paths to getting there.”
Would vote to extend ACA subsidies? Yes
ICE and immigration: “I want to abolish ICE because this agency cannot be reformed,” Stratton said during a January 26 debate hosted by WBEZ, the Chicago Sun-Times and The University of Chicago Institute of Politics. “We are looking at what’s happening and it doesn’t matter whose ICE it is.”
Stratton added that she wants to investigate and prosecute ICE agents.
Foreign policy: On Israel, Stratton believes that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be removed from power and that the country should hold elections. However, when asked whether she would vote in favor of Tlaib’s resolution a genocide in Gaza, Stratton dodged the question. Stratton, like Krishnamoorthi, has not sworn off AIPAC contributions.
Congresswoman Robin Kelly:
- Born in New York and studied at Bradley University in Peoria
- Former chair of the Illinois Democratic Party before Pritzker threw support behind Illinois State Rep. Lisa Hernandez
- Elected to Il-02 in 2013 to replace former Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr.
Healthcare and affordability: Like Krishnamoorthi, Kelly supports phasing in a $17 per hour minimum wage by 2030.
“That’s what studies show is viable,” Kelly said during the ABC7 debate. “We have to be realistic about how much we want to raise it because of course we have to get 218 votes in the House and 60 votes in the Senate and even speaking with Bernie Sanders, he talks about $17 an hour because that is a realistic amount that wages can be raised.”
Last September, Kelly introduced an economic platform that touted a minimum tax on individuals who net more than $10 million a year. She would also push the Child Care for Working Families Act that would increase government support for childcare. However, the legislation has languished in Congress for nearly a decade.
Would vote to extend ACA subsidies? Yes.
ICE and Immigration: Kelly’s district includes the apartment building at 7500 S. South Shore that over 300 federal agents stormed during a massive immigration raid last October. In an interview with the Chicago Tribune later that month, Kelly compared the federal agents’ actions to “gestapo tactics.”
In January, Kelly introduced articles of impeachment against Noem after an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis. Krishnamoorthi was among the 187 Democratic cosponsors of the House resolution.
“But the whole Department of Homeland Security needs an overhaul. Yes, dismantle ICE, but also the Border Patrol, also the agency that looks over citizenships and asylum. All of it needs to be dismantled and rebuilt so people are not terrorized by their own governmental agency,” Kelly said during the ABC7 debate. “So I think we do need enforcement. There’s no question about that. But not the enforcement that we have now.”
Foreign policy: Kelly is one of sixty-two Democratic cosponsors to Illinois Rep. Delia Ramirez’ Block the Bombs Act, which would stop the president from selling, transferring or exporting arms to Israel. She has also called Israel’s actions against Palestinians a genocide.
“It may not have started out that way, but I believe that’s what it has turned into,” Kelly said of the situation in Gaza.
Though Kelly has come out strongly against Israel on the campaign trail and promised not to accept AIPAC contributions, she has previously accepted money from the pro-Israel lobbying group.