A Democratic fight for an Illinois Senate seat is testing the sway of JB Pritzker, pro-crypto forces and anti-ICE messaging

By Arlette Saenz, Steve Contorno, CNN

Chicago (CNN) — The retirement of Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin after nearly 30 years in office sparked an expensive three-way Democratic primary that has showcased the party’s divisions over how to confront President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and introduced pro-crypto forces as an influence seeking to shape the midterm elections. The contest is also setting up a test of Gov. JB Pritzker’s political clout in the state as he eyes a potential 2028 presidential bid.

Whoever wins the Democratic nomination on Tuesday will be the heavy favorite in November to succeed the 81-year-old Durbin in a state where no Republican has won statewide in 12 years.

The field features an experienced slate of Illinois politicos — US Reps. Robin Kelly and Raja Krishnamoorthi and Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton. Each would bring some degree of generational change in replacing Durbin, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate.

After a face-off in Texas earlier this month, the Illinois race marks the second contentious primary for Democrats early in the midterms calendar, offering more clues about the direction of the party as it charts a path back to power in Congress and beyond. The Illinois contest on the Democratic side has drawn even more spending than the one in Lone Star State.

For Pritzker, who has exerted his political and financial influence to boost Stratton, the race is poised to serve as a gauge of his strength in his home state as he starts to look to an expected national campaign in 2028.

Pritzker’s involvement in the race has led to some tension within the Democratic Party. New York Rep. Yvette Clarke, who leads the influential Congressional Black Caucus, which has backed Kelly, accused Pritzker of an “effort to tip the scales” in the contest.

“A sitting governor shouldn’t be heavy-handing the race. Quite frankly, his behavior in this race won’t soon be forgotten by any of us,” Clarke said in a statement.

At a news conference after Clarke voiced her criticism, Pritzker said of Stratton, “I would like a Black woman to represent us in the United States Senate. I just want the best person. She happens to be a Black woman.”

“By the way, I think I’ve proven for many years now that I stand with communities of color across the state and with candidates who are running for public office,” he added.

If Kelly or Stratton were to win in November, it would mark the second time Illinois voters elected a Black woman to represent them in the US Senate. Former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley Braun in 1992 became the first Black woman ever elected to the chamber. Durbin has remained neutral in the race, while the state’s other senator — Democrat Tammy Duckworth — has endorsed Stratton.

Krishnamoorthi, who was born in New Delhi and immigrated with his family to the US as an infant, would become the first Indian American from the state to serve as senator.

Outside money pours in

Little public polling exists in the race, but Krishnamoorthi, 52, has held a substantial financial edge over his opponents, and his spending has fueled a surprisingly expensive contest.

“The level of spending is just ludicrous,” said Peter Giangreco, a veteran political operative in the state who is not working for any of the Senate candidates.

Krishnamoorthi has brought in more than $30 million for his bid, including $20 million transferred from his House campaign account, according to Federal Election Commission fillings. His campaign has accounted for roughly half of advertising spending in the Senate primary — $28.9 million out of more than $56 million — according to a CNN analysis of AdImpact data.

Stratton, 60, has raised more than $4 million, while Kelly, 69, brought in more than $3 million — though $2 million of that was transferred from her House campaign account. Each of their campaigns has spent around $1 million on ads.

Outside groups also have poured millions into the contest. Illinois Future PAC has spent $14 million to support Stratton and criticize Krishnamoorthi. Pritzker, a billionaire heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune, has personally given $5 million to the group. His cousin Jennifer Pritzker has donated another $1 million to the PAC.

Fairshake, a pro-crypto super PAC, is investing heavily across congressional races in Illinois, including the Democratic primary for Senate. The group ended January with $191 million cash on hand, according to FEC filings, signaling the influential role crypto-aligned groups could play across races this midterm cycle.

In the Illinois Senate race, the super PAC has spent more than $8 million on ads attacking Stratton, who has support from crypto regulation advocates like Pritzker and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. The governor signed a bill last year to regulate the state’s crypto industry.

Geoff Vetter, a spokesperson for Fairshake, told CNN the group declined to comment on the Illinois race but said it generally “supports pro-crypto candidates and opposes anti-crypto politicians.”

Stratton and her allies have pushed back on the crypto spending. “A Senate seat shouldn’t be for sale, but MAGA donors and crypto-lobbyists are trying to buy one,” intoned one ad from the Illinois Future PAC.

“I think there’s a lot of outside money, people outside the state, who are trying to push up other candidates, because they got some special interest,” Pritzker said. “The interest I’ve got is I need a fighter fighting for us in Washington. That’s Juliana.”

Krishnamoorthi has said the critiques coming from Stratton and her allies about outside spending are hypocritical.

“She’s the one who opened the gates to super PACs galore flooding Chicago airwaves,” Krishnamoorthi told CNN. “I don’t control any of them. I don’t speak for any of them. As you can tell, nobody is bankrolling my campaign. I’m doing all my own campaigning and fundraising.”

Kelly has seized on the Democratic infighting on the airwaves, releasing her own ad featuring her rivals’ attack ads, saying, “Oh, hell no! My opponents want to attack each other while we struggle to survive.”

“It’s time to focus on what really matters,” Kelly says in the ad as she pushes over a television set. “You.”

Giangreco expects all the advertising in the race hasn’t moved the needle much in recent weeks. That gives Krishnamoorthi the edge, he said, because he was first to make a move. Krishnamoorthi’s ads appeared on TV last summer — months before the rest of the field.

“The airwaves and everyone’s computer and mailbox are so overwhelmed by outside spending, it has essentially frozen the race,” Giangreco said. “You can’t turn the TV on for sure but even just opening your computer you get pounded. It’s hard to believe there’s a major shift.”

Immigration flashpoint

Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown, which included deploying ICE agents to Chicago last fall, also has emerged as a flashpoint in the race as the candidates work to convince voters they will put up the strongest fight against the administration’s actions.

Stratton has taken the most defiant stance against Trump’s moves, echoing long-standing progressive calls to abolish US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She also criticized Krishnamoorthi for accepting campaign donations connected to Palantir, a federal contractor assisting immigration enforcement.

Krishnamoorthi has countered he would “abolish Trump’s ICE” by banning the agents from wearing masks, forcing them to present identification and prohibiting warrantless arrests.

According to his campaign, Krishnamoorthi has since passed on the contributions, which came from Palantir’s chief technology officer, to immigrant rights groups.

Kelly has argued the federal border enforcement agencies cannot simply cease to exist, though she introduced legislation to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem before Trump announced earlier this month he was firing her.

The dynamics in Illinois mirror a debate playing out on Capitol Hill and in races nationwide as Democrats navigate the complex politics around immigration and border security. Voters have sided with Republicans on the issue in recent years, but Democrats are hoping to seize on the outrage over the president’s actions in upcoming elections.

Krishnamoorthi also has approached the issue from a personal perspective, often highlighting his own immigrant experience as he’s challenged Trump’s moves.

In an interview with CNN, Krishnamoorthi said ensuring the next generation of immigrants has the same opportunities as his family “animates my campaign.”

“I can’t but help to think when I see a video of somebody who’s snatched by ICE or [Customs and Border Protection] there, but for the grace of God, I could have been that person who was racially profiled because they were brown-skinned,” he said, adding electing someone with his background to the Senate would be a “rebuke to what Donald Trump is doing with DHS.”

Courting voters

In the final stretch of the campaign, the candidates spent a substantial portion of their time mining for support across the Chicagoland area, where the vast majority of the state’s Democratic voters reside.

Rep. Jim Clyburn, an influential South Carolina Democrat, headlined a fundraiser with Kelly a week before the election. Pritzker joined Stratton for several events in the days leading up to the election, and Warren campaigned with her in Chicago on Friday.

Warren argued Illinois will be a test case for whether crypto super PACs can shape the outcome of elections this cycle.

“This wouldn’t even be a close race if it weren’t for money pouring in on the other side — dark money, hidden money, money that disguises who it is and what the underlying message is all about,” Warren told CNN in an interview. “I worry about what that means, not just in any one race, but what it means for our democracy.

On the Thursday before the election, Krishnamoorthi and Stratton each campaigned in Chicago’s South Side, an area represented by Kelly that has a significant Black population.

As he greeted voters at a South Side polling location, signs of Krishnamoorthi’s advertising dominance could be found as shouts of “Raja!” greeted him as he spoke with early voters. Denise Williams, a 64-year-old poll worker, approached Krishnamoorthi asking for a photo, saying, “I just love your commercials.”

At a nearby Stratton event at a senior living facility, the local alderman, Michelle Harris, urged a room full of Black seniors to consider voting for Stratton, who is from the South Side, because “she is one of us.”

In an interview with CNN, Stratton said she hopes Tuesday’s primary will send a message to Democrats nationwide as they try to tap into voter frustration in their push to win back the House and Senate.

“I think a lot of the message of what we need to be thinking about is not something that’s developed in some room somewhere on a retreat,” Stratton told CNN. “It’s about talking to the people in communities and matching the energy that people are showing us when they get to the streets.”

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CNN’s Edward-Isaac Dovere and David Wright contributed to this report.