In a historic win, Gov. JB Pritzker won a third term Tuesday, Nov. 3, giving him another four years as Illinois governor.

Pritzker is the only Democratic governor in Illinois to be elected three times: in 2018, 2022 and 2026.

In the Aon Grand Ballroom at Navy Pier, a crowd of over 1,000 onlookers came to support Pritzker at his election night watch party and listen to Pritzker and Christian Mitchell, the first Black male lieutenant governor.

As he began, he was interrupted by a crowd chanting his name. 

“I am so proud to be governor of Illinois,” he told supporters. “I love this batch of prairie island. This union state that built railroads. The state that spawned skyscrapers, that split the atom,” said Pritzker, who has repeatedly sparred with President Donald Trump. “I love that the people here never once fell into the trap of succumbing to the wiles of a petty tyrant, but instead, we’ve recommitted ourselves to the noble precept that democracy and freedom go hand in hand.”

Illinois is one of 13 states that do not have term limits for governors. Each term lasts four years, but a governor can serve an unlimited number of consecutive or non-consecutive terms. 

The Associated Press called the race shortly after the polls closed at 7 p.m. With 66% of the votes counted at 9:40 p.m., Pritzker had 59.5% of the vote. Republican candidate Darren Bailey had 37.3%. 

Pritzker campaigned on the promise that he would continue to aid the citizens of Illinois, with the slogan “keep Illinois moving forward.”

“I’m going to ask you to continue to hope. To wrap yourself in hope,” Pritzker said.

Pritzker and Bailey fought for the governor’s seat in the 2022 election. Pritzker beat Bailey by almost 13% points.

All candidates had affordability as a primary focus in their campaigns.

Mitchell praised Pritzker’s efforts and thanked the voters of Illinois for electing him. He recounted his family’s hardships and spoke of his grandfather, who served as an army sergeant in Korea. 

“He used to tell me, ‘Boy, America ain’t perfect, but it’s the best we got, and it’s worth fighting to make it better.’
 I’ve been trying to follow their example ever since,” Mitchell said. “That we can be optimistic about a brighter future by believing that it’s possible, and then dedicating ourselves to making that future a reality.”

Mariel Awoniyi recently moved to Illinois from Alabama to study at Andrews University. He came to the watch party hoping to see a win for Mitchell. 

“I wanted to come down to the watch party because I believed that the first Black lieutenant governor would be in office, and it was such a joy and a beauty as a young Black man in America to see such a momentous occasion,” Awoniyi said.

Earlier in the day, voters offered a range of reasons for their choices, including concerns about the direction of national politics.

Stephen McCarthy, an EMT who lives in the Albany Park neighborhood, voted for Pritzker— not because of his policies, but because of his lack of trust in the current administration.

“I don’t really trust Republicans at this point in time, especially with how they’re behaving with Donald Trump,” McCarthy said.

Kenton Thivaut recently moved to the Southport Corridor and said he appreciated the governor for standing up to the Trump administration.

“He is one of the few Democrats that, I think, has a spine in this moment, standing up to fascism and calling out the MAGA movement for what it is,” Thivaut said. “I appreciate that he’s holding to Democratic values at the same time. I appreciate that combination of having a spine and leading with really sound, good policy at the same time.”

Elizabeth Strzelczyk, a software engineer who lives in the Lake View neighborhood, said Pritzker “fights for the little guy.”

“He speaks to the common person. When you hear him talk you understand him, you know where he’s coming from,” Strzelczyk said. “When I hear him talk, I hear myself in his speeches. I hear him talk about my friends, I hear him talk about my family.”

As Pritzker spoke, he reflected on the wave of Democratic wins in the midterm elections. Shortly after 9 p.m., NBC News projected that Democrats would take the House.

“The early results across the country are resuscitating a strange feeling inside of me,” Pritzker said. “It’s a feeling of hope. Because it looks like maybe, just maybe, something is stirring in the conscious of America.”

Additional reporting by Serenity Burgos and Samantha Mosquera

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Democrat La Shawn Ford won Illinois’ 7th Congressional District seat Tuesday, Nov. 3, defeating Republican Chad Koppie and succeeding longtime U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, who announced his retirement in 2025 after nearly 30 years in Congress.

The Associated Press called the race for Ford at 7:54 p.m. As of 9:07p.m., 57% of the votes were counted with Ford holding 88.7% and Koppie holding 11.3%. 

The 7th District covers a large portion of Cook County, including parts of Broadview, Bellwood, Chicago, Forest Park, Hillside, Oak Park, La Grange Park, Maywood, River Forest, Berkeley and Westchester. 

“Our campaign was for real people looking for real solutions,” Ford told supporters at a party in the Washington Park neighborhood. “The homeless, the unemployed, the underemployed, everyone who is struggling to get by. I see you and I’m fighting for you. This room reflects what the 7th Congressional District looks like. And tonight, the 7th District has spoken.” 

Ford has been an Illinois House representative since 2007 for the 8th District. The 8th District covers parts of Cook, DuPage and Kane counties. 

“Tonight, we celebrate what we earn. But tomorrow the celebration comes with a commitment. When I raise my right hand in January, I’ll take the oath not to a party, but to you,” Ford said. 

He campaigned on protecting homeowners and creating more affordable housing, promoting small businesses and combating gun violence. As an Illinois representative, he helped establish the Firearm Public Awareness Task Force, which analyzes gun safety data in Illinois and recommends safety suggestions to the General Assembly. 

Davis, who endorsed Ford as his successor, also attended the celebration.

“Our guy in Washington, the guy we all support, and we love what he means,” said Davis, who had endorsed Ford.

Jerry Warren, a veteran who attended Ford’s watch party, told the Chronicle that he hopes Ford will follow in Davis’ footsteps and “does an even better job.”

 “I’d like him to pay more attention to the veterans,” Warren said. “We have too many homeless veterans in the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago.” 

Ford invited a number of organizations that support the unhoused to speak at his watch party. 

“I hope to see brother La Shawn, soon to be Congressman Ford, ensure that there is always a safe haven for the individuals that I take care of,” said Dr. Shelia Martin, a clinical director at the nonprofit Wholistic Alliance. “I manage more than 300 people at any given time that are unhoused. Some of them are unhoused for no good reason.”

However, Martin said she knows the transition will not be seamless. 

“But I know that anytime you have the community at heart, you have the people you serve at heart,” Martin said.

Aaron Harty, an attorney from Logan Square, had been paying attention to the 7th District race. He had concerns about budgeting within Chicago.

“Money that Chicago brings in, that isn’t necessarily staying to help the school districts,” Harty said. 

Ford campaigned for a public high school in Austin, Illinois, and for a bill to build a new high school at the site of the closed Emmet School, at Madison Street and Central Avenue on the West Side.

Mayor Brandon Johnson congratulated Ford, saying his election sent a strong message to President Donald Trump, which played out across congressional districts around the country on Tuesday.

“We are sending a strong message to Donald Trump and the Republicans and to extremism that the working class in this country, we are taking this country back,” Johnson said. 

Additional reporting by Zadyn Higgins.

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Democrat Juliana Stratton won Illinois’ open U.S. Senate seat Tuesday, becoming the sixth Black woman to serve in the chamber and the second Black woman elected to represent Illinois, following Carol Moseley Braun.

“Democracy isn’t something that we sit back and watch,” Stratton told supporters on Tuesday night, Nov. 3, about an hour after the polls closed. “It’s something we build, brick by brick, conversation by conversation, neighbor by neighbor.”

Stratton, Illinois lieutenant governor, will join Sens. Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland and Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware in the chamber, bringing the number of Black women serving simultaneously in the Senate to three, a historic first. 

She will succeed longtime Sen. Dick Durbin, who announced his retirement in April 2025. Stratton beat U.S. Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi and Robin Kelly in the March primary. She defeated Republican Don Tracy, a former chairman of the Illinois Republican Party, on Tuesday.

The Associated Press called the race less than a minute after the polls closed at 7 p.m. As of 9:04 p.m., with 47% of votes counted, Stratton had won about 63%. Tracy had 35.5%.

As Stratton came on stage, hundreds who filled Bridgeport’s Ramova Theatre cheered and chanted her nickname “Julie.”

“We are united in our struggles, and we can be united in our solutions too,” Stratton said. “And when I’m voting in the Senate, it will be on behalf of all 12.8 million Illinoisans who I have been given the privilege of representing.”

Nikki Bravo, from Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood, said she was excited for the win.

“It’s amazing to see not just a woman of color, but a woman of substance,” Bravo said. “A woman who is very accomplished, who has done so much and I think it’s great for everybody to see.”

Stratton campaigned on an economic agenda focused on making life more affordable for working- and middle-class families and expanding economic opportunities. Her priorities include raising the federal minimum wage to $25 an hour, establishing Medicare for All and providing a middle-class tax cut. On civil rights and immigration, she supports restoring the abortion protections established under Roe v. Wade, abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and strengthening federal gun safety laws. 

“Juliana represents tomorrow,” said Illinois Sen. Mary Edly-Allen during an interview with the Chronicle. “She is a fighter and that’s what we need in the federal government.” 

Stratton previously served in the Illinois House of Representatives for the 5th District, defeating incumbent Kenneth Dunkin in 2016. She is currently Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s lieutenant governor. Pritzker won his third term on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, voters talked about what they were looking for in the new senator. 

Joe Ramirez, who has lived in Pilsen for 57 years, said he wanted leaders to support affordable housing and encourage younger generations to vote. 

“If you don’t vote, you have no say in the matter,” Ramirez said. 

Jared Nicholas, another Pilsen resident, wanted the next Illinois senator to put working class people first. 

“Prioritize working class people over big business and billionaires,” Nicholas said. “I’m a working class person, and so are 99% of people.”

Vitalis Njaka, a Chicago resident from the North Side, said affordability should be a top priority for Illinois’ next senator. He emphasized housing costs, homelessness and workers wages.

“Life should be easy. Rents should be affordable. And there should be more houses built for more people,” Njaka said. 

Stratton said she would listen to the supporters who helped her win.

“For two years, we’ve been hard at work, organizing and showing up nonstop. But this campaign was never about election day,” Stratton said. “It’s about every day that comes after because now you get to work.”

Additional reporting from Ava Simone Forster, Zoey Hill-Hernandez and Kelly Parker.

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With classes canceled for Election Day, Columbia students headed to the polls Tuesday, Nov. 3, citing everything from the right to vote to concerns about representation, safety and the environment as reasons for casting their ballots.

The midterm elections will determine which party controls the U.S. House and Senate, shaping the legislative agenda for the remainder of President Donald Trump‘s term. Voters across the country are also weighing state and local races, where decisions on issues including education, reproductive rights, immigration, public safety and the environment could have a direct effect on their communities.

Columbia Votes accompanied student voters to the downtown voter supersite three times throughout the day.

“We have to have a say in who is representing us in our government and to not exercise that right is to lose out on bettering your community,” said Mitchell Cremer, a voter registration genius with Columbia Votes and a senior film and television major.

Bennie Small, a senior illustration major, joined Columbia Votes at 11 a.m. to walk to the polling site.

“It’s important to vote to make sure the people running the country are doing what they said they’d do to help the country and the people,” Small said.

Elsewhere on campus, students like Jymesha Swindle, a sophomore entrepreneurship and innovation major, reflected on the importance of voting.

She said that as a Black woman, she understood well what was at stake.

“This is a right that my predecessors have fought for me to have, so it is very important for me to use that,” she said.

Nearly 50 million youth ages 18-29 are eligible to vote in the midterms, according to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University. Over eight million are newly eligible voters for whom this will be their first national election.

The youth vote could be pivotal to election results in battleground states like Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia, the Center’s Youth Electoral Significance Index projected.

Wren Koziel, a sophomore acting for stage and screen major, voted this year by mail.

They said they hoped to influence who had control of Congress to block the Trump administration’s policy agenda.

“I’m gay, non-binary and disabled living in America, and I’m tired of a racist homophobic pedophile being in office and someone who has clear dementia running our country,” Koziel said. “So, I’m trying to get the people in office who are going to get rid of him.” 

Julia Palen, a sophomore acting for stage and screen major, was motivated to vote because of concerns over data centers and water usage.

“I looked into everyone I voted for and what their stance is on issues like that, that are really pressing right now,” she said. “I want real jobs that will not be taken by AI.”

Additional reporting by Julia Martinez Arroyo, Jubilee Becker-Hall and Camila Verzino.

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Malia Wilson, a social worker from the Palmer Square neighborhood of Chicago, stood in a line of about 50 voters outside 137 S. State St. in downtown Chicago, waiting to cast her ballot in the midterm elections. 

Wilson said she always participates in local elections because nobody takes her vote for granted.

“I feel like a lot of the Democratic candidates on the federal level think they can skate by on ‘vote blue no matter who,’ and they don’t actually try to do anything,” Wilson said. “I’m over it. On the state and smaller levels, they do a little more to try and earn your vote, so it matters a little bit more in my opinion.”

Across Illinois, voters are weighing issues ranging from the economy and immigration to education, public safety and the future of government. Their choices on Tuesday, Nov. 3 will help determine who represents the state in Congress, who leads Illinois in Springfield and who sets policy at the local level. For voters in Chicago, the ballot also includes a new elected school board, giving residents a direct say in the leadership of the city’s public school system.

“It’s really hard, but in the end, I’m choosing someone who truly does sound like they genuinely care about the future of public education and not just like ‘a thing I’ll do for a while’, or a cash in,” said Lincoln Square resident and Chicago Public Schools teacher Nancy Casas, who voted this morning at the River Park field house in the North Park neighborhood.

Kashena Hayes, who is also a Chicago Public Schools teacher, said she, too, was paying close attention to the school board election.

“We need somebody who can give our kids and the next generation opportunities and choices,” said Hayes, who voted at the Harrison Park fieldhouse in Pilsen. “We need somebody who can represent us, somebody on our side to better this world for our kids and their kids.”

Chris Shunnarah accompanied his girlfriend to the polls at the Davis Health and Wellness Center in the Brighton Park neighborhood this morning. 

Shunnarah, who lives in Lake in the Hills northwest of Chicago, said he decided not to vote because he hadn’t done enough research.

“If I vote and I put someone that ends up changing their morals or something, then I’d feel partly responsible,” Shunnarah said.

Gwyneth Osterby, the assistant circulation manager at the Santori Public Library in suburban Aurora, said their main focus for this election was protection of their rights as a woman. 

“For me, it’s just about maintaining my rights as a woman in this space, as a queer person in this space,” Osterby said. “Protecting my mom, who’s now retired, and her rights.”

Francis LoCascio, a University of Illinois Chicago graduate student, was at Sheridan Park in the Little Italy neighborhood to vote this morning.

“I find that the more you participate and engage with democracy, the stronger it becomes,” he said.

LoCascio said voting is important because it’s how people are able to use the power they have to get the people in office that they want.  

“Even getting to know your candidate, getting to know what they do, looking at their background on how they spend their money, what their priorities are, it’s very important. Voting is like the first step,” LoCascio said.

Additional reporting by Amelia Baird, Mya DeJesus, Jubilee Becker-Hall, Venus Tapang, Mia Smith, Camila Verzino, Julia Martinez Arroyo, Samantha Mosquera and Guadalupe Loza-Sanchez. 

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