This election year is pivotal — and so is your vote
It’s easy to see why some Illinois voters, many voters, might cynically dismiss their role in democracy as inconsequential given the obscene amounts of campaign cash that launch politicians into power, the never-ending queue of pols in their state jailed for corruption and, of course, the surreal circumstance of a former president who faces four criminal trials and yet remains a front-runner.
And yet those troubling characteristics of politics today provide the ideal motivation for becoming keenly engaged in what is shaping up to be a pivotal election year — for the state and the country. In any election year, much is at stake. But it’s far from hyperbole to say that so much this year is riding on each Illinoisan’s decision on whether to participate.
Nationally, the presumptive nominees in this election year, President Joe Biden and Donald Trump, give voters the starkest of choices — from their politics and track record to what they value. On Wednesday, a Cook County judge ordered Trump removed from Illinois’ March 19 Republican primary ballot, siding with objectors who argued that he should be disqualified because of his actions related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Whether that decision holds likely will be decided in a higher court.
While the Illinois March primary won’t play much of a role at all at the presidential level, key congressional seats will be on the state primary ballot. Two devout Trump loyalists, Republican incumbent Mike Bost and former state lawmaker Darren Bailey, are vying for the conservative vote in the downstate 12th District. In the Chicago area, Democratic incumbents Jesús “Chuy” García, Bill Foster, Sean Casten and 82-year-old Danny Davis face primary challenges.
In the Illinois General Assembly, Republicans struggle with the same task they’ve had in previous election cycles: Can they make any kind of dent into the stranglehold that Democrats have on Springfield? One of the marquee state legislative primary races pits Natalie Toro, the Democratic incumbent in the North Side’s state Senate 20th District, against Chicago Teachers Union organizer Graciela Guzman, as well as physician Dave Nayak and neighborhood organizer Geary Yonker.
Locally, voters in Chicago and suburban Cook County will decide who becomes the Democratic Party’s choice to replace Kim Foxx as Cook County state’s attorney — Clayton Harris III, a political aide turned lecturer, or Eileen O’Neill Burke, a former criminal defense lawyer and appellate court judge. And the primary for Cook County Circuit Court clerk is a heated matchup between the candidate backed by the Cook County Democratic Party, Mariyana Spyropoulos, and incumbent Iris Martinez, who won the post in 2020 without her party’s backing.
Chicagoans, meanwhile, may not get to decide the fate of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s blueprint for combating homelessness by making changes to the city’s real estate transfer tax that would generate $100 million a year. The binding Bring Chicago Home referendum was invalidated by a Cook County judge in February. The city and the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners have appealed that ruling and early voting has not been paused as of this writing. But if Judge Kathleen Burke’s decision stands, the votes won’t be counted. Finding a way to pay for the fight against homelessness was one of Johnson’s major campaign pledges. The measure, however, drew strong opposition from many in the city’s real estate and business sectors who maintained the proposed transaction tax increase would further hamstring Chicago’s struggling downtown commercial real estate market.
This year’s primary ballot has myriad reasons for Chicago and Illinois voters to embrace the task of deciding who best reflects what they value the most — who can best lead at a time when divisiveness pervades virtually every level of governance. Illinois’ turnout during the last presidential year primary was a meager 28.3%. In Cook County, it was slightly better — 33.5%.
With our election coverage this year, our online Voter Guide and this Primary Guide, we hope to provide voters the information and context they need to make decisions about the candidates and the issues as we all take up our parts in the democratic process. In this guide, we offer overviews of key congressional, state and local primary races, a how-to-vote FAQ explainer and candidate Q&A responses on issues that matter.
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And remember: Your vote counts — now more than ever.