Illinois Senate: Race of Three, Who Will It Be?

While most of the focus is on a half-dozen races that will decide the Senate majority, a handful of other states are just as important because primaries will elect a future lawmaker who may end up being in office for a couple of decades.

Democratic Minority Whip Dick Durbin’s decision not to seek a sixth term represents a changing of the guard in the Senate, where Durbin has been a fixture in party leadership since 2005, and is a generational shift in the Land of Lincoln. 

Durbin is the longest-serving current statewide official in Illinois, with a political career that began in the early 1980s and will eventually tie the record for the longest Senate tenure in Illinois. He’s the latest mainstay to exit the state’s rough-and-tumble political scene over the past eight years, following six-term state Secretary of State Jesse White, four-term state Attorney General Lisa Madigan, fifteen-term Rep. Bobby Rush and thirteen-term Rep. Luis Gutierrez, and the longest-serving state House Speaker in American history, Mike Madigan (recently sentenced to prison).

Durbin’s retirement tees up a competitive Democratic primary that is set to be one of the most expensive in state history, and one that continues multiple grudges, presidential speculations, and the prospect of making history no matter who wins.

The Lay of the Land
While Illinois has long leaned Democratic, Republicans were competitive in statewide elections until recently, holding at least one statewide office for all…

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