{"id":69247,"date":"2026-03-17T21:01:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T02:01:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/17\/illinois-republicans-select-don-tracy-in-primary-elections-for-sen-durbins-seat\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T21:01:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T02:01:21","slug":"illinois-republicans-select-don-tracy-in-primary-elections-for-sen-durbins-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/17\/illinois-republicans-select-don-tracy-in-primary-elections-for-sen-durbins-seat\/","title":{"rendered":"Illinois Republicans select Don Tracy in primary elections for Sen. Durbin’s seat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Illinois Republicans on Tuesday selected Don Tracy as their nominee for the open U.S. Senate seat created by Sen. Dick Durbin<\/u><\/a>\u2019s retirement, sending them into a general election race in a state Democrats have long dominated at the federal level.<\/p>\n

Former Illinois GOP Chair Don Tracy entered the race as one of the best-known Republicans in the field and quickly emerged as an early fundraising leader.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His campaign focused on lowering living costs through market competition, greater consumer choice and negotiated prescription drug prices.<\/p>\n

Tracy is seeking the seat being vacated by Durbin, the Senate\u2019s longtime No. 2 Democrat, who announced he would not seek reelection in 2026, ending a Senate tenure that began with his election in 1996 and setting off a scramble in both parties for one of Illinois\u2019 highest-profile offices.<\/p>\n

HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS REPORTING FROM THE 2026 CAMPAIGN TRAIL<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The Republican primary field also included attorney Jeannie Evans, businessman Casey Chlebek, R. Cary Capparelli, Pamela Long and Jimmy Lee Tillman.<\/p>\n

Polls in Illinois<\/a> closed at 7 p.m. Central on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

On the Democratic side, Rep. Robin Kelly, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi and Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton are competing to succeed Durbin.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker<\/u><\/a> has thrown his sizable war chest behind Stratton in a primary that is viewed as a test of his political clout in his home state as he likely gears up for a 2028 presidential run. The governor has seen his national profile skyrocket over the past year as he’s become a top Democrat leading the resistance to President Donald Trump\u2019s second-term agenda.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Krishnamoorthi is the clear fundraising frontrunner in the race and has spent big bucks to run ads. And a super PAC funded by crypto titans has shelled out nearly $10 million to back him.<\/p>\n

Tracy now advances to the general election, where he will try to compete in a state that has trended decisively Democratic in federal contests. Indeed, whoever wins the Democratic nomination will be considered the clear front-runner in the general election in a state where no GOP contender has won statewide in a dozen years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Illinois Republicans on Tuesday selected Don Tracy as their nominee for the open U.S. Senate seat created by Sen. Dick Durbin\u2019s retirement, sending them into a general election race in a state Democrats have long dominated at the federal level. Former Illinois GOP Chair Don Tracy entered the race as one of the best-known Republicans … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69247\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}