Here’s the thing about primary elections in the Land of Lincoln and, especially in the Democratic stronghold that is the city of Chicago: In race after race, they are not the appetizer course but the entire prix fixe. The whole kit and caboodle. By Wednesday, the determination of our collective destiny will be all over, bar the shouting.
The general election in November? It might matter in the race for Illinois governor and in a select few statehouse contests. But in most of the races in which we’ve been endorsing these last several weeks, the winner of the primary will be a shoo-in come the fall and there will be little a free-thinking voter can do. In our gerrymandered state, the opposition party will not have fielded a competitive candidate. Most likely, they will barely have fielded a candidate at all.
We’ve often bemoaned this disenfranchising state of our democracy but Election Day is not the time to do so again.
We’re here to encourage you to vote.
And that will mean ignoring a whole lot of noise. For, as a result of the centrality of these primaries, the races have thrown up all manner of distractions.
Consider (or, rather, don’t consider) the dueling endorsement insinuations from both Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton and Rep. Robin Kelly that Barack Obama is in their corner in their quest to become a U.S. senator, even though the former president actually had endorsed them in different, prior races.
As the clock ticked down, the endorsement business got yet weirder than that, with Stratton further claiming to have been endorsed by the late Rev. Jesse Jackson, who is of course no longer around to confirm or deny any such intent. That prompted his son, former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., to say that his dad was interested only in supporting his own children, which would have seemed like a simple family statement except that the younger Jackson also is running for his old 2nd District seat in Congress and has, you might say, a vested interest in those familial bonds.
We’ve bemoaned the amount of outside cash influencing these races, even as we have urged voters and candidates not to focus so much on campaign finance. Still, following the trail of such deep-pocketed groups as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee would challenge any detective. AIPAC money is, to say the least, invested strategically, often to support candidate X in order to stop candidate Y, even as candidate Z decries it in others while having once having accepted it themselves. All of this has played out to such a Byzantine extent that it feels like that lobbying group is playing a chess game of its own invention. In at least five dimensions.
Some would argue, of course, that the outsize focus on this one group (as distinct from the rich crypto crew) reflects a latent antisemitism, even as others argue that it is near tantamount to interference in a domestic election by a foreign government. You will have to decide. Maybe, like us, you worry that such money and your vote are too unequal in power. Maybe you plan to play a similarly realpolitik game yourself. We would not blame you.
Tribune Editorial Board endorsements for 2026 Illinois primary election
A similar decision is required when it comes to those positions with influence on how much property tax you pay, such as the Cook County assessor and the Board of Review. Should those candidates accept donations from attorneys with business before them? Some would say, some did say to us, that’s just democracy in action and those are the interested parties, entitled to support their preferred candidate as the system dictates. Others see good, old-fashioned corruption.
Meanwhile, we watched as one congressional candidate, Kat Abughazaleh, first told us she was coming to talk to us at our endorsement meeting, then sent a surrogate with a theatrical statement on his phone, which he read awkwardly to us while his boss released a TikTok. Like much else Abughazaleh did, it was designed to gain attention.
Race, in case you haven’t noticed, still is red hot in Chicago politics. “Two Black female candidates may split Democratic primary voters in Illinois,” read a headline in The New York Times, “and anger is growing at well-funded efforts to widen the divide.”
That’s a weirdly reductive header at best and a pernicious one at worst, and the lead of the story was no better: “Only five Black women have ever served in the Senate, and Democrats who are trying to elect a sixth this year in Illinois worry that the chance may be squandered.”
Squandered?
Yes, Stratton and Kelly are well-qualified Black women running for Congress, but surely that should be celebrated rather than discouraged, especially since their leading rival, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, is not exactly some white guy with a golden retriever as a prop. Rep. Danny K. Davis was right when he said there was “no way around” the reality that some would vote for one Black female candidate and some for another, but he might have helpfully added, “nor should there be,” since the presence of both women reflects strength in diversity. We suggest you ignore all of that nonsense and choose the candidate you think will represent you the best.
That happens to be our view in all of the races.
You can’t do anything about gerrymandering at Tuesday’s election. But guess what it makes it worse? When only a fraction of eligible voters decide all-important primaries.
So, head to the polls, folks. If you are interested in our endorsements, we’ve got ’em for you.
But we’d rather you voted against all of them than not vote at all.
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.
