State Rep. Margaret Croke said she was confident late Tuesday that she would prevail in a tightly contested race to become the Democratic nominee for Illinois comptroller.
State Sen. Karina Villa of West Chicago had not conceded defeat at deadline. With an estimated 87% of votes counted, Croke led Villa 34.7% to 32.4%, according to unofficial results from The Associated Press. Lake County Treasurer Holly Kim of Mundelein was in third at 24%, followed by 9% for state Rep. Stephanie Kifowit of Oswego.
Meanwhile, two Republicans were separated by mere percentage points in their bid to challenge Democrat Alexi Giannoulias in the November general election for secretary of state.
In the GOP primary for secretary of state, the AP called the race for Joliet resident Diane M. Harris, who was leading 53% to 47% over Chicagoan Walter Adamczyk with 85% of votes counted, unofficial results showed.
Unlike the Illinois treasurer, who handles the state’s investments and oversees a college savings program, the comptroller pays the state’s bills, monitors fiscal compliance, records transactions and contracts, and issues reports that guide the governor and legislature on budget decisions. In one of its more obscure functions, the office also licenses certain private cemeteries.
Croke has served in the Illinois House since 2021, representing a district that covers parts of Chicago’s North and Near North sides. She entered 2026 with a commanding financial advantage over her primary opponents, ending last year with more than $833,000 in her campaign fund — more than her three Democratic rivals combined. Last month, she secured Gov. JB Pritzker’s endorsement, having worked for him in his campaign and governmental capacities.
Earlier Tuesday, Croke appeared with Pritzker during lunch at Manny’s Cafeteria & Delicatessen. The governor wore a Croke button on his lapel.
Despite Pritzker’s financial support of her campaign, Croke has said she has “no issue as it pertains to being independent” from the governor’s office if she is elected comptroller.
Before Croke took the stage at the Plumbers Union Local, her three children walked out first followed by her husband at her side. Holding one of her daughters, Croke said she was confident based on the numbers that she was on track to become the Democratic nominee. Her speech focused on the needs of working families and a commitment to transparency.
Villa served in the Illinois House in 2019 and 2020 before being elected to the state Senate, where she’s served since 2021.
A former school social worker, she arguably has less financial experience than her three Democratic opponents, but has framed the comptroller’s role in broader terms, saying: “These political decisions of where we’re putting our dollars (are) connected,” and that “how we choose to allocate them, what order we’re paying the bills in and where we’re finding more money to bring in to be able to fund the services that are getting slashed by the federal government, it’s all connected.”
Her platform emphasized revenue: pushing corporations and the wealthy to pay more in taxes and using the comptroller’s leverage to protect safety-net hospitals that serve low-income communities.
Kim conceded the defeat late Tuesday. She has served as Lake County’s treasurer since 2018. She has also served on a special banking commission overseen by the comptroller’s office and earlier this month secured an endorsement from outgoing Democratic comptroller Susana Mendoza.
“My opponents poured multimillions into never-ending ads, while I spent my resources meeting and talking to voters face-to-face about how to make their lives easier, how to make this office work for them, and how to put people back at the center of our politics again,” Kim said in her concession.
“No matter the outcome, I will give my full support to the Democratic nominee in November. Thank you again to all the voters and volunteers who worked tirelessly to support my campaign.”
The lone Republican candidate is Bryan Drew, an attorney from downstate Benton, who will likely face the winner of the Democratic primary in the November general election.
The Republican primary contest for secretary of state pitted Harris, a precinct committeewoman and retired Commonwealth Edison employee, against Adamczyk, a GOP committeeman for Chicago’s 29th Ward.
The secretary of state’s office is among the most public-facing in state government, providing a host of services that include driver’s licenses and testing and other state IDs and registrations for vehicles, lobbyists and businesses.
As secretary of state, Harris said she would push for reduced fees for state stickers, titles and other vehicle service fees. She said she also heard complaints about how the office’s appointment process can be inconvenient, and with many of its services available online, she noted, “some individuals will not and still won’t go online to do their services.”
On his campaign website, Adamczyk has said he wants to improve customer service for veterans, pushing for all honorably discharged vets to receive free driver’s licenses or state IDs upon presenting proof of service. On his website, he also emphasized walk-in services and creating dedicated express lanes for veterans at secretary of state facilities.
The offices of attorney general and treasurer were also on the primary ballots, though, like Giannoulias, the offices’ Democratic incumbents, Attorney General Kwame Raoul and Treasurer Michael Frerichs, are running unopposed. Former Chicago Ald. Bob Fioretti is the lone Republican running for attorney general and will likely go up against Raoul, who has been in office since 2019.
As the only Republican competing in the primary race for attorney general, Fioretti said, if elected, he’d use the office to “stand up for crime victims instead of violent criminals” and look at the statewide use of grand juries to ramp up how the office prosecutes public corruption and violent crime.
Like many other Republicans, he also wants to push to overturn or tweak the state’s sweeping criminal justice overhaul from 2021, the Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today law, also known as the SAFE-T Act, which includes a controversial provision that eliminated cash bail. Specifically, Fioretti wants to revisit the law’s electronic monitoring and judicial discretion guidelines, which he believes are too lenient.
For state treasurer, Democratic incumbent Michael Frerichs is seeking a fourth term but has no official opposition, including by any Republicans, marking the first time in at least 90 years that a major political party did not have any candidate file to run in a primary election for statewide office, according to Frerichs’ campaign.
