While the presidential election at the national level brings suspense not only to our country but also throughout the entire world, the result at the state level in Illinois brings little intrigue.
Nearly an hour after polls close in the state, the Associated Press has called Vice President Kamala Harris the winner of the state of Illinois and its 19 electoral votes.
A longtime Democratic advantage was always likely to carry the Land of Lincoln for the Harris-Walz ticket. All major pollsters and pundits labeled Illinois, host of this year’s Democratic National Convention, as a “solid Democratic” state in this year’s race for the White House.
The seemingly obvious result of the state’s presidential election does not mean there’s nothing new or interesting about the 2024 campaign however.
First, how much attention did the campaigns pay to Illinois? Not all that much.
As can be expected, Illinois was not a very popular stop on the campaign trail with the candidates preferring to visit nearby battleground states Wisconsin and Michigan.
Harris has only made one presidential campaign stop since her campaign started in late July: the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, attended a fundraiser at a Chicago hotel on Oct. 19.
Former President Trump made two stops in the state, both of them also in Chicago. In June, Trump participated in a fiery Q&A at the National Association of Black Journalists’ Convention and Career Fair as his campaign tries to make inroads among Black voters.
On Oct. 15, Trump and his running mate JD Vance were at separate events in the Chicago area. Trump attended a forum with the Economic Club of Chicago while Vance attended a fundraiser in the city’s suburbs.
Trump and Harris, however, were not the only names on the ballot in Illinois this year. In fact, there remains a name that may sound familiar: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and noted anti-vaccine activist, first launched a campaign for the Democratic nomination against Pres. Joe Biden in March of last year, but later announced his candidacy as an independent last October.
RFK Jr. suspended his campaign with running mate Nicole Shanahan on Aug. 23, endorsing the Republican Trump-Vance ticket. Earlier that day, the Illinois State Board of Elections certified the Kennedy-Shanahan ticket’s placement on the state’s presidential ballot.
In early results, Kennedy was only getting around 1% of the state’s total vote.
There are also many write-in candidates for this year’s presidential election, including candidates representing the Libertarian and Green Parties.
2024 marks the first presidential election since reapportionment of electoral votes following the 2020 U.S. Census. Since Illinois lost a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, the state will now have 19 votes (2 senators, 17 congresspersons) in the national Electoral College.
This year’s election marks the first that the Land of Lincoln supplies less than 20 electoral votes since 1868. Illinois gave its 16 electoral votes in that election to victorious Republican Ulysses S. Grant, who called Galena his home at the time.
156 years later, voters went to the polls to choose between Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican former President Donald Trump.
In two polls conducted in Illinois, Harris had sizable advantages of 16 and 18 percentage points. For comparison, Pres. Biden won Illinois by 17% four years ago.
The Democratic trend dates back decades. George H.W. Bush was the last Republican to win Illinois in his victorious 1988 campaign to succeed Tampico-born and Dixon-raised Ronald Reagan.
In every presidential election since 1992, Illinois has sided with the Democratic Party’s nominees. The closest margin in that stretch was John Kerry’s 10.3% advantage in his failed 2004 campaign to unseat incumbent Pres. George W. Bush.
Pres. Joe Biden’s 2020 win in Illinois was the 8th straight Democratic victory in the state. Kamala Harris and Tim Walz have made it nine straight in 2024.
