{"id":20167,"date":"2026-03-18T02:46:59","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T02:46:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/stratton-wins-illinois-primary-giving-dems-another-black-female-senator\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T02:46:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T02:46:59","slug":"stratton-wins-illinois-primary-giving-dems-another-black-female-senator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/stratton-wins-illinois-primary-giving-dems-another-black-female-senator\/","title":{"rendered":"Stratton wins Illinois primary, giving Dems another Black female senator"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>CHICAGO \u2014 Democrats are now all but certain to elect another Black woman to the U.S. Senate after Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton won Tuesday\u2019s bitter and expensive primary in Illinois.<\/p>\n<p>Stratton overcame a crowded Democratic contest for the state\u2019s open Senate seat, defeating front-runner Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi with the help of millions of dollars of outside spending \u2014 much of it from her old running mate, Gov. JB Pritzker.<\/p>\n<p>She is widely seen as the favorite to succeed Sen. Dick Durbin in the blue state and would become the sixth Black woman to have ever served in the upper chamber.<\/p>\n<p>The contest was defined by heavy outside spending and intraparty fissures over race. It became contentions during the final weeks, with Krishnamoorthi and Stratton trading sharp attacks on the debate stage and blasting each other in TV ads over corporate money and immigration policy.<\/p>\n<p>Members of the Congressional Black Caucus \u2014 who backed a different contender, Rep. Robin Kelly, in the primary \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/capitolnewsillinois.com\/news\/congressional-black-caucus-accuses-pritzker-of-heavy-handing-senate-race\/\" target=\"_blank\">also warned<\/a> that Pritzker\u2019s interference could split the Black vote and cost Democrats a chance at electing a Black woman to the Senate this year.<\/p>\n<p>Stratton\u2019s late surge was powered by a combination of endorsements, outside spending and targeted messaging. She benefited from the support of Pritzker and Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.). Illinois Future PAC, which received major cash infusions from Pritzker and other allies, spent at least $11.8 million boosting Stratton\u2019s campaign and attacking Krishnamoorthi.<\/p>\n<p>Stratton will face Don Tracy, a former Illinois Republican Party chair, in November. If elected, she would become the second Black woman to be nominated to the Senate from Illinois, following Carol Moseley Braun \u2014 who endorsed Stratton in the contest.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CHICAGO \u2014 Democrats are now all but certain to elect another Black woman to the U.S. Senate after Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton won Tuesday\u2019s bitter and expensive primary in Illinois. Stratton overcame a crowded Democratic contest for the state\u2019s open Senate seat, defeating front-runner Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi with the help of millions of dollars of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}