Juliana Stratton tries to make history, Don Tracy gives voice to state's GOP in race for Durbin Senate seat

Self-described “fighter” Juliana Stratton is hoping to bring a new progressive voice to the U.S. Senate as she tries to take the reins from U.S Sen. Dick Durbin in a battle against former Illinois Republican Party Chair Don Tracy.

There is plenty of daylight between the two candidates — which was on full display during a lone debate last month on WTTW. Stratton’s platform includes a $25 minimum wage, abolishing ICE and she doesn’t support Chuck Schumer as the party’s leader. Her anti-President Trump messaging — including a “F*** Trump, vote Juliana” slogan — has been at the forefront of a campaign that began a day after Durbin announced his plans to retire.

Stratton is hoping she can carry over voter energy from a fiery primary campaign into the general election — which amounted to a lukewarm campaign battle. A Public Policy Polling poll in late September projected Stratton up by 13 points.

Stratton, a former mediator, was first elected to the Illinois House of Representatives in 2016 and has served as Gov. JB Pritzker’s lieutenant governor since 2018. She is credited for leading the Birth Equity Initiative, which helped address the racial disparity in Illinois' maternal mortality rates for Black women. She also helped to spearhead the Justice, Equity and Opportunity Initiative, with the goal of shifting the state’s criminal legal system towards more restorative programs.

Her campaign also touted her work in the Ag Connects Us All Initiative, which helped to highlight the ways in which the agriculture industry could address inequities and food security. It also served as a way to stay connected to the more rural areas of the state.

Illinois will see its fourth Black senator in the Senate if Stratton wins the reliably blue seat in November. She would also become the sixth Black woman to serve in the current Senate and the second Black woman to represent Illinois in the U.S. Senate.

Stratton defeated fundraising leader U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, Rep. Robin Kelly and eight other candidates in a contentious primary that included a late campaign surge and millions in support from Pritzker. She was also the first Democrat to announce a bid for Durbin’s seat, and announced Pritzker’s endorsement just two days later. The governor spent $10 million to help Stratton's primary campaign through a pro-Stratton PAC.

Although Pritzker has downplayed his support of Stratton, he'll be able to tout that he helped to elect a member of the Senate should she win.

In announcing her bid, Stratton touted her accomplishments as lieutenant governor, including raising the minimum wage, the state’s infrastructure accomplishments, gun safety laws and enshrining abortion laws in Illinois.

Republicans haven’t won a statewide seat in Illinois in 12 years, when Pritzker unseated GOP former Gov. Bruce Rauner, a close ally of Tracy. But Tracy says he’s running to give a voice to the millions of Republicans in the state.

Tracy is a Springfield attorney and businessman. He served as the chair of the Illinois Republican Party from 2021 until his resignation in July 2024. He is also the former chairman of the Illinois Gaming Board, appointed in 2015. Tracy pointed to Republican infighting for his exit from his chairmanship of the state GOP party in 2024 after three and a half years, a tenure that saw the party’s influence wane further in the state as its base moves further right. Tracy ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 2010 — and won a Democratic primary for a state Senate seat in 2002. He lost in the general election. Tracy was narrowly elected state GOP chair over pushback from hardline conservative leaders from rural areas downstate, where Trump remains immensely popular.

Tracy says he wants stricter border enforcement, upholding federal immigration laws and stronger support for law enforcement. He’s also supportive of Trump’s plan for a voter ID.

Tracy has tried to focus his Senate campaign on affordability and economic issues, but he has walked a fine line in discussing support for Trump. The president saw a bump in support in 2024, with his statewide vote growing to 45.3% in 2024, compared to 38.76%.

During the October debate, Tracy said “the jury’s still out on tariffs.”

“I like the fact that the president recognizes that we’ve been subsidizing the world, and we’ve been taken advantage of by the world with unfair trade practices out there, and so he’s trying to use, I think, tariffs as a tool, not an objective, but as a tool to reset world trade policy and make it a more level playing field," Tracy said.

He also called Operation Midway Blitz “ugly and chaotic,” but compared immigration enforcement in the Chicago area to that in Memphis, where he said things had “gone pretty well” because local authorities cooperated with federal immigration agents.

He blamed the violence on “massive resistance by the local authorities,” and he accused Americans of caring more about the deaths of four Americans at the hands of federal agents than to police shot in the line of duty.

“Certainly the immigration advocates don’t care about the thin blue line,” Tracy said.