Illinois Primary Elections to be Held in March Ahead of Midterms
A voter leaves Elmhurst City Hall during the 2024 general election Nov 6, 2024.
The primary elections are approaching, with Illinois primaries being held on Tuesday, March 17, for federal and state elections. The primaries will select candidates for the midterm elections on Nov. 3.
To help voters learn their polling location, when their primaries are, and other voting resources, the U.S. Vote Foundation has a website to encourage people to vote and know how to vote.
Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat, president and CEO of the U.S. Vote Foundation, said that one trend she is seeing is increased viewership of election dates and deadlines for the primaries. Another trend she is seeing is an increased readership of their blog, especially an article about when the 2026 midterms are and what their purpose is.
Dzieduszycka-Suinat said that a lot of people ask why we have midterms and primaries.
“With the midterm elections, voters have the opportunity to not only influence how laws are made and what laws are made, but they also have the opportunity to completely change the success or failure of the president’s agenda,” said Dzieduszycka-Suinat.
Dzieduszycka-Suinat said that people are educating themselves more about how important it is to have checks and balances in government. She added that the midterm elections can help change the current administration or keep it how it is.
Elmhurst University professor Constance Mixon, who has a doctorate in political science, said that when thinking about democracy, it is important to think about ballot access and who can access the ballot. It is easier for Republicans and Democrats to get on the ballot as they need fewer signatures, but if someone is a third-party candidate, they must get even more signatures.
“If we’re thinking overall about the basic foundations of our democracy and our Constitution, the right to vote is the foundation of our democracy,” Mixon said.
In terms of who is on the ballot, in Illinois, there are currently Democratic and Republican primaries for U.S. Senate, as well as primaries for Illinois’ 17 congressional seats.
Per an article from The Washington Post, President Donald Trump said on Feb. 2 that Republican lawmakers should “nationalize voting,” which is asking the federal government to run elections. The article explains that under the Constitution, the “Times, Place and Manner” of holding elections are determined by each state, not the federal government.
A lot of people are fearing what will happen in the primaries and midterms with voting rights changing.
“What a lot of these states are doing is putting those same restrictions that they had during the Jim Crow era back into place,” said Mixon. “Which is unfortunate and particularly harms lower-income citizens and citizens of color. Who votes and who can vote matters.”
For the primaries, voting allows for a possibility to flip the seat of whoever is the incumbent for a congressional district, which ultimately impacts the makeup of Congress.
Niki Conforti, a Republican candidate for Illinois’ 6th Congressional District, is hoping to flip the seat for her district and beat Democratic Rep. Sean Casten.
Conforti said that to flip the seat, she has a robust campaign and has name recognition she did not have in 2024 when she ran. She said her influence across the district is growing and that “we are on track to flip the seat this November.”
Conforti said that there are extremes with one extreme or the other and less and less people are willing to reach across the table to get things done.
The country is currently very polarized between Democrats and Republicans, but Conforti said she wants to represent the everyday American and that she stands for the American worker and citizen.
“All my issues that I’m fighting for are viewed through a lens of what is best for the American people, what is best for the people in my district,” said Conforti. “The fact of the matter is the people of this district are not and have not gotten representation for quite some time.”
