MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Illinois' lieutenant governor, Juliana Stratton, is now the Democratic nominee for a U.S. Senate seat. That's according to a race call by The Associated Press. Stratton called for progressive policies to counter President Trump's administration.
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JULIANA STRATTON: We will fight for Medicare for all.
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STRATTON: We will fight to abolish ICE.
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STRATTON: We'll fight for a real living wage, not just the bare minimum.
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MARTIN: WBEZ's Mariah Woelfel is up early after a long night at Stratton's watch party, and she's with us now. Thanks so much for getting up early.
MARIAH WOELFEL, BYLINE: No problem. Good morning.
MARTIN: Good morning. So tell us about Stratton.
WOELFEL: Yeah. So Stratton - she's been the state's lieutenant governor for around eight years, next to Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, who is a billionaire and backed her campaign significantly in this race. If elected, she will be the state's fourth Black senator. She would replace retiring Senator Dick Durbin. Stratton was, for sure, the progressive front-runner in this race. As you heard in her victory speech, she campaigned on Medicare for all and abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Those policies sort of differentiated her from Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, who had slightly more moderate takes on those stances. His campaign spent $25 million on ads that have been airing since July, but Stratton beat him and also beat longtime Congresswoman Robin Kelly in this race. She'll go on to face the Republican nominee, Don Tracy, in the fall.
MARTIN: OK. So Illinois hasn't had a Republican senator in almost 20 years, so it would seem like Stratton's favored to win the general. But did we learn something about what Democrats are looking for in their candidates in this - in - after the results last night?
WOELFEL: Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And this primary race has sort of been a competition of who's going to play harder ball with Trump. Stratton took the hardest line on that, saying she wouldn't vote for any of Trump's appointees if elected. She won't support Chuck Schumer as Senate minority leader because she says he's been too tepid. She was the most outspoken about abolishing ICE, while, you know, Kelly kind of called that a catchy slogan that most congresspeople aren't supporting. These candidates also built their campaigns on affordability, with Stratton again championing the most progressive policies on that topic, too. And another major theme was - who are you getting your money from?
MARTIN: OK. Well, let's hear more about that. I mean, you, along with your colleagues, reported that political action committees spent, like, $50 million on the Senate race and four Chicago-area U.S. House races. Is that unusual?
WOELFEL: The amount of spending is far more than the last time the Chicago area had U.S. House primary races without an incumbent, in '22 - which was in 2022. And this year we had several. In those House races, roughly two-thirds of all the outside super PAC money, though, came from groups linked to AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. AIPAC worked through little-known, newly formed PACs with names like Elect Chicago Women that paid for commercials that made no mention of the Middle East and benefiting some candidates who do not support stricter conditions on U.S. military aid to Israel.
Veteran political consultant David Axelrod, who I spoke to, believes the secrecy was because AIPAC made the calculation that attaching their name to a candidate is just not politically beneficial at a time when Democratic voters are increasingly disturbed by the war in Gaza and by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - Israeli prime minister - who AIPAC supports. In the House races, results for AIPAC were mixed. Two out of four candidates with AIPAC-linked support lost their campaigns. AIPAC said in a statement that Illinois voters rejected, quote, "half a dozen anti-Israel candidates."
MARTIN: That is WBEZ's Mariah Woelfel. Mariah, thanks so much. Get a nap today.
WOELFEL: Thanks. I'll try.
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