Illinois Primary 2024: State's attorney race too close to call, bad night for 'Bring Chicago Home'

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times

U.S. Rep. Danny Davis maintained his grip on the West Side district he’s represented for nearly three decades.

With 71% of votes counted in the 7th Congressional District, Davis had 53% of the vote compared to 22% for Chicago City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin and 18% for progressive activist Kina Collins, according to Associated Press estimates.

Teacher Nikhil Bhatia had about 5%, and Kouri Marshall, a former deputy director to Gov. J.B. Pritzker, had 3%.

A defiant Davis called out critics who’d said he was “getting scared” in his five-way race, claiming the incumbent had to call the “big guns” of the Illinois Democratic Party to help him across the finish line.

“Let me tell you, I helped make the big guns,” Davis said to cheers at his campaign headquarters across the street from his East Garfield Park office.

“And all of these prognosticators — all of those who thought the people of my community would not recognize the work that we’ve done practically all of our adult life — I am so affirmed that the people know the work that we’ve done,” Davis said.

He concluded: “Don’t ever write off the senior citizens. Don’t write off President Joe Biden, because he’s going to lead this country to where it needs to be. And I’ll be there right beside him.”

Davis raised more than $457,000 and rounded up all the establishment support expected for a congressman vying for his 15th consecutive term in the district, which stretches from west suburban Hillside into the Loop and down to the South Side.

Davis was backed by U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, Mayor Brandon Johnson, to name just a fraction of the Democratic heavyweights in Davis’ corner.

It was an easier election night for Davis than it was in 2022, when Collins gave him one of the closest primary races of his career, taking 46% of the vote in a three-way race.

In her third challenge, Collins — a 33-year-old Austin native and an organizer for progressive advocacy groups — argued again for a fresher vision for the district. Davis will turn 83 before November’s general election.

Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times

Conyears-Ervin led fundraising in the race with more than $619,000, and she also boasted perhaps the biggest progressive boost in the race with the endorsement of the Chicago Teachers Union.

But her campaign was saddled with ethics questions after the city inspector general’s office found she fired two city employees who complained that she used city resources for a prayer service. Conyears-Ervin could still face thousands of dollars in fines pending a city ethics board ruling, but she maintains the allegations “misrepresent” her office.

Manuel Martinez/WBEZ

Incumbent Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Iris Martinez lost her reelection bid to challenger Mariyana Spyropoulos in the Democratic primary race.

Spyropoulos, a commissioner on the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District board who had far more campaign contributions and the backing of the county Democratic Party, had 65% of the vote, compared to Martinez’ 35%, according to Associated Press estimates with 80% of the votes counted. AP called the race for Spyropoulos at 8:19 p.m.

Victor Hilitski/For the Sun-Times

Cook County tilts Democrat, so whoever wins the Democratic primary is likely to win the election in November. Lupe Aguirre is on the Republican ballot seeking the office. Michael Murphy is running as a Libertarian.

The clerk oversees one of the largest circuit court systems in the nation, with tens of millions of documents and some 1,400 workers. The clerk’s role is mostly administrative. The circuit court houses everything from criminal cases to divorce filings, but the office is fiercely political.

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In the 36th House District, representing mostly South Suburbs, Rick Ryan defeated Sonia Khalil 57% to 43%.

The two candidates competed to replace state Rep. Kelly Burke, who decided not to run for reelection.

Ashlee Garcia/Sun-Times (Harper) and provided photo

Englewood state Rep. Sonya Harper was challenged in the 6th House District, representing the South Side, by Joseph G. Williams, but she won easily with almost 74% of the vote.

Harper, 42, touted her longstanding efforts to expand community gardening and urban agriculture in a district desperately lacking groceries and healthy food options, co-founding the nonprofit Grow Greater Englewood.

Williams was elected last year to the 7th District Police Council as part of the new community oversight system for the Chicago Police Department. The 34-year-old previously founded Mr. Dad’s Father’s Club providing mentors to students in schools across the South Side.

Harper faces Republican Sean Dwyer in November.

Cindy Hernandez/Sun-Times

While conceding to incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García in the 4th Congressional District primary, Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th) started his speech at a Garfield Ridge pub with a joke.

“Anyone want a doughnut?” he said to laughs, referring to the drama earlier in the day when the García campaign called for an investigation after the Lopez campaign was seen giving away coffee, doughnuts and cash for lunch to poll workers earlier in the day.

Lopez, who lost handily, said despite the result, he was grateful for his supporters and the people who volunteered in his campaign.

“I thank you because we have been the little engine that could keep going,” he said.

“I still believe that we must provide a path forward for those who are living in the shadows. … We can talk or we can do, and I intend to ensure that the returning congressman finally does something to help the individuals who have been waiting for that path.”

Brian Ernst/Sun-Times; Facebook; Rich Hein/Sun-Times

Five-term incumbent Rep. Mike Bost fended off a challenge from ultra-right farmer turned politician Darren Bailey in a turf war over the state’s most conservative congressional district.

With 80% of votes counted, Bost led Bailey 54% to 46% in the downstate 12th Congressional District, according to AP estimates.

Bost declared victory at about 9:41 p.m., and Bailey conceded about 15 minutes later.

“We came up short tonight,” Bailey told a sparse crowd of downstate supporters. “It was close.”

And Democratic Reps. Sean Casten and Bill Foster held onto their suburban congressional seats after facing progressive challengers who tried to veer them further to the left on key issues such as the Israel-Hamas War.

After serving in the Illinois House and Senate, and losing the gubernatorial election to Democrat Gov. J.B. Pritzker in 2022, Bailey was hoping for a comeback. A loss could signal the end of his political career — at least for now.

Although both Bost, 63, and Bailey, 58, are staunch Trump supporters, the race is viewed as a test of just how far right the district’s voters want to go, with Bailey banking on the support of Reps. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and Mary Miller, R-Ill.

Bailey’s election night party at the Christian academy he founded in downstate Louisville was a low-key balloon-clad family affair — a far cry from a packed Effingham banquet hall where he celebrated a huge GOP gubernatorial primary win in 2022. Bost was holding court until the race was called in a back room at the Brews Brothers Tap Room in Murphsyboro.

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Ashlee Rezin and Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Michael Crawford beat state Rep. Mary Flowers, the longest-running Black lawmaker in Illinois, to win the Democratic primary for the Illinois House 31st District on Tuesday after party leadership and unions threw their support behind him.

With all the votes counted, Crawford beat Flowers, 70% to 30%, in a district that extends across the South Side and into the southwest suburbs, according to AP estimates.

Newcomer Crawford, 41, had the backing of Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch. In an unusual move that was a test of his own political muscle, Welch threw his support and money behind Crawford in the primary and helped him defeat a politician who first took office when Harold Washington was mayor of Chicago.

The race became a proxy for Welch’s power to control his own members. Welch and Democratic-supporting unions backed Crawford, raising a whopping $1.7 million. That’s more than Flowers raised in total over the last 30 years.

“The more money you spend, the more you win,” said Brian Gaines, the Arrington Professor in State Politics at the University of Illinois. “I don’t think Crawford is the important part here. He’s the device. It’s really about Flowers.”

Flowers, 72, fell out of favor with Welch, who removed her from Democratic leadership last year. In a letter to Flowers last May, Welch accused the longtime legislator of “abusive behavior,” including comparing “the appearance of a staff member to Adolph Hitler.”

Flowers has been the state representative for either the 31st or the South Side 21st District since 1985.

“I did not lose. Our democracy lost, when you take into consideration all they had to do to destroy me,” Flowers said after the election was called for her opponent.

Referring to the large amount of money put into the race, she added: “Can you imagine all we could have done in the Auburn Gresham area with that money?”

In an interview, Crawford said he’s “someone who’s going to serve that 31st District with transparency [and] dignity,” adding “the 31st District is someplace where everyone feels welcome, is valued and has a voice in Springfield. And we haven’t been getting that from Flowers.”

In his victory speech, Crawford said he hoped the headlines would not focus only on him taking down a longtime incumbent.

“I hope that the headline is that we got one step closer to providing full funding for our public schools, with a focus on our diverse learners who are more vulnerable, supporting women’s rights, supporting workers and addressing the epidemic of violence in our community,” he told a cheering crowd at the Black Fire Brigade on the South Side.

That’s not how one Flowers supporter saw it.

Ella Echols, 76, a longtime Auburn Gresham resident and Flowers supporter questioned what Crawford will do for her community.

“What has he contributed to the community?” she asked. “Before this, no one had heard of Michael Crawford.”

Echols was particularly turned off by negative ads from Crawford’s campaign.

“Among all the adverse stuff going on here, some women, some people would have folded. But she’s a strong Black woman,” Echols said, referring to Flowers.

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Graciela Guzmán defeated state Sen. Natalie Toro, who was appointed to the 20th District last year.

In that race, Senate Democrats and unions raised an eye-popping $2.6 million.

With 80% of the vote counted, Guzmán was declared the winner over Toro, defeating her with almost 50% of the vote to Toro’s 30%.

Guzman won despite raising less than $658,000, or about a quarter of the amount of money Toro received from the Democrats in the Senate and unions.

Toro, 36, replaced Cristina Pacione-Zayas, who left to join then-newly elected Mayor Brandon Johnson as one of his top advisers.

Guzmán, 35, was previously chief of staff to Pacione-Zayas and was in the running for the Senate appointment.

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Emmanuel Camarillo/Sun-Times

Though her challenge to U.S. Rep. Danny Davis fell well short in the 7th Congressional District, loud cheers and applause broke out as progressive activist Kina Collins, walked into her West Town election night party, wearing keffiyeh draped around her shoulders.

Collins thanked her team for their work, and her supporters for their efforts during her third campaign for the West Side House seat. Collins said she was proud that her campaign stuck to her progressive values.

“I was so proud, that our campaign stood on our morals, stood on our values no matter what the political consultants told us, because 20 years from now when we look back at this, they’re going to say the Collins campaign was on the right side of history.”

Collins suggested the vote was split because of the number of candidates in the race, and lamented the low voter turnout, She said Democratic Party leadership “needs to do better.”

“If we can’t get people excited about voting for a state’s attorneys race, voting to Bring Chicago Home, voting to do things that help people in our community, we have a big hill to climb in November.”

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Larry Rogers Jr., the longest-serving member of Cook County’s property tax appeal agency, defeated challenger Larecia Tucker in Tuesday’s Democratic primary.

Rogers — who has represented much of the South Side and the south suburbs for 20 years — sought the party nomination for a sixth term as one of three commissioners on the county’s Board of Review.

As of 8:45 p.m. on election night, Rogers had 61% of the vote to 39% for Tucker, with 86% of the precincts counted, according to unofficial returns.

Rogers’ victory marks a massive setback for Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi, who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to try to defeat Rogers. Kaegi and Tucker had painted Rogers as an obstacle to efforts to reform the allegedly unfair property tax system in the county.

But Rogers accused Kaegi of acting unethically, noting that the Board of Review has the power to overrule Kaegi’s office and lower assessments for property owners who appeal the initial valuation of their real estate.

Rogers argued during the campaign that it was a conflict of interest for Kaegi to almost entirely fund his challenger and try to replace him with an ally at the agency that checks the assessor’s work.

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Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times

Chicago City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin conceded and congratulated U.S. Rep. Davis shortly after walking into Manny’s Deli in the South Loop, where a crowd of supporters had gathered to cheer for her on what ended up being a short night in the 7th District.

“I want you all to look at this as the beginning,” Conyears-Ervin said, smiling to the crowd and hinting at a future run.

Joined by her husband, Ald. Jason Ervin, she said her “heart was full,” as she reflected on her upbringing in Englewood and the city’s West Side. She told the crowd that she felt like she won Tuesday morning when her daughter, Jeneva, joined her at the polls.

“When that 7-year-old Black girl saw a Black woman on the ballot for United States Congress,” she said at a podium decorated with pink and silver balloons.

Conyears-Ervin said she didn’t understand the results, but she was willing to accept it citing her religious faith.

“I’ve learned in this life that there will be disappointments, but trust the process,” she said to applause from the crowd. “Now, I was born and raised in the 7th Congressional District, if I haven’t gone nowhere up until this point, don’t worry, I’m still here.”

She told the crowd she would remember her mother’s advice and hold her head up high amid the loss.

The jubilant crowd had snacked on bite-size deli sandwiches and cookies. One supporter shouted, “I don’t know why you didn’t win, though.” the man said as the crowd laughed.

Patricia Franklin, 62, was holding her breath as she waited at a watch party for results to trickle in Tuesday night on the referendum known as Bring Chicago Home.

Franklin has experienced homelessness herself, and she recounted the toll the instability can have on children as she sat next to her grandson.

“My grandkids when we first got our apartment, we all slept in the same bed, because they was so afraid of going to place to place to place to place,” Franklin said.

Franklin has been in her own place for seven years now and lives in the Grand Crossing neighborhood. She’s been part of organizers’ campaign “from the beginning” over five years ago, and is a grassroots leader for the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless. She hopes the referendum can be a chance to show “that there is love and kindness in Chicago.”

“When you die, you can take anything with you. When you leave, leave something to show that you did care about something other than money,” Franklin said. “Because money is going to be here always, and it would be nice if you share with those that didn’t have — that don’t have.”

With 71% of the votes counted, opponents to the referendum were leading with 54.1% of the vote to the 45.9% in support, according to AP estimates as of 8:40 p.m.

Franklin had been at the polls all morning educating voters. She’s hopeful, but vowed she would be right back to campaigning if the referendum failed to pass.

“I’ve got my fingers crossed and I really hope it passes. But if not, I’ll be door-knocking and phone-calling to try to get it for November. Maybe we’ll have a better turnout.”

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

About 100 people are gathered at Taste 222 on the Near West Side, watching election results come in for Cook County State’s Attorney candidate Clayton Harris.

As supporters ate and drank, Harris remained in a backroom and has yet to make a public appearance. There is growing concern among supporters as Harris so far trailed Eileen O’Neill Burke.

One supporter, Al Penn, says Harris remains confident that he can win.

Harris, the former director of the Illinois International Port District, has the backing of Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.

Eileen O’Neill Burke, who stepped down from a seat on the appellate court to run for state’s attorney, took an early lead Tuesday night against her opponent Clayton Harris III.

As of 8:20 p.m., with 73% of votes counted, Burke was leading with 52.2% of the estimated vote to Harris’s 47.8%, according to the Associated Press.

The returns showed Burke ahead by nine points in the suburbs, where 93% of the vote was in, and leading Harris in the city by nearly two points with 77% of votes tallied.

Whoever wins the Democratic primary election would still face a Republican and a Libertarian challenger in the general election, but a Democrat has won every election since 1992 — making the state’s attorney’s race one of the closest watched and most consequential.

The race pitted Harris, a former political aide with the backing of the county’s Democratic Party, against Burke, a former assistant state’s attorney and appellate court justice.

The national narrative involving former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden has centered on two widely unpopular candidates, each facing potentially consequential pockets of strife within their own parties.

Tuesday’s Illinois vote hinted that some voters here wanted alternatives, and some voters appeared simply to have tuned out.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who dropped out of the presidential campaign earlier this month, was on Illinois’ GOP presidential ballot, as were Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who both folded up their tents in January.

In early voting, Haley drew 18% of the vote among Illinois Republicans, while DeSantis had 2.6% and Christie 1.7%.

In some vote-rich suburban areas, the anyone-but-Trump voting bloc also was evident, suggesting possible weakness for the GOP candidate in an electorally significant part of Illinois’ voting map. In DuPage County, for example, Trump’s Republican opponents accounted for more than 35% of the vote with a third of votes counted, according to AP estimates.

In other GOP primaries since Super Tuesday, the combined anti-Trump vote topped 40% in two states and eclipsed 30% in four others.

Biden, meanwhile, has faced headwinds from within his party over his handling of the Israel-Hamas war.

Palestinian and Muslim activists called on Democratic voters to either leave the presidential choice on the ballot blank or write in “Gaza” to protest Biden’s handling of the war effort. State election officials, however, said write-in ballots will be counted only for official write-in candidates, leaving Biden’s overall raw vote total as the only potential measurement of the protest’s effect.

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2024 Presidential Election

Elections

Trump, Biden win Illinois primaries as they gear up for a rematch

Chicago voter turnout was at or near historic lows with both major parties nominating the same presidential candidates as in 2020.

By Dave McKinney | WBEZ and Jon Seidel

 

Columnists

Trump goes on 'hamburger offensive' against J.B. Pritzker

The Biden-Trump rematch is going to be a long, grueling, draining slog until Nov. 5, Lynn Sweet writes.

By Lynn Sweet

 

The Watchdogs

Who's giving the big money in Illinois to Biden and Trump?

Using data from the Federal Election Commission, the Sun-Times and WBEZ analyzed the money from Illinois pumped into the 2024 race for the White House.

By Lynn Sweet and Matt Kiefer

 

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Incumbent Illinois Supreme Court Justice Joy Virginia Cunningham declared victory in her primary. She held a commanding lead to hold her seat Tuesday night over challenger Jesse Reyes in his second bid to become the court’s first Latino justice.

Their Democratic primary contest between two highly qualified and experienced candidates focused on racial identity.

Throughout the evening, Cunningham consistently led with about 75% of the vote, while Reyes had 25%, according to Associated Press results reporting 70% of votes counted.

“I am truly humbled, honored and prepared to serve you as your Supreme Court justice,” Cunningham told her supporters. “This victory is not just mine, it’s our victory.”

She did not say whether she had spoken with Reyes or whether his campaign had conceded.

Cunningham, the second-ever Black woman justice in Illinois, was appointed to the seat in 2022 to fill a vacancy left by retiring Chief Justice Anne Burke. Reyes, an appellate justice, launched his challenge not on complaints about her performance but on grounds that Latinos have grown to make up more than 25% of Cook County’s population — and should be represented on the state’s highest court.

With no Republicans running as candidates in the First District, one of three seats representing the uber-Democratic Cook County, Cunningham will likely run unopposed in November’s general election for a 10-year term. The Democratic party endorsed her over Reyes.

It’s likely that Democrats will maintain their 5-2 majority on the Supreme Court, but both candidates argued that their contest matters especially now that state supreme courts have been asked to weigh in on national issues, such as voting rights and reproductive rights.

In an interview with the Sun-Times in January, Cunningham called Illinois “an oasis in a desert of red states and suppressed rights in many respects… State supreme courts are now at the forefront of guarding constitutional rights for the people who live within their borders because the federal courts have stepped away from the protections that we previously looked to the federal courts to give us.”

Illinois’ Supreme Court also acts as the administrative authority for all state courts — in addition to ruling on cases. Following the implementation of the SAFE-T Act, which eliminated cash bail and required major changes to court operations, Illinois appellate courts have confronted new procedural challenges.

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In the redrawn 11th Congressional District, Rep. Bill Foster has defeated Naperville human rights attorney Qasim Rashid in the Democratic primary. AP has called the race for Foster, who leads 77.6% with 36% of votes counted. Rashid trailed with 22.4% of the vote.

Foster, a largely under-the-radar congressman, was first elected to Congress in 2008. The sprawling 11th district — considered solid Democratic turf — now encompasses most of McHenry and Kane counties and parts of Boone, DeKalb, DuPage, Cook, Lake and Will counties.

Rashid, who immigrated to the U.S. from Pakistan when he was 5, made the Israel-Hamas war a focal point of his campaign, highlighting how he and Foster differed in their approach to the conflict.

Foster told the Sun-Times in late January that while he is “very unhappy with the conduct of the Israeli government,” he does not support a cease-fire.

At a Jan. 24 forum, Rashid said: “Democracy is on the ballot,” adding the U.S. should be leading from the front.

Foster did not hold an election night party on Tuesday.

Notable race results

Elections

Did Gaza protest vote make a mark on Illinois primary and impact support for Biden?

By Nader Issa

 

City Hall

City Council's Progressive Caucus responds to 'Bring Chicago Home' defeat with 'we heard you' humility

By Fran Spielman

 

Elections

Bring Chicago Home map: View which precincts voted for and against the referendum

By Jesse Howe, Matt Kiefer, and 1 more

 

Elections

Progress report? Election brings mix of cheers and tears for Chicago progressives

By Mitchell Armentrout

 

Cook County Board Commissioner Tara Stamps is facing a Democratic primary challenge Tuesday.

Stamps is a close ally of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.

As of 8 p.m., Stamps had a huge lead, with 85% of the vote to 15% for challenger Zerlina Smith-Members.

The longest-serving member of Cook County’s property tax appeal agency was poised to overcome a big-money effort to unseat him in Tuesday’s Democratic primary.

Personal injury lawyer Larry Rogers Jr. — who has represented much of the South Side and the south suburbs for 20 years — sought the party nomination for a sixth term as one of three commissioners on the county’s Board of Review.

As of 8 p.m. on election night, Rogers enjoyed a big lead, with 61% of the vote to 39% for challenger Larecia Tucker, with 79% of the precincts counted, according to unofficial returns.

A Rogers victory would mark a massive setback for Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi, who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to try to defeat Rogers. Kaegi and Tucker had painted Rogers as an obstacle to efforts to reform the allegedly unfair property tax system in the county.

But Rogers accused Kaegi of acting unethically, noting that the Board of Review has the power to overrule Kaegi’s office and lower assessments for property owners who appeal the initial valuation of their real estate.

Rogers argued during the campaign that it was a conflict of interest for Kaegi to almost entirely fund his challenger and try to replace him with an ally at the agency that checks the assessor’s work.

Kaegi described the campaign to defeat Rogers as the next stage of his long-running, good-government efforts. Kaegi is in his second term as assessor, having unseated the former county Democratic boss Joseph Berrios in the 2018 election with promises of “equity and transparency and fairness to a broken property tax system that was stacked against middle-class residents.”

As of Tuesday, Kaegi had contributed $680,000 to his new political action committee, Stop Tax Corruption Cook County, which was focused on beating Rogers. Tucker’s campaign got more than $50,000 from Kaegi, records show

Rogers countered by loaning his campaign $850,000 of his own money in the last month of the race to try to defeat Tucker’s challenge. He also has received heavy support from lawyers representing property owners who appealed their taxes.

In the latest disagreement between Rogers and Kaegi, the Board of Review lowered the assessor’s valuation of the Arlington Park property where the Chicago Bears have proposed building a new football stadium.

Tucker works for Rich Township government and is a real estate agent. She had promised to be independent of Kaegi, if elected.

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Mayor Brandon Johnson and the progressive movement behind him were looking at the possibility of a humiliating defeat Tuesday in their effort to create a dedicated funding source to reduce homelessness.

With more than four-fifths of the precincts counted, 54% of those voting — nearly 133,000 people — had cast “no” votes, opposing a binding referendum that would authorize the City Council to raise the real estate transfer tax on high-end property transactions to generate an estimated $100 million in annual revenue. That money would be used for housing programs and other assistance to homeless Chicagoans. “Yes” votes stood at nearly 112,000.

The lowest turnout in at least 80 years for a presidential primary would appear to favor the Chicago Teachers Union, CTU-affiliated United Working Families and progressive unions that had already proven their ability to turn out their own voters in a low turnout election by electing Johnson nearly one year ago. They also were backing the referendum this year.

But voters appear to have been more swayed by the Building Owners and Managers Association and other monied real estate and business interests that had mounted a furious campaign to block the referendum, first in the courts, then through television commercials urging voters to reject, what they claim, amounts to a back-door property tax increase that would raise rents.

The $2 million-plus campaign questioned Johnson’s handling of violent crime and the migrant crisis and asked disgruntled voters whether they were prepared to give the mayor $100 million to spend without specifying how.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

U.S. Rep. Danny Davis maintained his grip on the West Side district he’s represented for nearly three decades, and U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García brushed aside the first primary challenge of his congressional career.

With 59% of votes counted in the 7th Congressional District, Davis had 52% of the vote compared to 21% for Conyears-Ervin and 19% for progressive activist Kina Collins, according to Associated Press estimates.

Teacher Nikhil Bhatia had 5%, and Kouri Marshall, a former deputy director to Gov. J.B. Pritzker had 3%.

With 47% of votes counted in the 4th Congressional District, which stretches from the Southwest Side to Oak Brook and other west suburbs, U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García had nearly 70% of the vote over about 31% for Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th).

There are just under 100 people seated inside the gymnasium of Full Armor Christian Academy — a private, Christian school run by Darren Bailey. Bailey, who ran against Governor J.B. Pritzker as the Republican candidate in 2022, is vying for incumbent Mike Bost’s seat in the 12th Congressional race.

The atmosphere inside the school is very casual and laid-back, with quiet country music and two monitors showing Fox News on in the background.

Attendees are in jeans and T-shirts, enjoying Southern-style cooking — mashed potatoes, pulled pork, green bean casseroles — on folding tables draped with red table cloth, while kids run around playing with balloons on the gym floor.

Though Bailey did not receive former President Donald Trump’s coveted endorsement, many attendees are wearing Trump 2024 hats, T-shirts and pins. There are even yard signs around the 1,200-person town of Louisville — where the party is at — that read Bailey “Fights like Trump.”

Victor Hilitski/For the Sun-Times

Incumbent Iris Martinez is trailing challenger Mariyana Spyropoulos in the Democratic primary race for Cook County Circuit Court Clerk.

Spyropoulos, a commissioner on the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District board who had far more campaign contributions and the backing of the county Democratic Party, had 67% of the vote, compared with Martinez’ 33%, with nearly half of the Associated Press’ estimated votes counted as of 7:50 p.m.

Cook County tilts Democrat, so whoever wins the Democratic primary is likely to win the election in November. Lupe Aguirre is on the Republican ballot seeking the office. Michael Murphy is running as a Libertarian.

The clerk oversees one of the largest circuit court systems in the nation, with tens of millions of documents and some 1,400 workers. The clerk’s role is mostly administrative. The circuit court houses everything from criminal cases to divorce filings, but this office is fiercely political.

In 2020, Martinez won even though the Democratic Party endorsed another candidate. Two years later, Martinez backed candidates in other races who weren’t endorsed by party leaders, ruffling feathers in a political organization that thrives on loyalty.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

This time around, the Democratic Party endorsed Spyropoulos, an attorney who had about $267,000 in campaign contributions on hand as of Dec. 31 — at least five times more than Martinez, state campaign finance records show. Then in February, Spyropoulos poured more than $1 million of her own money into the race, records show.

Spyropoulos has also wooed other big endorsements, including the Chicago Teachers Union, the Teamers Local 700 that represents Martinez’s unionized employees, and more than a dozen suburban mayors.

Martinez has countered that she ran against the Democratic Party because there was no Latino or Latina at the top of the ticket for a countywide office. Her supporters include Democratic U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly from south suburban Matteson,unions representing Chicago firefighters and construction workers and at least a dozen state lawmakers and Chicago alderpeople.

Martinez was the first Latina in the state Senate, where she spent 17 years, rising to assistant majority leader. She ran for clerk after Dorothy Brown decided not to seek reelection after 20 years in office. Brown’s tenure was mired in scandal, from the infamous policy of charging employees to wear jeans to work, to accusations of selling jobs and promotions.

Martinez lists among her accomplishments modernizing the circuit court system, digitizing all 49 million cases going back to 1970, representing about 71 million document IDs. One ID may have multiple pages. Documents previous to 1970 are digitized on microfilm. She has opened a domestic violence survivor center and a department where residents can get help expunging their criminal records.

There’s criticism though that the courts are still disorganized and that it can be hard to find files, delaying people’s cases. Last year, WBEZ revealed the county had been erroneously putting felonies on the records of people in some diversion programs for at least three years. Martinez’s office said Chief Judge Timothy Evans was ultimately responsible because the Circuit Court Clerk’s office takes orders from him.

In February, the Illinois Answers Project reported that the clerk’s office accidentally exposed online the names of at least 5,000 children charged with crimes, violating state law. A spokesman for Martinez responded that any potential exposure was brief and limited in nature.

Among Spyropoulos’ goals if she wins is to push to have the court system, including judges, subject to Illinois’ public records laws.

Tuesday is expected to go down in Chicago history as the lowest voter turnout for a presidential primary in at least 80 years.

“I sure wish I had some better news looking at the numbers, but we are looking at a shockingly low turnout,” Max Bever, of the Chicago Board of Elections, told reporters Tuesday afternoon.

When the polls closed at 7 p.m., turnout was hovering around 20.24%, with 343,639 votes cast, which includes vote-by-mail and early voting ballots. For this election, 1.6 million people are registered to vote.

In 2012, turnout was the lowest for a Chicago presidential primary since 1944, the earliest presidential year for which data were available. There were 1.2 million registered voters and 315,000 votes were cast, resulting in a turnout of 24.6%. Twelve years ago, voters had little reason to come to the polls — incumbent President Barack Obama ran unopposed in the Democratic primary, and there were few hotly contested races.

Turnout Tuesday was lower compared to not only previous presidential primaries, but also recent municipal and midterm elections, which typically bring fewer people out to vote, Bever said.

Part of the reason comes down to the presidential race at the top of the ballot, said Bever, director of public information for the election board. President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have already secured the votes needed to earn their nominations this summer.

“We see low turnout when there is not much competition at the top of the ballot,” Bever said. “And this year, we are also seeing a rematch, which can be tough for voters.”

Voters ages 65-74 cast the most ballots at 70,181 ballots, or 20.42%. Voters ages 17-24 cast the fewest at 12,160 ballots were cast, or 3.53%.

The low turnout was obvious at the polls throughout the day. Sun-Times reporters out at the polls to talk to voters sometimes found few they could interview, with long stretches during which no voters were showing up at some precincts.

The citywide low turnout surprised John Sanchez, a poll watcher at the West Englewood branch of the Chicago Public Library. Even though the presidential election is pretty much decided, he expected more people to care about the local races.

But Verna Swan, 67, wasn’t surprised — given, she said, how dissatisfied people are with the choices for president.

“Some don’t want Trump, some don’t want Biden, so they’re neutral,” Swan said. “I say let Biden have another four years, then when Trump gets out of jail, he can run again.”

Over on the North Side in Uptown, resident Moriah Safford was disappointed to see so few voters showing up.

There was no line to vote at John T. McCutcheon Elementary School, where she cast her ballot Tuesday evening.

“I don’t think our system is set up to teach people the value of all elections,” Safford said. “People always focus on their presidents’ elections or their mayors, but I don’t think people realize this is going to set the tone for the next two, four, eight years. … We’re gonna see the effect of today a year from now.

“People want to sit and complain nothing’s being done or nothing is being fixed,” she added. “One vote can change the outcome. … It’s just a little disheartening to know a very small portion of Chicago turned out today.”

As of noon Tuesday, about 9,000 to 10,000 votes were coming in each hour. By comparison, during the last two presidential primaries in 2016 and 2020, 16,000 to 28,000 ballots were cast per hour.

Some wards had a higher turnout than others, Bever said. The 3rd, 4th and 19th wards on the South Side had stronger voter turnouts, as did the 42nd ward downtown and 41st, 43rd and 47th wards on the North Side.

“Generally, wherever there are more competitive races, that’s where more people are turning out,” he said, citing the crowded 7th Congressional District race as an example.

Low turnout means the election board will have results sooner, Bever said. But it also means some races may be close Tuesday night, especially the citywide referendum and state’s attorney race.

“With this low turnout that we see, if those races are close, ultimately campaigns, candidates, other officials may not feel comfortable ultimately conceding or making a decision tonight,” Bever said.

Early voting and any vote-by-mail ballots that arrived on Monday will be counted and reported in Tuesday night’s results, which each make up about 25% of all votes, Bever said. But mail-in ballots postmarked Tuesday will be counted over the next two weeks, he added.

Contributing: Violet Miller, Dorothy Hernandez

On an Election Day with only a handful of contentious races for elected office, it was a few hot-button issues that sent Chicago voters to the polls more than an affinity for particular candidates in Tuesday’s Illinois primaries.

The Bring Chicago Home ballot referendum was the talk of the town — at least among the small number of people who actually turned out to vote. The initiative would establish a one-time real-estate transfer tax on properties valued $1 million or more to create a dedicated revenue stream to address homelessness.

“People with resources should be sharing more, there’s enough for everyone to have a decent quality of life,” said Ayanah Moor, a Humboldt Park resident whose number one issue going into the primary was housing. “Costs are already high without that tax, so I don’t buy that [it will increase prices more].”

Crystal Chiang cared deeply about homelessness, too, and said she wanted to “see homeless people in the city cared for.”

But she was wary of Bring Chicago Home because “the language is so vague and confusing, I had to read it like six times to really understand the question,” Chiang said as she headed into her polling place at the Talcott Fine Arts and Museum Academy in the West Town neighborhood Tuesday morning.

“How will you use that money?” Chiang asked. “What are you actually going to do to help homelessness? Will the city create more housing? Help people with jobs? It just seems like it’s all talking points.”

Scott Wahrenbrock, an Old Town resident, was another voter looking for more information on his choices. He said it was hard to really know the candidates he had to pick from as he exited the polls at the Chicago Public Library North Town branch.

“I’ve never been as uninformed as I’ve been in Chicago,” said Wahrenbrock, having moved from Washington, D.C., a couple years ago.

Wahenbrock did know who he’d vote for in the Democratic presidential primary, though: No one.

He said he left the line blank because he wanted President Joe Biden to cut support for Israel and call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

He also said he wanted to support Bring Chicago Home but didn’t “trust the city to get a block of money without deciding what to do with it.”

West Town resident Jessica Malcolm turned out to vote because she wanted a fresh face representing her in the 7th U.S. Congressional District.

“I love [U.S. Rep.] Danny Davis, he has done tremendous work, but we need some new blood,” Malcolm said.

Davis, who has represented the district for 28 years, faces a crowded primary ballot as he tries to hold on for a 15th consecutive term.

“I don’t want lifelong politicians, they shouldn’t be spending their entire careers in elected office,” Malcolm said.

Dakul and Ashima Malhotra didn’t have one particular issue they felt strongly about, but they skipped early voting because they wanted to take the time to look into candidates beyond the dozens of mailers they had received.

“I get careful about that,” said Dakul Malhotra, as the couple walked their dog Cooper in front of their polling place at Kilbourn Park. “Just because someone has a lot of advertising money doesn’t mean they’re the right person. We can’t just show up… we gotta do that research.”

U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García on Tuesday fended off an energetic Democratic primary challenge from Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th), paving the progressive incumbent’s way toward a fourth term in Washington.

With 40% of the votes counted in the 4th Congressional District stretching from the Southwest Side to the western suburbs, García had 69.4%% of the vote, while Lopez had 30.6%, according to AP estimates.

There was little drama in the results called shortly after the polls closed, but allegations of campaign shenanigans flew throughout Election Day.

García’s campaign reported Lopez allies were spotted giving away coffee, doughnuts and “envelopes of cash” to poll workers in the City Council member’s own South Side ward.

Lopez, who’s also the ward committeeperson, acknowledged as much, saying the $50 was to provide lunch for workers, which isn’t covered by the city election board.

While García’s campaign called for an investigation, Lopez said the incumbent has a “lack of respect for election judges.”

An election board spokesman called it “a longstanding tradition” for committeepeople to provide refreshments for poll workers, but said any complaints about the money would be handled by the election fraud division of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. No formal complaints had been filed as of Tuesday afternoon.

The primary race saw Lopez challenge Garcia from the right, criticizing the incumbent as out of touch with a majority-Latino district redrawn to include Hinsdale, Oak Brook and other west suburbs.

Garcia — a fixture in Chicago politics for four decades as an alderperson, Cook County commissioner, state senator and two-time mayoral candidate — raised more than $487,000 in the campaign to retain the seat he’s held since 2019.

Lopez — a former Midway Airport skycap, and one of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s most vocal critics — raised about $72,000 for his upstart bid, the first primary challenge Garcia has had since taking office.

Though Lopez, in Fox News appearances, called on President Joe Biden to crack down at the southern U.S. border, both candidates called for increased federal resources for cities dealing with the influx of asylum-seekers — and protections for Dreamers, people who were brought into the country illegally as youths.

They diverged on the Israel-Hamas war, with Garcia calling for a ceasefire and Lopez against such a measure unless “all the [Israeli] hostages and bodily remains are returned unconditionally.”

Garcia doesn’t have any opponents in November’s general election.

Declaring victory in the 4th District, García fired off a confetti cannon during his victory speech with supporters in Brighton Park.

“Tonight we showed everyone across the country that are paying close attention to this race, that hate and the right-wing attempt to hijack our movement will not succeed,” the longtime progressive leader said. “There’s been a clear attack against immigrants, against women, against African Americans, against Muslims and the LGBTQ community. Our work together will be tough, but we are tougher.”

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Incumbent U.S. Rep. Sean Casten easily defeated his two Democratic challengers: political newcomer Mahnoor Ahmad and Charles Hughes, in the 6th Congressional District.

Casten held a huge fundraising advantage as he seeks his fourth term in Congress.

AP has called the race for Casten, who leads 72.6% with 33% of votes counted. Ahmad trailed in second with 15.7%.

Casten, 52, did not hold an election night party on Tuesday.

Retired Illinois appellate judge Eileen O’Neill Burke’s supporters are streaming into a basement party room under an office tower in downtown Chicago.

They include police officers wearing kilts — part of a bagpipe troupe that plants to play later.

Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza arrived early. She has given one interview after another to TV stations.

Also on hand is former Chicago Ald. Roderick Sawyer, a South Sider who ran unsuccessfully for mayor last year and was one of just five Black current or former Chicago elected officials that O’Neill Burke listed as endorsers as of last week, a small of fraction of the African American support for her opponent, Clayton Harris III.

O’Neill Burke raised more than $3.2 million for this primary race — nearly three times what Harris brought in. That money enabled her to flood airwaves with ads about her experience as a prosecutor, defense attorney and judge and with a slew of attack ads against Harris.

The party is getting bigger but, with a tight vote count so far, the mood remains subdued.

Supporters of the ballot referendum, known as Bring Chicago Home, are beginning to set up at the election night watch party at Intentional Sports in the Austin neighborhood.

Basketball games are still going on outside the auditorium at the sports nonprofit, where dozens of tables were being draped with black tablecloths and vases of flowers ahead of attendees’ expected arrival at 8:30 p.m.

Voters will be deciding whether the city should increase a one-time tax on the sale of high-end properties to raise money for homelessness prevention. Under the proposal, the current flat tax rate of .75% would be decreased for the proportion of property valued under $1 million and increased at higher rates for the portion of property valued over $1 million and $1.5 million.

The referendum survived an 11th-hour lawsuit from real estate industry groups opposed to the measure. Just last week, the Illinois Supreme Court affirmed votes cast for and against the referendum will be counted.

Downtown Murphysboro was quiet as the polls closed and as representatives for U.S. Rep. Mike Bost rolled up to Brews Brothers Tap Room.

They stepped out of a black SUV and started unloading large signs from the back, greeting a handful of supporters and an outsized contingent of news media.

They quickly set up a stage in a dimly lit side room while some supporters started nibbling on cold cuts and Triscuit crackers.

It’s been a surprisingly hard-fought primary for Bost, who faces former gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey, who has run to the right of Bost.

Even though Bost received the coveted endorsement of Donald Trump, recent polling indicated Bailey faring better with younger voters. — Alex Degman, WBEZ

According to the Chicago Board of Elections, as of 7 p.m., 343,639 total ballots had been counted, including electronic voting and vote by mail.

So far, the citywide turnout is roughly 20.24%.

There are 1,509,554 active registered voters in Chicago.

When city officials reported turnout numbers at about 12 p.m., turnout at the polls was around 12% and about 9,000 to 10,000 votes were coming in each hour. By comparison, during the last two presidential primaries in 2016 and 2020, 16,000 to 28,000 ballots were cast per hour.

In Auburn Gresham, at the watch party for Rep. Mary Flowers and Ald. David Moore (17th) — in the race for committeeperson — DJ Reggie Stanford, 49, is starting off the night at the smooth and easy 65 beats per minute of classic Chicago stepping music.

But the longtime DJ and slowly gathering crowd are hoping eventually they’ll have a reason to bring the party of up to the lively 125 beats per minute of Earth, Wind and Fire’s “Celebrate.”

“I’m hoping Mary Flowers will be able to beat the onslaught of what, let’s just call it the Machine, has put up against her, a little lady,” said Leo D. Webster, a supporter of the well-established South Side legislator. “The power in an elected body lies in seniority, with it comes wisdom and knowledge.”

At Moe’s Cantina Tuesday night, Judge Jesse Reyes’ wife Terry greeted campaign staff and volunteers at the door ahead of results reported in the Democratic primary for one of Cook County’s three Illinois Supreme Court seats.

Reyes’ team was hanging signs throughout the brightly lit River North bar as Pilsen-based restaurant 5 Rabanitos set up food in the back — chips and salsa, guacamole and elotes. At the bar, folks could get a couple of free drinks: beer, wine or margaritas as bachata music played over the speakers.

Reyes is challenging Joy Virginia Cunningham who was appointed to the seat in 2022, the second-ever Black woman justice in Illinois, tapped to fill a vacancy left by retiring Chief Justice Anne Burke. Reyes, an appellate justice, launched his challenge not on complaints about her performance but on grounds that Latinos have grown to make up more than 25% of Cook County’s population — and should be represented on the state’s highest court.

Reyes cast a ballot Tuesday morning at the Mercy Meeting Place in Mount Greenwood.

Making the rounds earlier Tuesday, Cunningham had lunch with Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle at Valois in Hyde Park. She’s hosting her party in Uptown at Holiday Club.

Manuel Martinez/WBEZ

Inside Crawford’s Food & Spirits on the Northwest Side, a small stage flanked with campaign signs awaits incumbent Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Iris Martinez.

UB40’s “Red Red Wine” blares in the background as at least a dozen supporters sip on drinks. Guillermo Garcia, 61, is nursing a beer. He said he’s been here for a few hours and hopes for a Martinez victory.

“I think she’s done a great job in reforming” the circuit court system, Garcia said, pointing to Martinez’s efforts to modernize an office charged with managing millions of court files.

Martinez is up against attorney Mariyana Spyropoulos, who has amassed far more in campaign contributions and the influential endorsement of the Cook County Democratic Party. Martinez has been on the outs with party leaders after running — and winning — against the party-backed candidate in 2020, and backing candidates for other offices who weren’t endorsed by the party.

AP Photos

Eliciting an electoral ho-hum from voters, Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican former President Donald Trump notched lopsided wins Tuesday amid one of the worst voter turnouts for a Chicago presidential primary since at least World War II.

Shortly after the polls closed, the Associated Press declared both candidates winners.

Tuesday’s vote offered only bragging rights to the candidates after decisive primaries last week in Georgia, Mississippi and Washington state made both Biden and Trump the presumptive presidential nominees for their respective parties.

Chicagoans stayed away from polling places in droves, with voter turnout hovering at slightly below 17% as of 5 pm.

That percentage would be the lowest in any presidential primary in the city in 82 years, city election board data showed. Chicago turnout was 38% four years ago and 54% in the 2016 primary.

The polls have closed in the 2024 Illinois Primary Election.

Find the live results here.

One of the most closely watched races pits former judge Eileen O’Neill Burke against University of Chicago lecturer Clayton Harris III in the Cook County State’s Attorney contest, which will leave the winner heavily favored to replace Kim Foxx.

Voters also weighed in on the Bring Chicago Home referendum, several congressional races, statehouse races, the presidential primaries and more.

“Bring Chicago Home” is the only thing that brought Bridgeport voter Kyle Churney to the polls Tuesday evening at Holden Elementary School.

“It’s an equitable, fair and progressive item on the ballot,” Churney said. “Policies like that are the reason I voted for Brandon Johnson.”

He said he was glad the courts left the ballot question up to the voters. Real estate groups had challenged the referendum, which would impose a one-time tax on real-estate transactions valued at $1 million or more.

“It’s up to the people to decide since it’s a matter of the people,” he said.

Churney said he almost didn’t vote in the primary, but made the last-minute decision to show his support for Bring Chicago Home on the ballot.

“It’s the only reason I came out to vote,” he said

Organizers for Ill. U.S. Rep. Danny Davis are decorating a dimly lit event venue on Chicago’s West Side with white and blue balloons, flowers and shimmery table decor, as they wait for polls to close.

With Michael Jackson’s music bumping through the speakers, massive campaign signs sit on both sides of a podium on stage that read “He’s someone you know! He’s someone you can count on!”

Davis seeks a 15th term in Congress after nearly three decades representing the 7th district, which stretches from the western suburbs to Chicago’s lakefront.

Davis faces four other challengers in the Democratic primary race.

Tonight’s winner is all but assured to win November’s general election in this deeply blue district.

Moriah Safford, an Uptown resident for the last three years, said it was sad to see the low turnout from Chicago’s election.

There was no line to vote at John T. McCutcheon Elementary School, where she was walking up to cast her ballot Tuesday evening.

Violet Miller/Sun-Times

“I don’t think our system is set up to teach people the value of all elections,” Safford said. “People always focus on their presidents’ elections or their mayors, but I don’t think people realize this is going to set the tone for the next two, four, eight years. … We’re gonna see the effect of today a year from now.

“People want to sit and complain nothing’s being done or nothing is being fixed,” Safford said. “One vote can change the outcome. … It’s just a little disheartening to know a very small portion of Chicago turned out today.”

Tracie Shavers, another Uptown resident, had come to vote just minutes before Safford, and also made sure to be aware of the lesser-known races.

Shavers, who works for the Chicago Police Department, said she paid extra attention to the judges’ races despite the lack of fanfare around them because of what she’s seen at work.

“I’m aware of the criminals who don’t get stiff penalties,” Shavers said.

As for those not paying attention to the down ballot races?

“I think they need to take voting seriously, take the time out to read and do a little research,” Shavers said.

That didn’t mean Shavers ignored big ticket items, specifically the most contentious part of Tuesday’s ballot: Bring Chicago Home.

She said she voted in favor of the measure because of the rent prices she’s seeing in Uptown.

“The rent around here is high,” Shavers, 53, said. “I’m voting yes so we can hopefully stay at an affordable rate in Uptown.”

Violet Miller/Sun-Times

Safford also voted in favor of the measure and saw the points some critics had made as benefits. She said the ballot question’s ambiguity was a positive because of the opportunity it posed to help Chicagoans from different backgrounds who share the same struggle.

She said it levels the playing field for the shifting goalposts of rising inflation and stagnant wages, and also has the potential to help the city house asylum-seekers.

“The system is not built to help us be a sanctuary city,” Safford, a social worker, said. “It’s something we voted for, it’s something we said we would do, but we have seen that we don’t have all of the supportive systems in place to actually be a sanctuary city.”

She said it also had the potential to affect things like crime.

“When we take away resources, that’s when we see issues arise,” Safford said. “All of this stuff is connected.”

Voter turnout in Chicago continues to be at its lowest in decades for a primary in the city, compared to previous presidential primaries, municipal and midterm elections.

As of 5 p.m., turnout at the polls was at 16.94%. At that time, about 287,621 total ballots had been cast.

As of 3 p.m., turnout at the polls was around 14.95% and about 253,798 total ballots had been cast, including early voting and vote by mail numbers.

There are 1,697,498 active registered voters in Chicago.

John Sanchez has been out poll watching at the West Englewood Chicago Public Library branch since 6 a.m., and by 6 p.m., only 45 people had come to vote.

The citywide low turnout is surprising to Sanchez. Even though the presidential election is pretty much decided, he expected more people to care about the local races.

But Verna Swan, 67, said the low turnout doesn’t surprise her given how dissatisfied people are with the choices for president.

“Some don’t want Trump, some don’t want Biden, so they’re neutral,” Swan said. “I say let Biden have another four years, then when Trump gets out of jail, he can run again.”

Swan, who has lived in West Englewood for 53 years, emphasized how important it is for people to not only get out and vote, but to do their best to learn about the candidates and issues on the ballot.

“It’s important to understand who is in office and who has the power because you need to know whether they have your interests, your community’s interests, your city’s interests at heart,” Swan said.

Polls remain open until 7 p.m.

Melissa Reed, an Avondale resident, had come to vote at Harry S. Truman College Tuesday afternoon because she didn’t have time to vote at the precinct near her home.

Reed said she voted for Bring Chicago Home because it’s a “step in the right direction.”

“I don’t think it’s the solution to all problems,” Reed said. “But hopefully it’ll open the door for more solutions later.”

She also said she’d like to see tax money be spent on the country’s “crumbling” infrastructure, such as the street outside her home that is “more potholes than road.”

She said she hopes moves like that eventually lead to policies like rent control in the city.

Reed also selected a random candidate for president, saying it didn’t matter much who got the vote because “we’re stuck with [President] Biden whether we want him or not.”

She said her biggest gripes were his age and racial politics that are “stuck in 1980.”

“I just don’t like him,” Reed said. “He needs to set his ego aside and let someone more electable run. If we end up with Trump again it will be Biden’s fault as much as anyone else’s.”

Scott Wahrenbrock, an Old Town resident, said it was hard to really know the people on the ballot as he exited the polls at the Chicago Public Library North Town branch.

Violet Miller/Sun-Times

Wahrenbrock said he received more literature on the candidates when he lived in Washington, D.C., where he moved from a little more than two years ago. In the absence of that, he said information was hard to find from paywalled news sources, though his daughter sent him a voter guide to help inform him.

“I’ve never been as uninformed as I’ve been in Chicago,” Wahrenbrock said. “It’s really hard to find information and that’s part of the problem.”

However, he knew who he was voting for president before heading to the polls: no one.

He left the line for the presidential race blank because he wants Biden to cut support for Israel and call for a permanent ceasefire.

“I hoping that support is a little bit lower for him on the Gaza-Israel issue,” Wahrenbrock said. “While it won’t make much of a difference in Illinois, hopefully in the five other states they’ll see a trend occurring. Sometimes we’re left with so little to do.”

He also said he wanted to support Bring Chicago Home — noting the houseless population in Chicago is significant — but said trust hadn’t been established between the city and its residents.

“I like the transfer tax in concept but I don’t trust the city to get a block of money without deciding what to do with it,” Wahrenbrock said.

He wasn’t the only Democrat jaded by elected party officials.

Susan Kelly also went to vote Chicago Public Library North Town branch, and had similar distrust of mayor Brandon Johnson, who she voted for last year.

Violet Miller/Sun-Times

“I’m a little disappointed, I wanted to see a plan,” Kelly said of Bring Chicago Home.

Kelly said she had been frustrated by Johnson’s handling of asylum seekers, specifically by not taking up offers from the Catholic archdiocese to house people for free.

Crime was also on Kelly’s mind and she said she wanted to see a new approach to it. She was less hopeful for a solution, regardless of who makes it to November.

“I don’t know that anybody knows the right answer,” Kelly said.

State’s attorney’s candidate Clayton Harris was among those mingling at the historic Manny’s Deli, where former President-elect Barack Obama grabbed a slice of pie after winning and Richard M. Daley ate a corned beef sandwich before beginning his run as mayor.

Harris ordered a reuben and pastrami before shaking some more hands and heading out.

“This place is always packed. … It’s a staple,” he said excitedly on his way out the door to talk to more voters, stopping briefly to shake hands with former state’s attorney candidate Bob Fioretti.

“See you in November,” they said to each other.

State’s attorney candidate Eileen O’Neill Burke arrived about an hour after her opponent left, and said her campaign “left it all on the field today.”

Burke is no stranger to the restaurant: she showed up Election Day after her appellate court run, but also said she’d been buying corned beef and cabbage at Manny’s for St. Patrick’s day and passing it off to her kids as homemade for years.

“It’s always such a great vibe at Manny’s,” Burke said. “[And] they have way better corned beef than I’ve ever made.”

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Dan Raskin, the fourth generation owner of the family restaurant that has become a magnet for politicians on Election Day, made sure to add some extra staff members but said it’s pretty similar to the usual lunch rush.

He said the annual tradition doesn’t get old, and that it was nice to see the legacy continue without any specific invitations.

“It just came by itself, no one really created it,” Raskin said. “It was just over time that people used us as a meeting place.”

This year, though, DNC delegates also flooded the restaurant, once again bringing the presidential race to the eatery.

“To me, that was a big thing,” Raskin said.

Among the crowd were faces from every level of government, including many from City Council.

Ald. Desmon Yancy (5th) said he was there in part to support Harris and other candidates and friends of his — though he said he’d be keeping an eye on the Bring Chicago Home numbers once they started coming in.

Yancy said his ward, which in part covers South Shore and Hyde Park, would greatly benefit from it given the houseless populations there.

As for those wary of the ballot question’s non-specific language, Yancy said if it were to pass, he’d like to focus on houseless youth but also veterans — a group he said sometimes has a harder time asking for help, which is where city outreach would step in.

“We have to make sure there’s really specific support not just for young people, but also homeless veterans and seniors,” Yancy said. “Having the city chime in on this and come up with a solution is great.”

Politics aside, Yancy said he was glad to be back and eating given he was too busy shaking hands to eat what he’d ordered last year.

“I’m really glad to be here without a race,” Yancy said.

Candidate questionnaires

Clayton Harris III, Cook County State’s Attorney

Candidate questionnaire to help you weigh your choices in the March 19, 2024 Illinois primary.

Eileen O’Neill Burke, Cook County State’s Attorney

Candidate questionnaire to help you weigh your choices in the March 19, 2024 Illinois primary.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Bever said the election board is familiar with the complaint in the 15th Ward involving the race between U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia and Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th). Lopez, who is also the committee person for the 15th Ward, and his team gave out coffee, donuts and cash for lunch to election judges.

“It’s a longstanding tradition in Chicago’s history that generally committee people help feed and bring hydration to election judges,” Bever said. “The board unfortunately is not budgeted to provide lunch or even coffee to election judges.”

The board is unable to investigate whether providing a cash stipend to election judges is an issue, Bever said, so any investigation would be up to the state’s attorney’s election fraud division.

Max Bever, director of public information for the Chicago Board of Elections, shared a midday update on how things were running at the polls on Tuesday.

“I sure wish I had some better news looking at the numbers, but we are looking at a shockingly low turnout,” Bever told reporters.

So far, turnout is much lower compared to previous presidential primaries, municipal and midterm elections, he said.

As of noon, turnout at the polls was around 12% and about 9,000 to 10,000 votes were coming in each hour. By comparison, during the last two presidential primaries in 2016 and 2020, 16,000 to 28,000 ballots were cast per hour.

“We see low turnout when there is not much competition at the top of the ballot,” Bever said at noon. “And this year, we are also seeing a rematch, which can be tough for voters.”

Voters ages 55 and older are showing the largest turnout so far, representing about 68% of the vote. Some wards are also having a higher turnout than others, Bever said.

“Generally, wherever there are more competitive races, that’s where more people are turning out,” he said, pointing to the crowded 7th Congressional District race as an example.

A low turnout does mean the election board will have results sooner, Bever said. But, it also means some races may be close Tuesday night, especially the citywide referendum and state’s attorney race.

“With this low turnout that we see, if those races are close, ultimately campaigns, candidates, other officials may not feel comfortable ultimately conceding or making a decision tonight,” Bever said.

Early voting and any vote-by-mail ballots that arrived on Monday will be counted and reported in Tuesday night’s results, which each make up about 25% of all votes, Bever said.

Other than the low turnout, operations were running smoothly across the city, Bever said. All polling places are fully staffed and only five precincts didn’t open right at 6 a.m. Tuesday morning.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

As of 11:30 a.m., only seven people had stopped by to vote at Bronzeville Classical School, said poll watcher Michelle Waters.

“It’s a very low turnout so far,” said Waters, who had been outside the polling place since early Tuesday morning in Grand Boulevard. “I thought there would be some more action out here today.”

Waters was out campaigning for State Rep. Andre Smith and Kina Collins, who is running against U.S. Rep. Danny Davis for the 7th Congressional District. She’s worked at the polls for years, helping out as an election judge and a poll watcher.

“I like to talk to people, talking to different people,” Waters said. “But I really haven’t seen many today, which is really too bad.”

She’s hopeful things will pick up once school gets out and people get out of work.

Anthony Young and Pamela Allen, both Austin residents who were electioneering for the U.S. Rep. Danny Davis’ campaign, stood outside Malcolm X College’s West Side Learning Center in West Garfield Park Tuesday morning trying to talk to voters on their way to the polls.

Young started electioneering two years ago after he was invited along by some friends. He said he enjoys talking to people, adding that he feels like a Johnny-on-the-spot.

“It’s just good communication and getting to know one another and learn from their experiences and backgrounds too,” Young said.

Allen is a little more experienced — she’s been electioneering for 12 years after her brother-in-law got her into it.

While she had previously volunteered for Ald. Jason Ervin’s campaign, it was her first time working a primary and her first time electioneering outside the school where her mother got her GED.

She was less keen to talk to people since she said voters had a tendency to be mean to electioneers in her experience, so now she just offers up literature.

That doesn’t mean she has had a tough time meeting nice people, though.

It was Allen and Young’s first time working together, and the two bonded over the candy Young brought to hand to voters. Allen said she considered him a friend now, adding another to the list of ones she has made standing outside polling places for more than a decade.

“We’re out here for 12 hours, we gotta find something to talk about,” Allen said.

Violet Miller/Sun-Times

West Town resident Jessica Malcolm wants to see a fresh face representing her in the 7th U.S. Congressional District.

“I love [U.S. Rep.] Danny Davis, he has done tremendous work, but we need some new blood,” Malcolm said.

Davis, who has represented the district for 28 years, faces a crowded primary ballot as he tries to hold on for a 15th consecutive term.

“I don’t want lifelong politicians, they shouldn’t be spending their entire careers in elected office,” Malcolm said.

Malcolm voted for Kina Collins, a community organizer running for the seat a third time. She nearly defeated Davis during the 2022 primary election.

“I think she’d really represent what I care about,” said Malcolm, who is especially impressed by Collins’ work with the Biden-Harris administration on gun violence prevention policies.

Candidate questionnaires

Nikhil Bhatia, Illinois 7th Congressional District

Candidate questionnaire to help you weigh your choices in the March 19, 2024 Illinois primary.

Kina Collins, Illinois 7th Congressional District

Candidate questionnaire to help you weigh your choices in the March 19, 2024 Illinois primary.

Melissa Conyears-Ervin, Illinois 7th Congressional District

Candidate questionnaire to help you weigh your choices in the March 19, 2024 Illinois primary.

Danny Davis, Illinois 7th Congressional District

Candidate questionnaire to help you weigh your choices in the March 19, 2024 Illinois primary.

Helda Diaz has been telling everyone she knows to vote yes on Bring Chicago Home. It was one of the main reasons why she came out to vote in West Town Tuesday morning at Talcott Fine Arts and Museum Academy.

She said she’s noticed some confusing messaging around the real estate transfer tax ballot question, which would be imposed on properties valued $1 million or more.

“The attack ads have been so misleading, trying to say that property taxes are increasing. That is not true, this is a one-time tax you only pay once,” Diaz said.

Diaz, who has lived in the neighborhood for 50 years, said the value of her home has risen. But paying more in taxes is a way for her to help people, she said.

“If you can afford a million dollar home, you can manage a one-time tax,” Diaz said. “You should also be doing your part to help the less fortunate.”

After she voted, Diaz headed to a soup kitchen she volunteers at every Tuesday.

U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” Garcia‘s campaign team started Election Day with an allegation against opponent Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th).

The Congressman’s campaign told the Sun-Times that Lopez’s team members were spotted giving away doughnuts and “envelopes of cash” to election judges in the alderman’s own ward. Volunteers from the Garcia campaign spotted the alleged incidents and subsequently reported them to the Board of Elections, said Garcia campaign spokesperson Manuel Diaz.

Lopez (15th) and his team did provide the election judges with doughnuts, coffee and $50 for lunch, the alderman said, but adds that providing for the polling workers and judges is nothing out of the ordinary, and Rep. Garcia’s team has a “lack of respect for election judges.”

“This is something that goes on across the entire city for individuals who are currently in office, especially as committeeman, who appreciate the hard work that people do on a 13-hour day and anyone trying to make an issue out of this clearly is desperate for attention at the 11th hour,” Lopez said. “There’s nothing saying that we cannot provide doughnuts and coffee to our workers in the polling place at the Board of Elections.”

According to Diaz, the campaign trusts that “Chicago Board of Elections and the Illinois Attorney General’s Office will conduct a thorough and impartial investigation into these matters.”

Update: Both the Chicago Board of Elections and the Illinois State Board of Elections told the Sun-Times that they have not been contacted regarding a complaint.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., stopped at the Chicago Public Library’s Humboldt Park branch on her rounds at her constituents polling places Tuesday morning. She had previously been joined by Ald. Jessie Fuentes (26th) and State Rep. Lilian Jimenez, D-Chicago.

She said turnout had been slow at several locations they’d been to so far, mentioning that as her campaign called voters Tuesday, some didn’t know there was an election.

“It’s just a reminder we have to do a lot of this fieldwork reaching out to voters,” Ramirez said.

As for voter concerns, Ramirez said housing and money were at the top of their lists.

“People are thinking about their finances,”Ramirez said. “I think people want to hear that there’s a plan and a timeline to help them live a quality life.”

Violet Miller/Sun-Times

Ayanah Moor, a Humboldt Park resident, confirmed what Ramirez said, noting that housing was her number one issue going into the primary.

“I think the houseless population in general is just primarily people who need social services,” Moor said. “Just people who can’t keep up with the pace of the cost of housing, veterans and people with substance issues. They’re a population I think we can do a lot more to serve.”

With Bring Chicago Home on the ballot, she said she knew it was a “hot issue,” but didn’t buy into the ad campaign she’d seen against it.

“People with resources should be sharing more, there’s enough for everyone to have a decent quality of life,” Moor said. “Costs are already high without that tax, so I don’t buy that [it will increase prices more].”

Topical ballot questions aside, she said she came to vote to do her civic duty.

“It’s just important to participate in the process,” Moor said.

Violet Miller/Sun-Times

Crystal Chiang had a lot on her mind heading into her polling place at the Talcott Fine Arts and Museum Academy in the West Town neighborhood Tuesday morning.

“There’s so much to care about,” Chiang said.

Locally, homelessness and crime are two important issues she’d like the city to handle better.

“I want to see homeless people in the city cared for,” Chiagn said. “I want to see crime addressed, but not by just putting more cops on the streets. I think the root causes of crime and the many inequities in our city need to be addressed.”

While she’s all for the city doing more to prevent homelessness, she’s wary of Bring Chicago Home, the ballot referendum that would establish a one-time real-estate transfer tax on properties valued $1 million or more.

“The language is so vague and confusing, I had to read it like six times to really understand the question,” Chiang said.

She’s also disappointed that the referendum doesn’t outline specific policies beyond “addressing homelessness.”

“How will you use that money? What are you actually going to do to help homelessness? Will the city create more housing? Help people with jobs? It just seems like it’s all talking points,” Chiang said.

“But I want to know how, specifically, that money would be used. And that is not clear on the ballot.”

Dakul and Ashima Malhotra were walking their 6-year-old dog Cooper in front of their polling place at Kilbourn Park Monday morning but had yet to vote.

They said they’d procrastinated on voting because they’d originally wanted to use mail-in ballots but “life happens.”

However, they also hadn’t had time to do research and wanted to look into candidates beyond the dozens of mailers they had received.

“I get careful about that, just because someone has a lot of advertising money doesn’t mean they’re the right person,” Dakul Malhotra said. “We can’t just show up… we gotta do that research.”

Dakul Maholtra said abortion and LGBTQ+ rights were what he was most concerned with, along with “all the usual things in US politics the last 30 years,” such as gun violence.

He said his ideal candidate would be in the center.

“We want to make sure the person who gets elected is the right person, someone who isn’t too left or too right,” Dakul Maholtra said. “We’re gonna try to choose somebody we believe in who can move the needle. I don’t think any one person can solve this.”

Violet Miller/Sun-Times

After months of shaking hands, stuffing mailboxes and flooding the airwaves with ads, scores of political candidates across Illinois will hand their fates to the voters in hopes of advancing to November’s general election.

But most of the local-level electoral drama will be resolved tonight in many of the contests around deep-blue Chicago, where a Democratic nomination usually signals smooth campaign sailing into the fall. That’s also the case for many Republican-leaning areas of the state, where a GOP primary win can suggest a candidate is as good as elected.

Either way, it comes down to the voice of the voters — a voice that hasn’t been especially loud just yet. Early voting and mail ballot numbers suggest a slightly lower turnout than the past two presidential primaries, with about 131,000 ballots cast in the city as of Sunday night, compared to 190,000 at the same point in 2020 and 146,000 in 2016.

Read more about the top races here.