November 8, 2016 2022 → 54.9% 39.8% | 3,012,940 2,184,692 Date 8 November 2016 | |
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Winner Tammy Duckworth | ||
The 2016 United States Senate election in Illinois was held on November 8, 2016, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Illinois, concurrently with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.
Contents
- Background
- Declared
- Removed from ballot
- Withdrawn
- Declined
- Third party candidates
- Constitution Party C Write in
- Libertarian Party L
- Green Party G
- Independent I
- General election
- Polling
- Results
- References
Party primary elections in Illinois were held on March 15, 2016. Republicans selected incumbent Senator Mark Kirk for re-election to a second term. Democrats selected Tammy Duckworth, a decorated combat veteran of the Iraq War and the congresswoman for Illinois's 8th congressional district.
Background
In 2010, Republican Mark Kirk was elected to the Senate for Illinois, defeating Democratic nominee Alexi Giannoulias by 59,220 votes out of more than 3.7 million votes cast.
Kirk suffered a stroke in January 2012 that kept him away from the Senate until January 2013. In June 2013 he confirmed that he was "planning" to run for re-election, but there was speculation that he might retire, particularly in the wake of the departure of several of his senior staff. One scenario mooted about was that Kirk would resign, allowing Republican Governor Bruce Rauner to appoint a replacement. Potential replacements included U.S. Representatives Robert Dold, Adam Kinzinger, Aaron Schock, and Peter Roskam, State Senators Jason Barickman and Christine Radogno, hedge fund manager and founder and CEO of Citadel LLC Kenneth C. Griffin, and businesswoman Beth Christie. In November 2014, Kirk reiterated that he was going to run for re-election.
Kirk was identified by The Washington Post, The New York Times, Politico, The Huffington Post, Slate and Roll Call as one of the most vulnerable Republican Senators up for re-election in 2016.
Declared
Removed from ballot
Withdrawn
Declined
Declared
Withdrawn
Declined
Third party candidates
On July 6, the Green Party candidate and the Libertarian Party candidate were announced as having made the ballot for November after no objections were filed against their petitions. However, objections against two others were filed, namely: the Constitution Party candidate Chad Koppie, due to his name being on a petition slate with Constitution Party presidential candidate Darrell Castle who turned in fewer than the required petitions needed, and against Independent candidate Eric Conklin. Neither Koppie nor Conklin are likely to receive ballot access after a review of their petitions.
Constitution Party (C) (Write in)
Libertarian Party (L)
Green Party (G)
Independent (I)
General election
Polling
Results
Democratic U.S. Representative Tammy Duckworth easily defeated the Republican incumbent senator Mark Kirk. The odds were stacked against Kirk, as no Republican had won an Illinois senate race during a presidential election year since 1972. Polls showed Kirk would be easily defeated by Duckworth. Duckworth won as expected on election night, easily defeating Kirk. Duckworth performed extremely well as Democrats always do in the heavily populated Cook County home of Chicago. Duckworth also did well in Champaign, East St. Louis and Carbondale. Kirk did do well in rural parts of the state. The Chicago collar counties (where Kirk lives, Lake County) failed to deliver for Kirk, as they easily went for Duckworth. Duckworth was sworn in at 12:00 P.M. EST on January 3, 2017.