Early voting for the 2026 primary election is right around the corner when voters will decide on nominees for local, state, and federal offices.

U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen, D-Moline, is seeking re-election in Illinois District 17, a bracket-shaped area that captures population centers from Rockford all the way to Bloomington, including Freeport, Moline, Galesburg and Peoria.

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The proposed non-binding ballot question violates Illinois’ election law, which requires advisory questions to “be confined to one topic and should not contain alternative or bifurcated questions,” the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners unanimously ruled.

will be nothing short of a banner year with so many races and a bumper crop of candidates vying for what could be an unprecedented number of open congressional seats.

Affordability will be a key political theme of the coming Illinois General Assembly as leaders signal proposals from health care to a Bears stadium will be filtered through a cost-of-living lens.

With 2026 upon us, the new year offers Illinois voters a fresh opportunity to change Springfield. Primary elections are March 17. But early voting begins Feb. 5. The bombardment of political ads will commence this week. And so will the Republican primary voter litmus test.

CHICAGO - Early voting for the 2026 primary election in Illinois will start soon, with voters having multiple opportunities to cast their ballot for several key local, state, and federal offices. While the primary election day is set for March 17, there will also be early voting via mail and in-person available weeks beforehand.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Darin LaHood are up for reelection in 2026. Those races and others will have an impact around the state and locally.

The Illinois State Board of Elections certified the March 2026 primary ballot this week, removing several candidates for governor and U.S. Senate after upholding petition challenges.

SPRINGFIELD – Organized labor organizations and voting rights groups in Illinois are seeking to intervene as codefendants in a federal lawsuit in which the Trump administration is seeking access to the state’s complete, unredacted voter registration database, including sensitive personal information about individual voters.