Illinois 2020 Election Results

Illinois held its general election on November 3, 2020, deciding 138 legislative seats. No chamber changed party control.

Highlights

• Democrats kept three-fifths supermajorities in both chambers, preserving the trifecta that let them pass new legislative maps in 2021 on party-line votes. Voters, though, rejected Gov. JB Pritzker's graduated income tax amendment.
• The partisan balance barely moved: Republicans netted one House seat and lost one in the Senate. The races played out under Speaker Michael Madigan's implication in a bribery scheme involving the utility ComEd, which Pritzker and Sen. Dick Durbin said afterward had hurt Democrats at the polls.
  • Democratic gains: Dave Vella (D) narrowly unseated John Cabello (R) in House District 68 by about 240 votes, the closest flip. Suzanne Ness (D) beat Allen Skillicorn (R) in House District 66 by about 4 points, and Janet Yang Rohr (D) beat Grant Wehrli (R) in House District 41 by about 3. Karina Villa (D) won Senate District 25, left open by Jim Oberweis, over Jeanette Ward (R) by about 2 points.
  • Republican gains: Amy Elik (R) unseated Monica Bristow (D) in House District 111 by about 9 points, Seth Lewis (R) unseated Diane Pappas (D) in House District 45 by about 6, Chris Bos (R) unseated Mary Edly-Allen (D) in House District 51 by about 2, and David Friess (R) defeated Rep. Nathan Reitz (D) in House District 116 by about 30 points.
• The graduated income tax amendment, Pritzker's signature plan to replace the state's flat-rate income tax, failed to reach either ratification threshold: 60% of those voting on it, or a majority of everyone casting a ballot. Pritzker spent $56 million of his own money on the yes campaign, and hedge fund founder Ken Griffin spent nearly $54 million against it. Griffin also worked to unseat Justice Thomas Kilbride, a Madigan ally, who became the first Illinois Supreme Court justice to lose a retention vote.
• In all, 8 legislative seats changed hands. No race beyond the flips finished inside two points, and 56 seats had only one candidate on the ballot.

Legislature

• House (118 seats): 74 D, 44 R before the election, 73 D, 45 R after; control stayed with Democrats.
• Senate (59 seats): 40 D, 19 R before the election, 41 D, 18 R after; control stayed with Democrats.

Legislative races

Ballot measures