Politics

Juliana Stratton Wins Race to Replace Dick Durbin in US Senate: AP

Juliana Stratton, the former Illinois state representative and current lieutenant governor, will become just the sixth Black woman to serve in the U.S. Senate following her historic victory in Tuesday’s election.

The Associated Press called the race for Stratton, who won a rare open seat in a contest that will reshape Illinois politics, cruising to victory over Republican challenger Don Tracy and independent Whitfield Harrington Jr.

The crowd at the Democratic Party of Illinois watch party cheers as Juliana Stratton is announced winner of the race to replace U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, Nov. 3, 2026. (Blair Paddock / WTTW News)

The race was called immediately after polls closed across Illinois. The gathered crowd at Stratton’s election watch party inside the Ramova Theatre in Bridgeport burst into applause just seconds after 7 p.m.

She will replace retiring U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, who will end his political career in January after 30 years in the Senate.

Stratton, boosted by her alliance with Gov. JB Pritzker, won the Democratic nomination in March after promising to aggressively confront President Donald Trump. As she’s now set to serve alongside Tammy Duckworth, Illinois will become the first state to ever be represented by two women of color in the Senate.

Tracy, a businessman and lawyer, was a member of the Illinois Gaming Board before leading the Illinois Republican Party.

During the campaign to replace Durbin, Tracy repeatedly attacked Stratton as a socialist and accused her of wanting to fund unaffordable programs.

By contrast, Stratton frequently linked Tracy to Trump, blaming him for making everything from rent and gas to healthcare and groceries more expensive by launching a war with Iran and imposing tariffs the U.S. Supreme Court declared illegal.

As guests started to roll in to the Democratic Party of Illinois election night gathering before polls closed, WTTW News spoke with Dovile Cather, the campaign manager for Stratton. 

Stratton, Cather said, spent the day visiting polling locations, and encouraged people to get out to vote. She said it’s been an exciting day, especially with the prospect that Stratton could be the sixth Black woman to serve in the U.S. Senate and the second from the state.

“I think this race, especially across the team, we always knew it was bigger than any one of us,” Cather said. “It was about representing Black voters in Chicago and across the entire state.

The candidates faced off just once during the campaign, during a forum hosted by WTTW News.

Stratton, 61, has vowed to raise the federal hourly minimum wage to $25, to abolish U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and expand Medicare to all Americans to replace private health insurance.

“She has spent this entire race talking about being a caretaker for her mother and healthcare, I think, is going to be center to what she does in the Senate,” Stratton’s campaign manager Dovile Cather told WTTW News Tuesday. “I know she’s excited to hit the ground running.”

Tracy, 76, has promised he would chart a moderate course in the Senate, working to reduce inflation and gas prices while embracing initiatives that help businesses.

Also in the race is third-party candidate Whitfield Harrington Jr., running as the nominee for the American Center Party, which he calls a middle ground for Illinoisans who are unsatisfied with polarizing politics. Harrington is a pastor and former financial services professional with a campaign centered on affordability, healthcare access and government reform.

“Right now, both the Democratic and the Republican parties, they used to present a vision to the American people and how they wanted to move the nation forward,” Harrington told WTTW News. “And you don’t see that anymore. What you see is just division — arguing and bickering. And I’m pretty sure it’s on full display all across the country.”

This U.S. Senate election is the first without an incumbent in Illinois since 2010, when Republican Mark Kirk won the seat once held by former President Barack Obama. 

However, it has been 12 years since any Republican has won a statewide office in Illinois, as voters in the state began to regularly cast their ballots for Democrats, a trend that accelerated as the Republican Party moved to the right under Trump.

Trump did not endorse Tracy, although Tracy said he would welcome the president’s endorsement if it was offered.

Stratton’s ascension to the Senate comes more than 30 years after Carol Moseley Braun became the first Black woman to serve as a U.S. senator.

“It wasn’t handed to her, it was built by all of us, by people who believed in her long before the polls ever did,” Regina Wallace-Jones, president and CEO of the Democratic political action committee ActBlue, said following Stratton’s victory. “Thirty-four years after Carol Moseley Braun broke the barrier in Illinois, we’re doing it again.”

Heather Cherone contributed reporting.

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