Statewide races: Little-known GOP slate faces uphill battle against mostly incumbent Dems

When Illinois’ Democrats gathered for their annual rally at the state fair in August, they reached from one end of the stage to the other.

The party’s candidates have occupied all six statewide constitutional offices since 2019 and are hoping to continue their winning streak in November against a Republican field that’s received much less financial support and has limited name recognition.

Democrats haven’t lost a statewide race since 2014, when Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka won their races. Four years later, Democrats won all statewide offices as a blue wave swept the nation during President Donald Trump’s first midterm election. The party is looking to continue that trend this year in a similar political climate.

Aside from the comptroller and Senate races, every other race for statewide office features established incumbents. And unlike 2022, when the Republican slate included two seasoned state lawmakers and a county auditor, the GOP’s candidates in 2026 — save for its repeat nominee for governor — are largely unknown faces in state politics or have achieved perennial status.

No Republican even bothered to submit petitions to run for treasurer, leading little-known attorney Max Solomon to wage a write-in campaign to earn a spot on the November ballot.

The GOP slate nonetheless said they have a compelling argument that Democrats have failed to improve the lives of Illinoisians’ and believe the election results will reflect that. They argued, at the very least, that some Republican checks were needed in Democrat-dominated Springfield.

Capitol News Illinois interviewed all the candidates for statewide office and published video interviews on YouTube. Solomon spoke to CNI via phone.

Read more: Replacing Mendoza: Candidates vie to be state’s first new comptroller in a decade | Governor’s Race 2026

Secretary of State

Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias is running for reelection despite also filing petitions to run in Chicago’s nonpartisan mayoral election in February.

The Chicago Democrat launched his mayoral campaign in August with an eye-popping $22 million in his campaign account. He’s since spent at least $5 million on television and digital advertisements in the Chicago market, both touting his record in his current job and outlining his plans for the second job he’s seeking.

Giannoulias faces Diane Harris, a Republican from Will County who’s a member of the Joliet Junior College board. She reported having just $134 on hand at the end of September, compared to Giannoulias’ $19.1 million. Her campaign spent $3,420 in the last quarter and has advertised only in the Joliet area on a local gospel and jazz music radio station, according to records.

“We need the votes,” Harris told Capitol News Illinois. “I know that the money is important, but if I had 10 million voters over $10 million, I’ll take the voters.”

While he’s faced criticism for his dual campaigns, Giannoulias said he’s focused on the race immediately in front of him. He told Capitol News Illinois that “when you’re interviewing for a job, you don’t leave the one that you’re in.”

He dismissed concerns that voters, particularly outside Chicago, will punish him for committing to only the first five months of a second term, arguing that his track record of results speaks for itself.

“I could not be more excited about what we’ve accomplished,” Giannoulias said. “I promised to revolutionize the office, to modernize. We focused on eliminating the time tax, making people’s lives easier across the entire state of Illinois, not just in Cook County.”

Giannoulias touted the implementation of appointment scheduling at driver’s services facilities, the introduction of fast-pass kiosks, the opening of a Real ID supercenter in Chicago and offering more services online as examples of moving the office into the 21^st Century. He recalled a conversation early in his tenure with a man who he said brought a novel with him to a driver’s services facility expecting to be there at least half the day.

“I was like, ‘You’ll never have to bring a novel in here again,'” Giannoulias said. “He probably thought: ‘This guy’s nuts. Like, who is this guy?’ But that was really fundamentally important. People, especially with all the obligations people have, shouldn’t take the day off work just to access government services.”

Giannoulias also had a robust legislative agenda in his first term, working with lawmakers to authorize digital IDs and driver’s licenses, restrict state grants to libraries that ban books and create a regulatory structure for e-bikes and e-scooters.

In a second term, Giannoulias said he would continue to implement the new laws and modernization efforts. While coy on specifics, he suggested an effort to ensure companies that supply license plate reader cameras comply with state laws barring that data from being turned over to law enforcement to track immigrants in the U.S. without legal permission or women seeking abortion care.

And he hinted that the state’s license plate design, introduced in 2016 and gradually phased in over a 10-year period, could soon receive an overhaul.

“I think we’re going to have some very exciting news on that front very soon,” Giannoulias said.

If elected, Harris said she wants to mandate that drivers be able to pass rules of the road tests only in English. The state currently offers those tests in English, Spanish and other languages at the discretion of the secretary of state, including Chinese and Polish.

“There are many individuals who are currently sitting unemployed that could possibly do the same work,” Harris said when asked if that policy would hurt the economy. “That’s just like if I were to go to an opportunity to have a job where they ask for bilingual, if I don’t prepare myself for that opportunity, then I won’t be eligible.”

She said she would also improve the business licensing process and continue many initiatives Giannoulias started, including online appointments alongside walk-in visits to driver facilities.

Attorney General

Democratic Attorney General Kwame Raoul is seeking a third term. He said if he’s reelected, he wants to focus more on retaining attorneys and expanding the resources for his office, especially after lawmakers reduced his budget by $10 million this year.

The last two years of his second term have been marked by roughly 90 legal battles with the Trump administration. Several of those were in response to the Trump administration’s efforts to withhold state funding, which Raoul’s office says has resulted in Illinois maintaining access to more than $8 billion that would have been cut off without the lawsuits.

His Republican opponent, Bob Fioretti, said Raoul needs to focus more on violent crime and corruption. He said he only agreed with three of Raoul’s lawsuits against the Trump administration, but he declined to say which ones. He pointed out that Raoul is seldom the lead plaintiff on the lawsuits, which often involve dozens of Democratic-led states.

“Quit the gamesmanship and quit putting out press releases as if you’re filing a lawsuit against the administration,” Fioretti said. “You got all these other (attorneys general). It’s nonsense. Let’s just put it that way.”

Without giving specifics, Raoul said there have been instances where his office was criticized for not being involved in a high-profile corruption cases, when in reality, he was involved but couldn’t publicly acknowledge it. He said corruption has been a priority during his eight years.

“Not all of them are big, sexy cases, and no matter what state you’re in, the U.S. attorney’s office is going to get the prioritized bite at the apple for the bigger public corruption case, and that is in part because of the resources that they have at their disposal in both the FBI as well as some jurisdictional authority,” Raoul said.

Fioretti, a Democrat-turned-Republican who is an attorney and former Chicago alderman, ran unsuccessfully for several offices in recent the past decade, including Chicago mayor twice, and board president and state’s attorney in Cook County. He said if he’s elected, he will be focused on pushing state’s attorneys to more aggressively prosecute violent crimes.

“One, I’m going to make sure we represent the victims of crime instead of the criminals,” Fioretti said. “Two, I’m going to restore the rule of law. And three, I’m going to break this cycle of crime and corruption that we see in this state.”

Treasurer

In 2014, state Treasurer Mike Frerichs won his first race by less than 10,000 votes against former House Minority Leader Tom Cross, R-Oswego. A dozen years later, he’s attempting to become the longest-serving chief investment officer in state history.

No Republican submitted petitions to secure a spot on the March primary ballot, leading south suburban attorney Max Solomon to ditch his longshot run for governor and pivot to a write-in campaign for treasurer. He secured more than 60,000 write-in votes in March to earn the GOP line on the November ballot.

But Solomon hasn’t run a particularly visible campaign. He had just $4,917 in his campaign account on Oct. 1 as compared to Frerichs’ nearly $1.6 million.

“It’s the best job because I make money for the state,” Frerichs said in an interview. “I help families make money, and I give away money. Every day we’re in office, we return about a million dollars to people and businesses in Illinois. It’s like I get to play Santa Claus 365 days a year.”

In terms of giving away money, he was referring to the state’s unclaimed property database, which connects Illinoisans to money they’re owed but might not have collected.

It’s the treasurer’s most visible line of work, and Frerichs even traveled to Vatican City earlier this year to return $8.65 to former Chicagoan Robert Prevost, now known as Pope Leo XIV, that he’d left in a now-closed Paypal account.

Frerichs touted the turnaround of Illinois’ Bright Start college savings program, which went from underperforming to one of the most highly rated, per Morningstar.

He also heralded earnings from the state’s investment portfolio that grew from hundreds of millions when he entered office to more than $1.4 billion in fiscal year 2026, as well as growth in earnings for local governments that invest in his office’s The Illinois Funds.

“We know that every dollar we can help them earn through their investments is $1 they don’t have to raise in property taxes,” Frerichs said.

Despite pressure from some progressives to stop investing in Israeli companies and government bonds, Frerichs said his office will continue to do so, deeming it a legislative question.

“Three big things we consider when we make investments: does it generate a good return? Is it safe? And does it diversify our portfolio?” Frerichs said. “And in this case, Israel bonds meet all three of those. They’re some of the highest performing bonds in my portfolio.”

Solomon said he would work to reduce politically motivated investment decisions but didn’t identify an instance where Frerichs had made one. Then he said he doesn’t “think that a state or the money or the taxpayers of a state should be doing business with international bodies,” and should instead focus on Illinois investments.

“In fact, I don’t care what the returns will be on the bond,” Solomon said. “Illinois first.”

Solomon told CNI that he ditched his gubernatorial campaign because he can “advocate for the same policies” he cares about “from any statewide office.”

Though not necessarily within the purview of the office he’s seeking, Solomon said he’d focus on rooting out waste and fraud. He said he’d also try to heighten his bully pulpit and serve as “whistleblower-in-chief” for the taxpayers and to influence policy in the state legislature.

“The most important thing is every voter in the state of Illinois now has a choice,” Solomon said.

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