Illinois' 15th Congressional District election, 2026 (March 17 Democratic primary)
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← 2024
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| Illinois' 15th Congressional District |
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| Democratic primary Republican primary General election |
| Election details |
| Filing deadline: November 3, 2025 |
| Primary: March 17, 2026 General: November 3, 2026 |
| How to vote |
| Poll times:
6 a.m. to 7 p.m. |
| Race ratings |
DDHQ and The Hill: Pending Inside Elections: Solid Republican Sabato's Crystal Ball: Safe Republican |
| Ballotpedia analysis |
| U.S. Senate battlegrounds U.S. House battlegrounds Federal and state primary competitiveness Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2026 |
| See also |
U.S. Senate • 1st • 2nd • 3rd • 4th • 5th • 6th • 7th • 8th • 9th • 10th • 11th • 12th • 13th • 14th • 15th • 16th • 17th Illinois elections, 2026 U.S. Congress elections, 2026 U.S. Senate elections, 2026 U.S. House elections, 2026 |
A Democratic Party primary takes place on March 17, 2026, in Illinois' 15th Congressional District to determine which Democratic candidate will run in the district's general election on November 3, 2026.
| Candidate filing deadline | Primary election | General election |
|---|---|---|
A primary election is an election in which registered voters select a candidate that they believe should be a political party's candidate for elected office to run in the general election. They are also used to choose convention delegates and party leaders. Primaries are state-level and local-level elections that take place prior to a general election. In Illinois, state law provides for a closed primary where a voter must be affiliated with a party to vote in that party's primary. However, voters state their affiliation at the polls and any voter may change their affiliation on the day of the primary. A voter's eligibility to vote a party's ballot may be challenged.[1]
For information about which offices are nominated via primary election, see this article.
This page focuses on Illinois' 15th Congressional District Democratic primary. For more in-depth information on the district's Republican primary and the general election, see the following pages:
- Illinois' 15th Congressional District election, 2026 (March 17 Republican primary)
- Illinois' 15th Congressional District election, 2026
Candidates and election results
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for U.S. House Illinois District 15
Paul Davis, Kyle Nudo, Randy Raley, and Jennifer Todd are running in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Illinois District 15 on March 17, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Paul Davis  | |
 | Kyle Nudo | |
 | Randy Raley | |
 | Jennifer Todd | |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Anthony Barnes (D)
Candidate profiles
This section includes candidate profiles that may be created in one of two ways: either the candidate completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey, or Ballotpedia staff may compile a profile based on campaign websites, advertisements, and public statements after identifying the candidate as noteworthy. For more on how we select candidates to include, click here.
Party: Democratic Party
Incumbent: No
Submitted Biography: "I am a veterinarian, not a politician. I've been a practicing veterinarian for over 33 years. 10 years of which, my wife and I owned our own veterinary practice(Davis Pet Hospital). We both still work full time and are managers at Davis Pet Hospital. I'm an avid bass tournament fisherman in my spare time. I'm the Vice President of the Steel City Bassmasters, a large B.A.S.S. Nation club in the metro east area of St. Louis. My father is a retired Air Force Colonel and my late mother was the Executive Director of the Glen/Ed Food Pantry for over 30 years. My wife Karin Crocker and I live in the 15the District with our 2 rescue German Shepherds and a feral cat."
Party: Democratic Party
Incumbent: No
Submitted Biography: "Born to a union steward and a waitress, I was born in Moline and moved to farm in Ava Mo when I was 10. I lived on a working farm until moving back to Moline when I was 15. Going from a Lilly white class of 85 to a class of almost 800 and 30% of the kids did not look like me. That taught me how important it was to get along without fellow a man. After high school I went to work for JI Case in the Quad Cities working my way up to being a union steward myself. I became involved in the radio profession at 20, moved to Kansas City at 23, and to St. Louis in 1985, joining KSHE 95 and spent 13 years doing the afternoon drive time show. After bouncing around a bit, I became the advertising directors for 3 small rural newspapers about 60 miles south of St. Louis. I then became the District Manager for Autotrader.com. I got back into radio and currently have a part time job at a small radio station south of St. Louis. Having worked all of my adult life, I am now on social security and Medicare, wondering how long those entitlements will be around. I live in Highland with a dog and a cat. I have two daughters and a step son, spread from Los Angele to Raleigh North Carolina."
Party: Democratic Party
Incumbent: No
Submitted Biography: "I'm Jennifer Todd — a proud single mom, dedicated school nurse, and successful small business owner from Centralia, Illinois. I was raised by hardworking parents: my dad was a school janitor, and my mom was a registered nurse. From them, I learned the values of service, resilience, and taking care of those around me. I’ve spent 30 years as a nurse, including time as a traveling nurse across the country, and I’ve seen up close just how hard it is for many families to access quality healthcare. I’m also deeply committed to our kids and schools. I’ve served as a school nurse and even as a school board member because I believe our children deserve support, safety, and opportunity."
Voting information
- See also: Voting in Illinois
Campaign finance
| Name | Party | Receipts* | Disbursements** | Cash on hand | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paul Davis | Democratic Party | $78,104 | $74,229 | $3,875 | As of February 25, 2026 |
| Kyle Nudo | Democratic Party | $0 | $0 | $0 | Data not available*** |
| Randy Raley | Democratic Party | $0 | $0 | $0 | Data not available*** |
| Jennifer Todd | Democratic Party | $42,424 | $40,089 | $-3,635 | As of February 25, 2026 |
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Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," 2026. This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* According to the FEC, "Receipts are anything of value (money, goods, services or property) received by a political committee." |
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District analysis
Click the tabs below to view information about voter composition, past elections, and demographics in both the district and the state.
- District map - A map of the district in place for the election.
- Competitiveness - Information about the competitiveness of 2026 U.S. House elections in the state.
- Presidential elections - Information about presidential elections in the district and the state.
- State party control - The partisan makeup of the state's congressional delegation and state government.
Below is the district map in place for this election. Click the map below to enlarge it.
This section contains data on U.S. House primary election competitiveness in Illinois.
Post-filing deadline analysis
The following analysis covers all U.S. House districts up for election in Illinois in 2026. Information below was calculated on Nov. 3, 2025, and may differ from information shown in the table above due to candidate replacements and withdrawals after that time.
One hundred five candidates — 69 Democrats and 36 Republicans — ran for Illinois’ 17 U.S. House districts. That’s 6.2 candidates per district. There were 2.7 candidates per district in 2024, 5.6 in 2022, 4.1 in 2020, 4.4 in 2018, 2.7 in 2016, and 2.8 in 2014.
This was the highest total number of candidates who ran for the U.S. House since 2014.
Five districts were open in 2026. There were no districts open in 2024, four in 2022, one in 2020, one in 2018, one in 2016, and none in 2014. Reps. Jesus Garcia (D-4th), Danny K. Davis (D-7th), and Jan Schakowsky (D-9th) retired from public office. Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-8th) and Robin Kelly (D-2nd) ran for the U.S. Senate.
Twenty primaries — nine Democratic and 11 Republican — were contested in 2026. In total, there were 11 contested primaries in 2024, 19 in 2022, 21 in 2020, 20 in 2018, 14 in 2016, and nine in 2014.
Twenty candidates — 16 Democrats and four Republicans — ran for the open 9th district, the most candidates that ran for a district in 2026.
Five incumbents — four Democrats and one Republican — faced primary challengers in 2026. There were five incumbents in a contested primary in 2024, seven in 2022, 10 in 2020, seven in 2018, seven in 2016, and three in 2014.
Candidates filed to run in the Republican and Democratic primaries in all 17 districts, meaning no districts were guaranteed to either party.Partisan Voter Index
Heading into the 2026 elections, based on results from the 2024 and 2020 presidential elections, the Cook Partisan Voter Index for this district is R+20. This meant that in those two presidential elections, this district's results were 20 percentage points more Republican than the national average. This made Illinois' 15th the 32nd most Republican district nationally.[2]
2020 presidential election results
The table below shows what the vote in the 2024 presidential election was in this district. The presidential election data was compiled by The Downballot.
Kamala Harris  | Donald Trump  |
|---|---|
| 29.0% | 69.0% |
Presidential voting history
- See also: Presidential election in Illinois, 2024
Illinois presidential election results (1900-2024)
- 17 Democratic wins
- 15 Republican wins
| Year | 1900 | 1904 | 1908 | 1912 | 1916 | 1920 | 1924 | 1928 | 1932 | 1936 | 1940 | 1944 | 1948 | 1952 | 1956 | 1960 | 1964 | 1968 | 1972 | 1976 | 1980 | 1984 | 1988 | 1992 | 1996 | 2000 | 2004 | 2008 | 2012 | 2016 | 2020 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winning Party | R | R | R | D | R | R | R | R | D | D | D | D | D | R | R | D | D | R | R | R | R | R | R | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D |
Congressional delegation
The table below displays the partisan composition of Illinois' congressional delegation as of October 2025.
| Congressional Partisan Breakdown from Illinois | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Party | U.S. Senate | U.S. House | Total |
| Democratic | 2 | 14 | 16 |
| Republican | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Independent | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Vacancies | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 2 | 17 | 19 |
State executive
The table below displays the officeholders in Illinois' top four state executive offices as of October 2025.
| Office | Officeholder |
|---|---|
| Governor | J.B. Pritzker |
| Lieutenant Governor | Juliana Stratton |
| Secretary of State | Alexi Giannoulias |
| Attorney General | Kwame Raoul |
State legislature
Illinois State Senate
| Party | As of October 2025 | |
|---|---|---|
| Democratic Party | 40 | |
| Republican Party | 19 | |
| Other | 0 | |
| Vacancies | 0 | |
| Total | 59 | |
Illinois House of Representatives
| Party | As of October 2025 | |
|---|---|---|
| Democratic Party | 78 | |
| Republican Party | 40 | |
| Other | 0 | |
| Vacancies | 0 | |
| Total | 118 | |
Trifecta control
Illinois Party Control: 1992-2025
Nineteen years of Democratic trifectas • Two years of Republican trifectas
Scroll left and right on the table below to view more years.
| Year | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99 | 00 | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Governor | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | R | R | R | R | D | D | D | D | D | D | D |
| Senate | D | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D |
| House | D | D | D | R | R | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D |
Ballot access
The table below details filing requirements for U.S. House candidates in Illinois in the 2026 election cycle. For additional information on candidate ballot access requirements in Illinois, click here.
| Filing requirements for U.S. House candidates, 2026 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| State | Office | Party | Signatures required | Filing fee | Filing deadline | Source |
| Illinois | U.S. House | Established parties | Not less than .5% (.005) of the qualified primary electors of their party in the congressional district | N/A | 11/3/2025 | Source |
| Illinois | U.S. House | Independents | Not less than 5% nor more than 8% (or 50 more than the minimum, whichever is greater) of the total number of persons who voted at the last regular general election within the congressional district. | N/A | 5/26/2026 | Source |
See also
- Illinois' 15th Congressional District election, 2026 (March 17 Republican primary)
- Illinois' 15th Congressional District election, 2026
- United States House elections in Illinois, 2026 (March 17 Democratic primaries)
- United States House elections in Illinois, 2026 (March 17 Republican primaries)
- United States House Democratic Party primaries, 2026
- United States House Republican Party primaries, 2026
- United States House of Representatives elections, 2026
- U.S. House battlegrounds, 2026
External links
Footnotes
