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Illinois' 5th Congressional District election, 2026 (March 17 Democratic primary)

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Illinois' 5th 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.
Voting in Illinois

Race ratings
Cook Political Report: Solid Democratic
DDHQ and The Hill: Pending
Inside Elections: Solid Democratic
Sabato's Crystal Ball: Safe Democratic
Ballotpedia analysis
U.S. Senate battlegrounds
U.S. House battlegrounds
Federal and state primary competitiveness
Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2026
See also
Illinois' 5th Congressional District
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' 5th 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
November 3, 2025
March 17, 2026
November 3, 2026



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' 5th Congressional District Democratic primary. For more in-depth information on the district's Republican primary and the general election, see the following pages:

Candidates and election results


Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Illinois District 5

Incumbent Mike Quigley, Matthew Conroy, Ellen Corley, and Anthony Michael Tamez are running in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Illinois District 5 on March 17, 2026.

Candidate
Image of Mike Quigley
Mike Quigley
Image of Matthew Conroy
Matthew Conroy Candidate Connection
Image of Ellen Corley
Ellen Corley Candidate Connection
Image of Anthony Michael Tamez
Anthony Michael Tamez

Incumbents are bolded and underlined.

Candidate Connection = 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

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.

Matthew Conroy

Image of Matthew Conroy

WebsiteFacebookXYouTube

Party: Democratic Party

Incumbent: No

Submitted Biography:  "I'm a lifelong advocate for putting others ahead of yourself, something our elected officials have ignored or forgotten. I have spent over a decade working in roles where success wasn't measured by sales quotas or fundraising goals, but rather by the success, growth, and development of others. I grew up up in Brooklyn, NY. My mother was a single mom, left to raise 4 children all by herself after my dad was killed in the September 11th attacks. That taught me the importance of hard work and self-sacrifice, something that seems to be missing in our elected officials today. Since graduating college with a degree in economics, I've worked in roles and finance, real estate, tech, and manufacturing."

Key Messages

To read this candidate's full survey responses, click here.

We MUST pass Medicare For All.

We must solve the housing crisis.

End the genocide in Gaza.

Ellen Corley

Image of Ellen Corley

WebsiteFacebook

Party: Democratic Party

Incumbent: No

Submitted Biography:  "I am a 70 year old progressive scholar of American Deep State history who believes that it is my calling at this stage of my life to get to Washington where I will dare to speak out about the complete level of Fascist corruption that has taken over our government. What distinguishes me from the incumbent, Representative Mike Quigley, is that I have 40 years of experience as a strategic marketing research consultant and entrepreneur who founded ResearchWorks in 1992 in Atlanta after designing and developing over a million dollars worth of strategic marketing research analyses for leading corporations in a variety of categories - healthcare, finance, pharmaceuticals, leading consumer brands. Basically, I want to bring this skill set to Congress where my plan would be to literally design, develop and implement an ongoing citizen satisfaction survey that would give the U.S. government a digital report card that will be used to guarantee that every piece of legislation we pass is legislation that has been understood and vetted by the citizens we represent. There is nothing at all difficult or expensive about implementing this kind of on-going alignment of any corporation or institution's quality of service with the expectations and perceptions of their customers. Basically, my promise is to provide genuinely honest and morally-centered services to my constituents and to every American and to every person of the planet. My pledge is to lead like JFK would have."

Key Messages

To read this candidate's full survey responses, click here.

I see myself as a Thomas Massie Democrat. What I mean by that is I would work across the aisle like he has to lead his Republican party from initially every one of them resisting releasing the Epstein papers at all to the stage where all of the Democrats and all of the Republicans but one voted for the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The other Thomas Massie quality I would bring to the role unlike the incumbent, Mike Quigley, I would go onto the alternative media and social media like Thomas Massie did going onto Tucker Carlson and be honest about the problem driving America which is that 98% of our Congressional Representatives and Senators took AIPAC money, have an AIPAC baby sitter, and therefore are forced to vote for forever war.

The key difference between me and the current administration is that I have been educated throughout my life to be a strategic scientific analyst of what exactly our politicians are doing in terms of their economic policies and decisions. The largest influence on me in my life is my stepfather, Charles Brunie, who was a leading Wall Street financier and head of research at Oppenheimer & Co when he married my mother and brought our family to Bronxville, New York in 1965. My stepfather mentored me in the school of macro-economics he understood so well and advocated as did his lifelong friends, Milton and Rose Friedman, Alan Greenspan and Ayn Rand. My goal would be to teach Trump and others in power the importance of being scientific.

Most importantly, I would be the only genuinely progressive, anti-war, anti-corruption, anti-imperialist Congressional Representative that has the knowledge of and independence from the globalist neo-conservative, AIPAC, Zionist Lobby to open something like a Church Commission hearing to bring the rogue shadow intelligence agents in the CIA, the FBI, the Department of War, Homeland Security and the outside globalist lobby to justice. I have been studying this for the last ten years ever since I was asked by Bill Hamilton to help him prove in an offical Congressional hearing that the Inslaw PROMIS software was stolen by the CIA, the DOJ, and Israel's Military Intelligence and used to bring about a secret coup d'etat of the U.S.

Voting information

See also: Voting in Illinois

Election information in Illinois: March 17, 2026, election.

What is the voter registration deadline?

  • In-person: March 17, 2026
  • By mail: Postmarked by Feb. 17, 2026
  • Online: March 1, 2026

Is absentee/mail-in voting available to all voters?

Yes

What is the absentee/mail-in ballot request deadline?

  • In-person: March 16, 2026
  • By mail: Received by March 12, 2026
  • Online: March 12, 2026

What is the absentee/mail-in ballot return deadline?

  • In-person: March 17, 2026
  • By mail: Postmarked by March 17, 2026

Is early voting available to all voters?

Yes

What are the early voting start and end dates?

Feb. 5, 2026 to March 16, 2026

Are all voters required to present ID at the polls? If so, is a photo or non-photo ID required?

N/A

When are polls open on Election Day?

6:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. (CT)

Campaign finance

Name Party Receipts* Disbursements** Cash on hand Date
Mike Quigley Democratic Party $540,563 $499,810 $1,221,937 As of February 25, 2026
Matthew Conroy Democratic Party $0 $0 $0 Data not available***
Ellen Corley Democratic Party $0 $0 $0 Data not available***
Anthony Michael Tamez Democratic Party $0 $0 $0 Data not available***

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."
** According to the FEC, a disbursement "is a purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, deposit or gift of money or anything of value to influence a federal election," plus other kinds of payments not made to influence a federal election.
*** Candidate either did not report any receipts or disbursements to the FEC, or Ballotpedia did not find an FEC candidate ID.

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.

2023_01_03_il_congressional_district_05.jpg
See also: Primary election competitiveness in state and federal government, 2026

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

See also: The Cook Political Report's 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 D+19. This meant that in those two presidential elections, this district's results were 19 percentage points more Democratic than the national average. This made Illinois' 5th the 62nd most Democratic 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.

2024 presidential results in Illinois' 5th Congressional District
Kamala Harris Democratic PartyDonald Trump Republican Party
68.0%31.0%

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
See also: Party control of Illinois state government

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.

State executive officials in Illinois, October 2025
OfficeOfficeholder
GovernorDemocratic Party J.B. Pritzker
Lieutenant GovernorDemocratic Party Juliana Stratton
Secretary of StateDemocratic Party Alexi Giannoulias
Attorney GeneralDemocratic Party 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

External links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Illinois General Assembly, "Ill. Rev. Stat. ch. 10, § 5/7–44," accessed December 4, 2025
  2. ↑ Cook Political Report, "2025 Cook PVI℠: District Map and List (119th Congress)," accessed July 1, 2025


Illinois' current delegation to the United States Congress
Senators
Tammy Duckworth (D)
Dick Durbin (D)
Representatives
District 1
District 2
District 3
District 4
District 5
District 6
District 7
District 8
District 9
District 10
District 11
District 12
Mike Bost (R)
District 13
District 14
District 15
District 16
District 17
Democratic Party (16)
Republican Party (3)


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