Illinois' 6th Congressional District election, 2024

	2026 → ← 2022
Illinois' 6th Congressional District
	Democratic primary; Republican primary; General election
Election details
	Filing deadline: December 4, 2023
	Primary: March 19, 2024; General: November 5, 2024
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: Safe Democratic; 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, 2024
See also
	Illinois' 6th Congressional District; 1st • 2nd • 3rd • 4th • 5th • 6th • 7th • 8th • 9th • 10th • 11th • 12th • 13th • 14th • 15th • 16th • 17th; Illinois elections, 2024; U.S. Congress elections, 2024; U.S. Senate elections, 2024; U.S. House elections, 2024; Alabama U.S. House racesAlaska U.S. House racesArizona U.S. House racesArkansas U.S. House racesCalifornia U.S. House racesColorado U.S. House racesConnecticut U.S. House racesDelaware U.S. House racesFlorida U.S. House racesGeorgia U.S. House racesHawaii U.S. House racesIdaho U.S. House racesIllinois U.S. House racesIndiana U.S. House racesIowa U.S. House racesKansas U.S. House racesKentucky U.S. House racesLouisiana U.S. House racesMaine U.S. House racesMaryland U.S. House racesMassachusetts U.S. House racesMichigan U.S. House racesMinnesota U.S. House racesMississippi U.S. House racesMissouri U.S. House racesMontana U.S. House racesNebraska U.S. House racesNevada U.S. House racesNew Hampshire U.S. House racesNew Jersey U.S. House racesNew Mexico U.S. House racesNew York U.S. House racesNorth Carolina U.S. House racesNorth Dakota U.S. House racesOhio U.S. House racesOklahoma U.S. House racesOregon U.S. House racesPennsylvania U.S. House racesRhode Island U.S. House racesSouth Carolina U.S. House racesSouth Dakota U.S. House racesTennessee U.S. House racesTexas U.S. House racesUtah U.S. House racesVermont U.S. House racesVirginia U.S. House racesWashington U.S. House racesWest Virginia U.S. House racesWisconsin U.S. House racesWyoming U.S. House racesSubmit

Illinois 2024 elections

U.S. House • State Senate • State House • Special state legislative • Supreme court • Appellate courts • State ballot measures • Local ballot measures • School boards • Municipal • All other local • How to run for office

All U.S. House districts, including the 6th Congressional District of Illinois, held elections in 2024. The general election was November 5, 2024. The primary was March 19, 2024. The filing deadline was December 4, 2023. The outcome of this race affected the partisan balance of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 119th Congress. All 435 House districts were up for election.

At the time of the election, Republicans held a 220-212 majority with three vacancies.^[1] As a result of the election, Republicans retained control of the U.S. House, winning 220 seats to Democrats' 215.^[2] To read more about the 2024 U.S. House elections, click here.

In the 2022 election in this district, the Democratic candidate won 54.4%-45.6%. Daily Kos calculated what the results of the 2020 presidential election in this district would have been following redistricting. Joe Biden (D) would have defeated Donald Trump (R) 54.5%-43.6%.^[3]

For more information about the primaries in this election, click on the links below:

Candidates and election results

General election

General election for U.S. House Illinois District 6

Incumbent Sean Casten defeated Niki Conforti and Peter Meyer Jr. in the general election for U.S. House Illinois District 6 on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Sean Casten (D)	54.2	196,647
		Niki Conforti (R)	45.8	166,116
	Submit photo	Peter Meyer Jr. (Independent) (Write-in)	0.0	86

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 362,849
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Illinois District 6

Incumbent Sean Casten defeated Mahnoor Ahmad and Charles Hughes in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Illinois District 6 on March 19, 2024.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Sean Casten	77.1	56,750
	Mahnoor Ahmad	14.2	10,483
	Charles Hughes	8.6	6,366

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 73,599
= 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.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Illinois District 6

Niki Conforti advanced from the Republican primary for U.S. House Illinois District 6 on March 19, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Niki Conforti	100.0	30,543

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 30,543
= 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.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

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.

Sean Casten

Party: Democratic Party

Incumbent: Yes

Political Office: None

Submitted Biography: "I ran for this office in 2018 on the premise that there's an awful lot more that unites us than divides us. The overwhelming majority of us trust science. We believe that women should have full control of their body and that the government should not be involved in their health care decisions. We think markets are extremely powerful tools to harness ingenuity, but they require a functioning, ethical, and competent government to make sure everybody gets a fair chance. Most importantly, the overwhelming majority of us know that we are only as good as the world we leave to our children. Over my three terms in Congress, I’ve been reassured by the voters and my colleagues that my idealism is justified. I served on the climate committee that recommended the legislation that became the Inflation Reduction Act - the biggest climate bill ever passed anywhere. We were intimately involved in the recovery from COVID that led to a US economy that recovered faster and is growing faster than any other country in the world - with growth across red states and blue states and income growth fastest among the most needy. But, to be blunt, our work isn’t finished. Global temperatures continue to rise. A woman’s right to control her body depends on the state she is in. We still have too many guns, and too many gun deaths. It’s an amazing privilege and responsibility to have this job. And as long as we still have work to do, I’ll keep at it."

Key Messages

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

Climate change remains the existential threat to our species and addressing this crisis remains my top priority in Congress. I am proud to have served on the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis where we wrote substantially all of what became the Inflation Reduction Act. This term I have introduced the Clean Electricity and Transmission Acceleration Act to debottleneck our electric grid and ensure that all the new investments have a path to market. We have an opportunity to expand access to cleaner, cheaper energy and create jobs at the same time. I’m working to make sure that we seize that opportunity.

I am 100% pro-choice without exception, and I’m running to ensure women have the right to make their own health care decisions no matter the state they are in. Congress can and should codify this right by passing the Women’s Health Protection Act, which I was proud to co-sponsor and help pass in the House in the 117th Congress. That bill would reaffirm that abortion access is not an issue of federal rights nor states rights but of women’s rights. I also led over 100 of my colleagues in a letter calling on the Senate to eliminate or modify the filibuster so that we can pass this into law - because given the choice between the rights of 167 million American women and 40 US Senators I will always side with the former.

Our country has too many guns and too many gun deaths. Both are the direct result of courts that have taken a wildly excessive and expansive interpretation of the 2nd Amendment. Since the Heller decision the Supreme Court has manufactured an entire view of the Second amendment that is at odds with our founders’ intent. We need to go back to the 2nd Amendment our founders intended. I support, among other things, banning assault weapons and preventing anyone with a history of domestic violence from owning a firearm - since that demographic comprises two-thirds of all mass shooters in the United States. Until we reduce access to guns in our society we are going to continue to lose too many Americans from needless gun violence.

This information was current as of the candidate's run for U.S. House Illinois District 6 in 2024.

Voting information

See also: Voting in Illinois

Election information in Illinois: Nov. 5, 2024, election.

What was the voter registration deadline?

In-person: Nov. 5, 2024
By mail: Postmarked by Oct. 8, 2024
Online: Oct. 20, 2024

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

Yes

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

In-person: Nov. 4, 2024
By mail: Received by Oct. 31, 2024
Online: Oct. 31, 2024

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

In-person: Nov. 5, 2024
By mail: Postmarked by Nov. 5, 2024

Was early voting available to all voters?

Yes

What were the early voting start and end dates?

Sep. 26, 2024 to Nov. 4, 2024

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

N/A

When were polls open on Election Day?

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

Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey responses

Ballotpedia asks all federal, state, and local candidates to complete a survey and share what motivates them on political and personal levels. The section below shows responses from candidates in this race who completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Survey responses from candidates in this race

Click on a candidate's name to visit their Ballotpedia page.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Expand all | Collapse all

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Image of https://s3.amazonaws.com/ballotpedia-api4/files/thumbs/100/100/SeanCasten2024.jpeg

Sean Casten (D)

Climate change remains the existential threat to our species and addressing this crisis remains my top priority in Congress. I am proud to have served on the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis where we wrote substantially all of what became the Inflation Reduction Act. This term I have introduced the Clean Electricity and Transmission Acceleration Act to debottleneck our electric grid and ensure that all the new investments have a path to market. We have an opportunity to expand access to cleaner, cheaper energy and create jobs at the same time. I’m working to make sure that we seize that opportunity.

I am 100% pro-choice without exception, and I’m running to ensure women have the right to make their own health care decisions no matter the state they are in.

Congress can and should codify this right by passing the Women’s Health Protection Act, which I was proud to co-sponsor and help pass in the House in the 117th Congress. That bill would reaffirm that abortion access is not an issue of federal rights nor states rights but of women’s rights. I also led over 100 of my colleagues in a letter calling on the Senate to eliminate or modify the filibuster so that we can pass this into law - because given the choice between the rights of 167 million American women and 40 US Senators I will always side with the former.

Our country has too many guns and too many gun deaths. Both are the direct result of courts that have taken a wildly excessive and expansive interpretation of the 2nd Amendment. Since the Heller decision the Supreme Court has manufactured an entire view of the Second amendment that is at odds with our founders’ intent. We need to go back to the 2nd Amendment our founders intended.

I support, among other things, banning assault weapons and preventing anyone with a history of domestic violence from owning a firearm - since that demographic comprises two-thirds of all mass shooters in the United States. Until we reduce access to guns in our society we are going to continue to lose too many Americans from needless gun violence.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Sean Casten (D)

Addressing the climate crisis, protecting women's reproductive rights, lowering costs for families, and ending gun violence.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

Sean Casten (D)

The first time I remember getting paid for the work I did was when I learned that there was a scrap metal yard near my house that would pay for aluminum and tin by the pound. I was probably 12 - 13 years old, having lunch with my dad at a pizza restaurant in town and noticed that all the cans of soda were made of aluminum and tin and were being thrown away. (This was before the 5 cent per can recycling laws were passed.) My dad told me I should come back with a trash can and ask the owner if he'd consider separating them out for me. I remember being embarrassed to ask the question, but I did, and he said yes. And then I would come down once a week to pick up the cans he'd pulled for me and take them over to the scrap yard to earn a few extra dollars. I got to know the guy who ran the yard, and he gave me a tour of their facility, including the molten slabs of aluminum that they produced from my cans to resell - it was a neat, and very visual understanding of the circular economy. I doubt I earned more than $100 for my efforts that summer, but the idea that you can turn other people's waste into money and improve the environment has stuck with me ever since.

Do you believe that compromise is necessary or desirable for policymaking?

Sean Casten (D)

I represent a purple district that elected Republicans for almost 50 years straight before I was elected in 2018. Put simply, I would not be in this job unless my values and priorities mapped to the bipartisan interests of my constituents.

And indeed, outside of political jobs, it is never seen as particularly praiseworthy to work well with people who disagree with you on some things. All of us, in our personal and professional lives have undoubtedly made good friends and done good work with people who disagree with us on any number of politically charged issues in Washington.

Ultimately, my view is that if we must choose, we should put the bipartisan interests of our voters first. Where that finds common cause with bipartisanship in Washington, by all means do both. Which I have, whether working with Tim Burchett (R-TN) to introduce bills to provide financial assistance to teachers who pay for classroom supplies out of pocket, with Mike Bost (R-IL) on legislation to lower crop insurance payments for farmers who plant cover crops or with Senators Graham (R-SC), Warren (D-MA) and Marshall (R-KS) on anti-money laundering legislation.

But in the final analysis, what matters is that we make good policy. How we cobble together a majority in the House and Senate is the path to that goal - but we should never elevate paths over goals.

What organizations or individuals have endorsed your campaign?

Sean Casten (D)

Campaign finance

Name	Party	Receipts*	Disbursements**	Cash on hand	Date
Sean Casten	Democratic Party	$3,128,625	$2,488,899	$694,143	As of December 31, 2024
Mahnoor Ahmad	Democratic Party	$97,025	$97,025	$0	As of August 12, 2024
Charles Hughes	Democratic Party	$7,947	$2,954	$0	As of May 7, 2024
Niki Conforti	Republican Party	$32,256	$22,894	$9,362	As of December 31, 2023
Peter Meyer Jr.	Independent	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," 2024. 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.

General election race ratings

See also: Race rating definitions and methods

Ballotpedia provides race ratings from four outlets: The Cook Political Report, Inside Elections, Sabato's Crystal Ball, and DDHQ/The Hill. Each race rating indicates if one party is perceived to have an advantage in the race and, if so, the degree of advantage:

Safe and Solid ratings indicate that one party has a clear edge and the race is not competitive.
Likely ratings indicate that one party has a clear edge, but an upset is possible.
Lean ratings indicate that one party has a small edge, but the race is competitive.^[4]
Toss-up ratings indicate that neither party has an advantage.

Race ratings are informed by a number of factors, including polling, candidate quality, and election result history in the race's district or state.^[5]^[6]^[7]

Race ratings: Illinois' 6th Congressional District election, 2024
Race tracker	Race ratings
	November 5, 2024	October 29, 2024	October 22, 2024	October 15, 2024
The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter	Solid Democratic	Solid Democratic	Solid Democratic	Solid Democratic
Decision Desk HQ and The Hill	Safe Democratic	Safe Democratic	Safe Democratic	Safe Democratic
Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales	Solid Democratic	Solid Democratic	Solid Democratic	Solid Democratic
Larry J. Sabato's Crystal Ball	Safe Democratic	Safe Democratic	Safe Democratic	Safe Democratic
Note: Ballotpedia reviews external race ratings every week throughout the election season and posts weekly updates even if the media outlets have not revised their ratings during that week.

Ballot access

The table below details filing requirements for U.S. House candidates in Illinois in the 2024 election cycle. For additional information on candidate ballot access requirements in Illinois, click here.

Filing requirements for U.S. House candidates, 2024
State	Office	Party	Signatures required	Filing fee	Filing deadline	Source
Illinois	U.S. House	Democratic	685^[8]	N/A	12/4/2023	Source
Illinois	U.S. House	Republican	536^[9]	N/A	12/4/2023	Source
Illinois	U.S. House	Unaffiliated	12,188^[10]	N/A	6/24/2024	Source

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 2024 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.

District map

Competitiveness
Presidential elections

State party control

Below was the map in use at the time of the election. Click the map below to enlarge it.

See also: Primary election competitiveness in state and federal government, 2024

This section contains data on U.S. House primary election competitiveness in Illinois.

Illinois U.S. House competitiveness, 2014-2024
Year	Districts/ offices	Seats	Open seats	Candidates	Possible primaries	Contested Democratic primaries	Contested Republican primaries	% of contested primaries	Incumbents in contested primaries	% of incumbents in contested primaries
2024	17	17	0	46	34	5	6	32.4%	5	29.4%
2022	17	17	4	95	34	8	11	55.9%	7	46.7%
2020	18	18	1	73	36	13	8	58.3%	10	58.8%
2018	18	18	1	79	36	12	8	55.6%	7	41.2%
2016	18	18	1	49	36	8	6	38.9%	7	41.2%
2014	18	18	0	50	36	4	5	25.0%	3	16.7%

Post-filing deadline analysis

The following analysis covers all U.S. House districts up for election in Illinois in 2024. Information below was calculated on 2/16/2024, and may differ from information shown in the table above due to candidate replacements and withdrawals after that time. </noinclude>

Forty-nine candidates filed to run for Illinois' 17 U.S. House districts, including 24 Democrats and 25 Republicans. That's 2.59 candidates per district. In 2022, the first election after the number of Congressional districts in Illinois decreased from 18 to 17, 5.59 candidates filed per district.

In 2020, when the state still had 18 Congressional districts, 4.1 candidates ran. In 2018, 4.4 candidates did.

The number of total candidates who ran for the U.S. House in 2024 was the fewest since at least 2014.

All incumbents ran for re-election this year, meaning no seats were open for the first time since 2014. In 2022, four seats were open, and one seat was open in 2020, 2028, and 2016.

Six candidates—five Democrats and one Republican—ran in the 7th district, including incumbent Danny K. Davis (D). That was the most candidates who ran for a single district in 2024.

Eleven primaries were contested in 2024—five Democratic and six Republican. That was the fewest contested primaries since 2014, when nine were.

Five incumbents faced primary challengers—four Democrats and one Republican. That was also the fewest since 2014, when three incumbents faced primary challengers.

The 4th District was guaranteed to Democrats because no Republican candidates filed. The 15th and Illinois' 16th Congressional District were guaranteed to Republicans because no Democrats filed.

Partisan Voter Index

See also: The Cook Political Report's Partisan Voter Index

Heading into the 2024 elections, based on results from the 2020 and 2016 presidential elections, the Cook Partisan Voter Index for this district was D+3. This meant that in those two presidential elections, this district's results were 3 percentage points more Democratic than the national average. This made Illinois' 6th the 182nd most Democratic district nationally.^[11]

2020 presidential election results

The table below shows what the vote in the 2020 presidential election would have been in this district. The presidential election data was compiled by Daily Kos.

2020 presidential results in Illinois' 6th based on 2024 district lines
Joe Biden	Donald Trump
54.5%	43.6%

Inside Elections Baselines

See also: Inside Elections

Inside Elections' Baseline is a figure that analyzes all federal and statewide election results from the district over the past four election cycles. The results are combined in an index estimating the strength of a typical Democratic or Republican candidate in the congressional district.^[12] The table below displays the Baseline data for this district.

Inside Elections Baseline for 2024
Democratic Baseline	Republican Baseline	Difference
53.1	43.7	D+9.3

Presidential voting history

See also: Presidential election in Illinois, 2020

Illinois presidential election results (1900-2020)

16 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
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

See also: Party control of Illinois state government

Congressional delegation

The table below displays the partisan composition of Illinois' congressional delegation as of May 2024.

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 May 2024.

State executive officials in Illinois, May 2024
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 February 2024
	Democratic Party	40
	Republican Party	19
	Other	0
	Vacancies	0
Total		59

Illinois House of Representatives

Party		As of February 2024
	Democratic Party	78
	Republican Party	40
	Other	0
	Vacancies	0
Total		118

Trifecta control

The table below shows the state's trifecta status from 1992 until the 2024 election.

Illinois Party Control: 1992-2024
Eighteen 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
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
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
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

District history

The section below details election results for this office in elections dating back to 2018.