2018 Illinois gubernatorial election

2018 Illinois gubernatorial election

← 2014 November 6, 2018 (2018-11-06) 2022 →
Turnout	56.15% 7.67 pp
Nominee JB Pritzker Bruce Rauner Party Democratic Republican Running mate Juliana Stratton Evelyn Sanguinetti Popular vote 2,479,746 1,765,751 Percentage 54.53% 38.83%
County results Congressional district results Township results Pritzker:      30–40%      40–50%      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90%      >90% Rauner:      30–40%      40–50%      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90%      >90% McCann:      30–40%      40–50%      50–60% Tie:            No votes
Governor before election Bruce Rauner Republican Elected Governor J. B. Pritzker Democratic

Elections in Illinois
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Ballot measures and referendums State capitol referendum (1834) Cutback Amendment (1980) Crime Victim Rights Amendment (1992) Illinois Governor Recall Amendment (2010) Public Pension Amendment (2012) Marsy's Law (2014) Right to Vote Amendment (2014) Transportation Taxes and Fees Lockbox Amendment (2016) Fair Tax (2020) Right to Collective Bargaining Amendment (2022)
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v t e

The 2018 Illinois gubernatorial election took place on November 6, 2018, to elect the governor of Illinois, concurrently with the 2018 Illinois general election and other midterm elections. Incumbent Republican governor Bruce Rauner ran for re-election to a second term in office,^[1] but was defeated by Democratic nominee J. B. Pritzker. This was one of eight Republican-held governorships up for election in a state that Hillary Clinton won in the 2016 presidential election.

This was the second consecutive Illinois gubernatorial election in which the incumbent unsuccessfully sought re-election, and was also the first time that two consecutive governors have been elected without prior public office experience. Rauner was one of two incumbent Republican governors to be defeated for re-election in 2018, the other being Scott Walker in neighboring Wisconsin, who had lost narrowly to Tony Evers. In addition, Rauner had the worst defeat for an incumbent governor in any state since Ernie Fletcher's defeat in Kentucky's 2007 election. Rauner's 38.8% of the vote was the worst performance for an incumbent Illinois governor since 1912; he also received the lowest raw percentage of the vote for a Republican nominee since 1912. Pritzker flipped fifteen counties that had previously voted for Rauner in 2014.

Ultimately, Rauner lost in the most lopsided gubernatorial election since Jim Edgar was reelected in 1994. With Pritzker winning by a margin of 15.7%, this was the biggest gubernatorial margin of victory for a Democrat since 1932. This was the first gubernatorial election in the state since 2002 where the Democrat won a majority of the vote. Pritzker only won 16 out of Illinois's 102 counties. However, those counties account for more than half of the state's total population. Pritzker won the traditionally Democratic Cook County which includes the Chicago Metropolitan Area. Pritzker won in all but one of Chicago's collar counties, which used to be more of a tossup in years prior. He was the first Democrat to carry DuPage County since 1932; meanwhile, Kane and Kendall counties had not been carried by a Democrat once during the 20th century. DeKalb County voted Democratic for the first time since 1972.

Pritzker also did well in other cities such as East Saint Louis and Champaign, and narrowly won in Peoria. Rauner did well in most rural areas of the state, but it was not enough to put a dent into Pritzker's lead.