Illinois is a state within the United States that is known for its diverse political landscape. The politics in Illinois are often influenced by local, statewide, and national trends. At the local level, the cities of Chicago, Springfield, and Peoria are particularly influential in driving policy and debate. Each city has its own unique set of elected officials who help to shape the political agenda within each municipality. At the statewide level, Illinois’s governor and other elected representatives lead the way for laws that affect all citizens of the state. Additionally, Congressmen from Illinois have historically been instrumental in passing legislation which affects both Illinois citizens as well as those across the nation. Overall, it is clear that politics in Illinois are complex yet powerful when it comes to shaping public opinion and affecting change—both locally and beyond.
The political climate in Illinois is moderately liberal.
In Illinois 57.4% of the people voted for the Democratic Party in the last presidential election, 40.4% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.2% voted for an Independent Party.
In the last Presidential election, Illinois remained very strongly Democratic, 57.4% to 40.4%.
Illinois voted Democratic in the previous six Presidential elections.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Illinois is moderately liberal.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index is based on recent voting in national elections, federal campaign contributions by local residents, and consumer personality profiles.
VoteWord™
Displaying 20 years of Presidential voting, visualized in one word.
Illinois, Illinois: D D D D D D
How It Works:
Here at BestPlaces, we were looking at the voting patterns since the 2000 election and realized that we could express the results of each election as one letter. R if the Republican Party candidate won, D for the Democrat and I for the Independent. The six elections (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020) would be expressed as six-letter word (R R D R R R).
Then we went a little further and added the dimension of magnitude. If the difference of victory was greater than 10 percent, the letter is upper case, and lower case if the difference was less than 10 percent. This allows us to see interesting voting patterns at just a glance.
Here's the VoteWord for Iowa d r d d r r. In the last six elections the state has been closely contested, voting narrowly for the Republican Party candidate in 2016 and 2020 after voting for the Democratic Party in 2008 and 2012. Virginia (r r d d d D) has voted for the Democratic Party in the last four elections.
Individual Campaign Contributions in Illinois
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 716,474 contributions totaling $216,747,474 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $303 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 126,281 contributions totaling $163,291,916 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $1,293 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)