A general election was held in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

on November 4, 2014. All of Illinois' executive officers were up for election as well as a

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

seat, and all of Illinois' eighteen seats in the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

. Primary elections were held on March 18, 2014.

Election information

2014 was a

midterm election Apart from general elections and by-elections, midterm election refers to a type of election where the people can elect their representatives and other subnational officeholders (e.g. governor, members of local council) in the middle of the term ...

year in the United States.

Turnout

Primary election

For the primary election, turnout was 18.09%, with 1,357,807 votes cast. ;Turnout by county

General election

For the general election, turnout was 49.18%, with 3,680,417 votes cast. ;Turnout by county

Federal elections

United States Senate

Incumbent Democratic senator and

Senate Majority Whip The positions of majority leader and minority leader are held by two United States senators and members of the party leadership of the United States Senate. They serve as the chief spokespersons for their respective political parties holding t ...

Dick Durbin Richard Joseph Durbin (born November 21, 1944) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Illinois, a seat he has held since 1997. A member of the Democratic Party, Durbin has served as the Senate De ...

won reelection to a fourth term.

United States House

All of Illinois' 18 seats in the

were up for election in 2014. The Republican Party flipped two Democratic-held seat, making the composition of Illinois' House delegation 10 Democrats and 8 Republicans.

Governor and Lieutenant Governor

Incumbent Democratic

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Pat Quinn ran for re-election to a second full term as governor. Quinn, the then-lieutenant governor, assumed the office of governor on January 29, 2009, when Rod Blagojevich was impeached and removed from office. He was narrowly elected to a first full term in 2010. Quinn was renominated by the Democrats, while the Republicans chose businessman and venture capitalist Bruce Rauner and the

Libertarians Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's enc ...

nominated political activist Chad Grimm. Previously in Illinois, there were separate primary elections for governor and lieutenant governor, with the winners then running together on the same ticket. In 2011, the law was changed and candidates for governor now pick their own running mate. Incumbent Democratic lieutenant governor Sheila Simon did not run for re-election, instead running unsuccessfully for Comptroller. She was replaced as Quinn's running mate by former

Chicago Public Schools Chicago Public Schools (CPS), officially classified as City of Chicago School District #299 for funding and districting reasons, in Chicago, Illinois, is the third-largest school district in the United States, after New York and Los Angeles. ...

CEO Paul Vallas. Rauner chose Wheaton City Councilwoman

Evelyn Sanguinetti Evelyn Sanguinetti (née Pacino; born November 12, 1970) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 47th lieutenant governor of Illinois from 2015 to 2019. She previously served on the Wheaton City Council. Sanguinetti announced her ...

and Grimm chose Alex Cummings. Rauner defeated Quinn in the general election by 50.3% of the vote to Quinn's 46.4%. Rauner won every county in Illinois except for

Cook County Cook County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Illinois and the second-most-populous county in the United States, after Los Angeles County, California. More than 40% of all residents of Illinois live within Cook County. As of 20 ...

, home to the city of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and 40% of the state's residents.

Attorney General

Incumbent Democratic Attorney General

Lisa Madigan Lisa Murray Madigan (born July 30, 1966) is an American lawyer and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, she served as Attorney General of the U.S. state of Illinois from 2003 to 2019, being the first woman to hold that position. She is ...

ran for re-election to a fourth term in office.

Democratic primary

Candidates

=Declared

= *

Illinois Attorney General The Illinois Attorney General is the highest legal officer of the state of Illinois in the United States. Originally an appointed office, it is now an office filled by statewide election. Based in Chicago and Springfield, Illinois, the attorne ...

Results

Republican primary

Candidates

=Declared

= *

Paul Schimpf Paul M. Schimpf (born 1971) is an American lawyer and former Republican member of the Illinois Senate from the 58th district from 2017 to 2021. Among his activities prior to his tenure as State Senator, Schimpf served in the U.S. Marine Corps, p ...

, attorney and former U.S. Marine Corps infantry officer

=Withdrew

= * Mark Curran, Lake County sheriff * Mike Webster, attorney, accountant, and president Cass School District 63 Board of Education (ran for Secretary of State)

=Declined

= * Tom Cross, state representative and former minority leader of the Illinois House of Representatives (ran for Treasurer) *

Jim Durkin James Brian Durkin (born January 28, 1961) is a Republican member of the Illinois House of Representatives, representing the 82nd District since 2006 when he was sworn in to replace Eileen Lyons after she retired mid-term. Durkin previously rep ...

, state representative (replaced Cross as Minority Leader)

Results

General election

Polling

Results

Secretary of State

Incumbent Democratic Secretary of State Jesse White ran for re-election to a fifth term in office.

Democratic primary

Candidates

=Declared

= * Jesse White,

Illinois Secretary of State The Secretary of State of Illinois is one of the six elected executive state offices of the government of Illinois, and one of the 47 secretaries of states in the United States. The Illinois Secretary of State keeps the state records, laws, libr ...

Results

Republican primary

Candidates

=Declared

= * Mike Webster, attorney, accountant, and president of the Cass School District 63 Board of Education

=Withdrew

= * Will Lindsey, businessman

Results

General election

Polling

Results

Comptroller

Incumbent Republican Comptroller

Judy Baar Topinka Judy Baar Topinka (January 16, 1944 – December 10, 2014) was an American politician and member of the Republican Party from the U.S. State of Illinois. Originally a journalist, Topinka served in the Illinois House of Representatives from 1981 ...

ran for re-election to a second term in office. , this was the last time a Republican was elected Comptroller.

Democratic primary

Candidates

=Declared

= * Sheila Simon, Lieutenant Governor of Illinois

Results

Republican primary

Candidates

=Declared

= *

Illinois Comptroller The Comptroller of Illinois is a constitutional officer in the executive branch of government of the U.S. state of Illinois. Ten individuals have held the office of Comptroller since the enactment of the Illinois Constitution of 1970, replacing ...

=Withdrew

= * William J. Kelly, political activist, columnist, and candidate for

in 2010

Results

General election

Polling

Results

Aftermath

Topinka died on December 10, 2014. Governor Pat Quinn appointed

Jerry Stermer Jerome "Jerry" Stermer is an American Democratic politician who was appointed Comptroller of Illinois for a short period in late 2014 and early 2015, and was previously in many other Illinois state government positions and private political positi ...

to serve out the remainder of her term. A special election was held for the office in 2016.

Treasurer

Incumbent Republican

Treasurer A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance. Government The treasury ...

Dan Rutherford Dan Rutherford (born May 26, 1955) is an American politician who served as the 73rd Treasurer of Illinois from 2011 to 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he previously was the Illinois State Senator from the 53rd district from 2003 to 2011 a ...

did not run for re-election to a second term in office. He instead ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for governor.

Republican primary

Candidates

=Declared

= * Tom Cross, minority leader of the Illinois House of Representatives *Bob Grogan,

DuPage County DuPage County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois, and one of the collar counties of the Chicago metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the population was 932,877, making it Illinois' second-most populous county. Its county seat ...

auditor

=Withdrew

= * Michael Scott Carter, financial executive * Bob Schillerstrom, former chairman of the

Board and candidate for governor in 2010

=Declined

= *

Darin LaHood Darin McKay LaHood (; born July 5, 1968) is an American attorney and politician serving as the U.S. representative for Illinois's 18th congressional district since 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he was the member of the Illinois Senate ...

, state senator *

Illinois Treasurer The Treasurer of Illinois is an elected official of the U.S. state of Illinois. The office was created by the Constitution of Illinois. Current Occupant The current Treasurer of Illinois is Democrat Mike Frerichs. He was first elected to head ...

Polling

Results

Democratic primary

Candidates

=Declared

= *

Mike Frerichs Michael W. Frerichs (; born July 28, 1973) is an American politician serving his third term as the State Treasurer of Illinois, after first taking office on January 12, 2015. Before being elected treasurer, he was a Democratic member of the I ...

, state senator and former Champaign County auditor

Results

General election

Polling

Results

State Senate

One-third of the seats of the Illinois Senate were up for election in 2014.

State House of Representatives

All of Illinois' 18 seats in the

were up for election in 2014. The Republican Party flipped two Democratic-held seats, making the composition of Illinois' House delegation 10 Democrats and 8 Republicans.

Judicial elections

Judicial elections were held, which consisted of both partisan and retention elections, including those one seat of the Supreme Court of Illinois for ten seats in the

Illinois Appellate Court The Illinois Appellate Court is the court of first appeal for civil and criminal cases rising in the Illinois Circuit Courts. Three Illinois Appellate Court judges hear each case and the concurrence of two is necessary to render a decision. The ...

Ballot measures

Illinois voters voted on a two ballot measures in 2014. In order to be approved, the measures required either 60% support among those specifically voting on the amendment or 50% support among all ballots cast in the elections.

Illinois Crime Victims' Bill of Rights

Illinois voters approved the Illinois Crime Victims' Bill of Rights (commonly known as "Marsy's Law"), a

legislatively referred constitutional amendment A legislative referral (or legislative referendum) is a referendum in which a legislature puts proposed legislation up for popular vote. This may either be voluntarily or, as is the case in many countries for a constitutional amendment, as a ma ...

Results

Illinois Right to Vote Amendment

Illinois voters approved the Illinois Right to Vote Amendment, a legislatively referred constitutional amendment. The amendment was designed to provide that no person shall be denied the right to register to vote or cast a ballot in an election based on race, color, ethnicity, language, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation or income. Both proponents and opponents argued that the legislation was intended to block

Voter Identification laws A voter identification law is a law that requires a person to show some form of identification in order to vote. In some jurisdictions requiring photo IDs, voters who do not have photo ID often must have their identity verified by someone else ...

from being passed in Illinois. The measure added a Section 8 to Article III of the

Constitution of Illinois The Constitution of the State of Illinois is the governing document of the state of Illinois. There have been four Illinois Constitutions; the fourth and current version was adopted in 1970. The current constitution is referred to as the "Constit ...

which reads,

Results

Local elections

Local elections were held. These included county elections, such as the Cook County elections.

Notes

References

External links

* {{2014 United States elections