Candidate filing for Illinois' March 17 primaries closed on Monday, and you can find a complete list of candidates here. At least one Democrat and one Republican filed in every district except IL-08, where Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi is running unopposed. However, challenges to nominating petitions are frequent in Illinois, and candidates are often knocked off the ballot, so expect some changes.
IL-03: Running down the key races by district has us starting with Illinois' 3rd District, a solidly blue seat in southwestern Chicago where conservative Democratic Rep. Dan Lipinski once again faces a challenge from businesswoman Marie Newman. Newman held Lipinski to a narrow 51-49 win in last year's primary, but complicating matters for her this time is the presence of two other candidates: activist Rush Darwish and mechanic Charles Hughes. Hughes has been thrown off the ballot twice in prior bids for local office and hasn't even filed with the FEC, but Darwish has raised $345,000. It only takes a simple plurality to win, so Lipinski could benefit if there's a split in the anti-incumbent vote.
IL-06: The NRCC was dealt a heavy blow when its touted recruit, former Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti, dropped out of the race to challenge freshman Democratic Rep. Sean Casten in October, leaving the GOP with former state Rep. Jeanne Ives as its only notable candidate in Illinois' 6th District. Ives is a conservative extremist who's a poor fit for this affluent and highly educated district in the western Chicago suburbs (check out this racist and transphobic ad she ran during her unsuccessful campaign for governor last year).
Hillary Clinton won this district 50-43 in 2016, though according to one analysis, former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner carried it 50-45 last year despite getting blown out statewide.
IL-07: A trio of contenders have filed to challenge longtime Rep. Danny Davis in the Democratic primary in Illinois' 7th District, a predominantly black seat covering Chicago's West Side and downtown. They include attorney Kristine Schanbacher, activist Kina Collins, and teacher Anthony Clark, who lost to Davis 74-26 last year. Davis, who is 78, has often flirted with retirement and declined to discuss his plans when the Chicago Tribune questioned him in April, but assuming his petitions are valid, we can take him off the retirement watch list.
One detail to note is that Davis, Collins, and Clark are black while Schanbacher is the lone white candidate. Schanbacher has actually outraised Davis, a notoriously weak fundraiser, though the incumbent has more cash in the bank.
IL-11: Democratic Rep. Bill Foster drew a primary challenge from Will County Board member Rachel Ventura, who criticized the incumbent from the left when she launched her campaign, but it doesn't look like the well-connected Foster has much to fear. Ventura so far has raised just $18,000 while Foster has $3.2 million in the bank. Republicans haven't put up a serious challenge for the solidly blue 11th District, located in the southwestern Chicago suburbs, in years, and they won't in 2020 either.
IL-13: After losing a heartbreaker by less than a percentage point last year, Democrat Betsy Dirksen Londrigan quickly launched a rematch against GOP Rep. Rodney Davis in Illinois' 13th District and largely cleared the field for herself. (The only other Democrat, activist Stefanie Smith, hasn't reported raising any money yet.) This district, located around the capital of Springfield in the central part of the state, voted 50-44 for Trump but went for Democrat J.B. Pritzker 46-43 in last year's race for governor. Both Londrigan and Davis are monster fundraisers and this district will once again be highly competitive.
IL-14: Seven different Republicans are challenging freshman Democratic Rep. Lauren Underwood, who upset GOP Rep. Randy Hultgren in the traditionally red 14th District last year. Hultgren, however, isn't among them: While he didn't rule out a comeback bid back in May, he did not file paperwork for a rematch.
The most prominent—but by no means best—contender is wealthy state Sen. Jim Oberweis, who has the most cash among the GOP hopefuls but sports a comically awful electoral track record. Remarkably, Oberweis is also reportedly the target of recruitment efforts in Florida's open 19th District, where he owns a home and hasn't ruled out running. However, the Sunshine State's filing deadline isn't until a month after the Illinois primary, so Oberweis could lose that race but still run again!
In the meantime, though, he has to deal with several actual opponents, including businessmen Ted Gradel, state Sen. Sue Rezin, and former Trump administration official Catalina Lauf, plus three minor candidates. This district, based in the western Chicago exurbs, went 49-45 for Trump and 51-43 for Rauner, making this the reddest seat Democrats will be defending in Illinois in 2020.
IL-15: Illinois' only open seat this cycle is the 15th District, where veteran GOP Rep. John Shimkus is retiring. This district occupies a wide swath of the east-central and southeastern parts of the state and is dark red turf (Trump won it 71-25), so the action will be found in the Republican primary, where six candidates have filed. The most notable appears to be farmer Mary Miller, whose husband is a state representative, while others include Altamont School Board member Kerry Wolff, Vermilion County Treasurer Darren Duncan, physician Charles Ellington, and former Trump state director Kent Gray. No one has filed a fundraising report yet.
IL-17: Rep. Cheri Bustos is one of 31 Democrats nationwide to represent a seat Trump won (albeit by less than a point), but Republicans haven't managed to give her a stiff challenge in a long time. That doesn't seem likely to change next year: The congresswoman's only notable opponent, real estate attorney Esther Joy King, has so far raised just $123,000. Bustos, who as chair of the DCCC has unmatchable access to money, has $2.7 million in the bank. And King might not even wind up as her party's nominee: Conspiracy theorist Bill Fawell, who got crushed by Bustos last year, is running again for the 17th District, which is based in northwestern Illinois.