Illinois and Ohio primaries 2024: Trump-backed Senate candidate prevails in Ohio primary

538 tracked key House and Senate races, including a California special election.

November’s presidential matchup may be set, but Democrats and Republicans still need to decide who will run in hundreds of downballot races (e.g., for Senate and House) this fall. A batch of these contests were decided on Tuesday, March 19.

Tuesday was primary day in Ohio and Illinois, and in the biggest contest of the day, Republicans chose former President Donald Trump's endorsee Bernie Moreno as their candidate in Ohio’s U.S. Senate race. It was a good night for other Trump endorsees too, as Derek Merrin prevailed in the GOP primary for Ohio's 9th Congressional District, while incumbent Mike Bost is leading his challenger in Illinois's 12th District, as of early Wednesday morning. Plus, a special election in California could have immediate implications for House Republicans’ razor-thin majority.

538 reporters and contributors broke down the election results as they came in with live updates, analysis and commentary. Read our full live blog below.


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First results in Ohio's 9th

The first votes for Ohio's 9th Congressional District are rolling in, and with 13 percent of the expected vote reporting, Merrin is slightly ahead with 46 percent of the vote, while Riedel is second with 39 percent, and Lankeneau is a distant third (14 percent). As Nathaniel wrote earlier, Merrin was a late addition to the contentious race after audio leaked of Riedel calling Trump "arrogant." And as I wrote earlier, Merrin is no stranger to intra-Republican battles.

—Monica Potts, 538


Ohio Republican and Democratic primary voters have different concerns

As we wait for the first results to trickle in, let's take a look at the issues voters are thinking about in the state. Among likely primary voters in Ohio, Republicans are much more concerned about immigration than Democrats, according to a poll released last week by Emerson College/The Hill/Nexstar. Specifically, given a list of options, 27 percent of voters who said they were very likely to vote in the Republican primary selected "immigration" as the most important issue facing Ohio, while only 2 percent of very likely Democratic primary voters said the same.

Republican primary voters were also more likely than Democratic primary voters to name "the economy (jobs, inflation, taxes)" as the most important issue facing the state, 39 percent to 27 percent. On the flip side, likely Democratic primary voters were more likely than Republicans to select "abortion access," 15 percent to 3 percent, and "threats to democracy," 18 percent to 7 percent.

—Mary Radcliffe, 538


Polls are now closed in Ohio!

Polls have now closed across Ohio. The Buckeye State usually counts its early and mail votes first, so expect to see some large vote dumps right off the bat. A word of caution, though: Early and absentee votes are not necessarily representative of the electorate as a whole. We'll want to wait to get more Election Day votes in before drawing any concrete conclusions.

—Cooper Burton, 538


A quiet but consequential primary in Ohio's 13th

Rounding out our key House races in Ohio as polls close at 7:30, the Republican primary has been pretty uneventful in another Ohio swing seat: the 13th District, which Biden would have carried by 3 percentage points in 2020. Democratic Rep. Emilia Sykes will likely face either former state Sen. Kevin Coughlin or Hudson City Councilor Chris Banweg in November. Not much distinguishes the two, though: They both support Trump and share the same conservative positions on abortion, immigration, guns and more. And they both have raised only modest amounts of money: $332,000 for Coughlin, $280,000 for Banweg. Sykes, by contrast, has pulled in $1.9 million for her reelection bid so far.

—Nathaniel Rakich, 538


Chicagoans are not happy with Mayor Johnson

Chicagoans are voting today on a ballot measure pushed by progressives that would institute a real estate transfer tax to fund programs addressing homelessness. Today's outcome could tell us something about the strength of Chicago's progressive movement … and its unpopular progressive mayor, who's made it a policy priority.

According to publicly available polling, while Chicagoans may have started out feeling good about Mayor Brandon Johnson, their opinion quickly soured. According to Chicago-based Victory Research, Johnson's approval when he first took office in May was at 63 percent. Five months later, in October, Echelon Insights/Illinois Policy Institute found his approval to be just 28 percent, with 50 percent of voters disapproving of his job performance. By January, Tulchin Research/Stand for Children registered an approval rating of just 21 percent, with 70 percent saying his performance was "only fair" or "poor," while Echelon Insights/Illinois Policy Institute marked his approval at 29 percent and disapproval at 57 percent.

The January Echelon Insights survey also asked respondents if they approved of Johnson's handling of various issues facing the city. The mayor received the lowest ratings on "housing and homelessness" (20 percent approve, 68 percent disapprove), "management of immigrants transported to the city" (23 percent approve, 69 percent disapprove), and "crime and public safety" (24 percent approve, 66 percent disapprove).

—Mary Radcliffe, 538