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 Republican women loss of the night

ABC News is projecting a winner in one of the races I'm tracking, Ohio's 14th Congressional District, and it's the incumbent, Joyce, as was expected. He had two challengers to his right, one of which was Cross, who had said she would focus on the nation's immigration policy if elected in an interview with The Tribune Chronicle.

—Monica Potts, 538


First Ohio results

We've got our first votes from Ohio's GOP Senate primary, and it's shaping up to be a close one. With 18 percent of the expected vote reporting, Dolan leads Moreno, 39 percent to 38 percent, while LaRose trails with 23 percent.

—Jacob Rubashkin, Inside Elections


Illinois voters are most worried about crime and taxes

While we wait for Illinois results, let's check in on the issues on the minds of voters in the state. In a September Echelon Insights survey conducted for the Illinois Policy Institute, registered Illinois voters were asked what they thought were the biggest two issues facing the state. Topping the list were "crime and public safety," chosen by 47 percent of respondents, and "high taxes," chosen by 45 percent. Concerns about crime spanned the political divide, with 49 percent of Republican and Republican-leaning and 46 percent of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters selecting it. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the same was not true about taxes: This issue was selected by 56 percent of Republican and Republican leaners, but just 37 percent of Democratic and Democratic leaners. (Among the latter group, taxes tied with "housing affordability" as the second most important issue.)

—Mary Radcliffe, 538


Polls are now closed in Illinois!

Polls have now closed across Illinois, where we'll be monitoring several U.S. House primaries, as well as a closely-watched referendum in Chicago. Rep. Mike Bost is facing a challenge from his right, while Rep. Danny Davis is facing one from his left.

—Cooper Burton, 538


Polls show a close race in the GOP primary for Ohio Senate

Democrats (and allied independents) currently hold a bare majority in the U.S. Senate, with 51 seats to Republicans’ 49. But control of the chamber is at stake in November, and the Senate race in Ohio is one of a few competitive contests that could decide control of the chamber.

Three Republican contenders are facing off today for a chance to challenge incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown in that contest: Matt Dolan, a state legislator running with the endorsement of former Ohio Sen. Rob Portman; Frank LaRose, the current Ohio Secretary of State running on a campaign of conservatism and electability; and Bernie Moreno, a businessman with endorsements from Trump, a dozen members of Congress including Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance and the Club for Growth PAC, one of the oldest conservative PACs in the country.

Moreno, who appeared alongside Trump in several campaign events this past weekend, has gained significant ground in the polls since the former president endorsed him in mid-December. Then, he was polling at 16 percent in 538’s polling average — and now he’s hovering in the mid- to-high-20s. Democrats view Moreno as the weakest candidate for the general election and last week began airing a television ad intended to boost his standing by “attacking” his conservative record and support for Trump ahead of Tuesday's primary.

But the polls show a tied race between Dolan and Moreno, who each lead LaRose by 10 percentage points. That’s too close for polls to provide a reliable signal of who is decisively leading: Per our database of historical polls, surveys of Senate primaries miss the margin between the winner and runner-up by 6.5 points on average.

Looking ahead to the general election, the winner of today’s Republican primary matters not just in deciding who might be Ohio’s next senator, but in deciding control of the Senate come 2025. Since West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin decided to retire, prognosticators largely expect the Republicans to pick up at least one seat this November. That means Democrats and Republicans start their fight for the majority from a 50-50 tie, and Democrats need to at least hold on to the rest of their endangered seats — and for Biden to win — to maintain control.

Ohio is a red state, but Brown has managed to run ahead of expectations in previous cycles. So has fellow endangered Democrat, Montana Sen. Jon Tester. But neither of them have run in a presidential cycle since 2012, when President Barack Obama pulled off a surprising reelection and Democrats gained two seats in the Senate. Brown will face not just the strength of his opponent in November, but the partisanship of his constituents. The Cook Political Report rates the Ohio Senate race a toss-up.

—G. Elliott Morris, 538