2022→ ←2014
Illinois Secretary of State
Democratic primary Republican primary General election
Election details
Filing deadline:December 4, 2017
Primary: March 20, 2018 General: November 6, 2018 Pre-election incumbent(s): Jesse White (Democrat)
How to vote
Poll times: 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Voting in Illinois
Ballotpedia analysis
Federal and state primary competitiveness State executive elections in 2018 Impact of term limits in 2018 State government trifectas State government triplexes Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2018
Illinois executive elections
Governor Lieutenant governor Attorney general Secretary of state Treasurer Comptroller

Illinois held an election forsecretary of state onNovember 6, 2018. The filing deadline for candidates wishing to participate in theDemocratic orRepublican primary elections was December 4, 2017, while independent and third party candidates had until June 25, 2018, to file.

For more information about the Democratic primary,click here.
For more information about the Republican primary,click here.

For more information on secretary of state elections in 2018,click here.

Candidates and election results

General election

General election for Illinois Secretary of State

IncumbentJesse White defeatedJason Helland andSteve Dutner in the general election for Illinois Secretary of State on November 6, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Jesse White (D)	68.3	3,120,207
		Jason Helland (R)	29.2	1,336,079
		Steve Dutner (L)	2.5	114,556

---

	Incumbents arebolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 4,570,842
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you,complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data?Contact our sales team.

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Illinois Secretary of State

IncumbentJesse White advanced from the Democratic primary for Illinois Secretary of State on March 20, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Jesse White	100.0	1,209,978

---

	Incumbents arebolded and underlined. The results have been certified.	Total votes: 1,209,978
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you,complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data?Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Michael Hastings (D)

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Illinois Secretary of State

Jason Helland advanced from the Republican primary for Illinois Secretary of State on March 20, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Jason Helland	100.0	609,190

---

	There were noincumbents in this race. The results have been certified.	Total votes: 609,190
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you,complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data?Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Joshua C. Griffin (R)

State overview

Partisan control

This section details the partisan control of federal and state positions in Illinois heading into the 2018 elections.

Congressional delegation

• Following the2016 elections, Democrats held both U.S. Senate seats in Illinois.
• Democrats held 11 of 18U.S. House seats in Illinois.

State executives

• As of May 2018, Democrats held four of 7state executive positions, Republicans held two, and the remaining position was officially nonpartisan.
• The governor of Illinois was RepublicanBruce Rauner. The state heldelections forgovernor andlieutenant governor onNovember 6, 2018.

State legislature

• Democrats controlled both chambers of theIllinois General Assembly. They had a 67-51 majority in the state House and a 37-22 majority in the state Senate.

Trifecta status

• Illinois was underdivided government, meaning that the two parties shared control of the state government.Bruce Rauner (R) served as governor, while Democrats controlled the state legislature.

2018 elections

See also:Illinois elections, 2018

Illinois held elections for the following positions in 2018:

• 18 U.S. House seats
• Governor and lieutenant governor
• Four lower state executive positions
• 39 of 59 state Senate seats
• 118 state House seats
• Municipal elections in Cook County

Demographics

As of July 2016, Illinois' three largest cities were Chicago (pop. est. 2.7 million), Aurora (pop. est. 200,000), and Joliet (pop. est. 150,000).^[1][2]

State election history

This section provides an overview of federal and state elections in Illinois from 2000 to 2016. All data comes from theIllinois State Board of Elections.

Historical elections

Presidential elections, 2000-2016

This chart shows the results of the presidential election in Illinois every year from 2000 to 2016.

Election results (President of the United States), Illinois 2000-2016
Year	First-place candidate	First-place candidate votes (%)	Second-place candidate	Second-place candidate votes (%)	Margin of victory (%)
2016	Hillary Clinton	55.8%	Donald Trump	38.8%	17.0%
2012	Barack Obama	57.6%	Mitt Romney	40.7%	16.9%
2008	Barack Obama	61.9%	John McCain	36.8%	25.1%
2004	John Kerry	54.8%	George W. Bush	44.5%	10.3%
2000	Al Gore	54.6%	George W. Bush	42.6%	12.0%

U.S. Senate elections, 2000-2016

This chart shows the results ofU.S. Senate races in Illinois from 2000 to 2016. Every state has two Senate seats, and each seat goes up for election every six years. The terms of the seats are staggered so that roughly one-third of the seats are up every two years.

Election results (U.S. Senator), Illinois 2000-2016
Year	First-place candidate	First-place candidate votes (%)	Second-place candidate	Second-place candidate votes (%)	Margin of victory (%)
2016	Tammy Duckworth	54.9%	Mark Kirk	39.8%	15.1%
2014	Dick Durbin	53.5%	Jim Oberweis	42.7%	10.8%
2010	Mark Kirk	48.0%	Alexander Giannoulias	46.4%	1.6%
2008	Dick Durbin	67.8%	Steve Sauerberg	28.5%	39.3%
2004	Barack Obama	70.0%	Alan Keyes	27.0%	43.0%
2002	Dick Durbin	60.3%	Jim Durkin	38.0%	22.3%

Gubernatorial elections, 2000-2016

This chart shows the results of the four gubernatorial elections held between 2000 and 2016. Gubernatorial elections are held every four years in Illinois.

Election results (Governor), Illinois 2000-2016
Year	First-place candidate	First-place candidate votes (%)	Second-place candidate	Second-place candidate votes (%)	Margin of victory (%)
2014	Bruce Rauner	50.3%	Pat Quinn	46.3%	4.0%
2010	Pat Quinn	46.8%	Bill Brady	45.9%	0.9%
2006	Rod Blagojevich	49.8%	Judy Baar Topinka	39.3%	10.5%
2002	Rod Blagojevich	52.2%	Jim Ryan	45.1%	7.1%

Congressional delegation, 2000-2016

This chart shows the number of Democrats and Republicans who were elected to represent Illinois in theU.S. House from 2000 to 2016. Elections for U.S. House seats are held every two years.

Congressional delegation, Illinois 2000-2016
Year	Republicans	Republicans (%)	Democrats	Democrats (%)	Balance of power
2016	7	38.9%	11	61.1%	D+4
2014	8	44.4%	10	55.6%	D+2
2012	6	33.3%	12	66.7%	D+6
2010	11	57.9%	8	42.1%	R+3
2008	7	36.8%	12	63.2%	D+5
2006	9	47.4%	10	52.6%	D+1
2004	9	47.4%	10	52.6%	D+1
2002	10	52.6%	9	47.4%	R+1
2000	10	50.0%	10	50.0%	Even

Trifectas, 1992-2017

Astate government trifecta occurs when one party controls both chambers of the state legislature and the governor's office.

Pivot Counties

See also:Pivot Counties by state

Eleven of 102 Illinois counties—10.8 percent—arePivot Counties. These are counties that voted forBarack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012 and forDonald Trump (R) in 2016. Altogether, the nation had 206 Pivot Counties, with most being concentrated in upper midwestern and northeastern states.

In the 2016 presidential election,Hillary Clinton (D) won Illinois with 55.8 percent of the vote.Donald Trump (R) received 38.8 percent. In presidential elections between 1900 and 2016, Illinois voted Republican 50 percent of the time and Democratic 50 percent of the time. Illinois voted Democratic in all five elections from 2000 to 2016.

Presidential results by legislative district

The following table details results of the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections by state House districts in Illinois. Click[show] to expand the table. The "Obama," "Romney," "Clinton," and "Trump" columns describe the percent of the vote each presidential candidate received in the district. The "2012 Margin" and "2016 Margin" columns describe the margin of victory between the two presidential candidates in those years. The "Party Control" column notes which party held that seat heading into the 2018 general election. Data on the results of the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections broken down by state legislative districts was compiled byDaily Kos.^[3][4]

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the termsIllinois secretary of state election 2018. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

See also

External links

Suggest a link

• Illinois secretary of state official website

Footnotes

v • e Secretaries of State Elected (by voters) Alabama •Arizona •Arkansas •California •Colorado •Connecticut •Georgia •Idaho •Illinois •Indiana •Iowa •Kansas •Kentucky •Louisiana •Massachusetts •Michigan •Minnesota •Mississippi •Missouri •Montana •Nebraska •Nevada •New Mexico •North Carolina •North Dakota •Ohio •Oregon •Rhode Island •South Carolina •South Dakota •Vermont •Washington •West Virginia •Wisconsin •Wyoming Appointed (by gov.) Delaware •Florida •Maryland •New Jersey •New York •Oklahoma •Pennsylvania •Texas •Virginia Elected (state leg.) Maine •New Hampshire •Tennessee Elections 2025 •2024 •2023 •2022 •2021 •2020 •2019 •2018 •2017 •2016 •2015 •2014 •2013 •2012 •2011 •2010 Other State executive offices •Chart of state executive officers •Term limits

	v • e State ofIllinois Springfield (capital)
Elections	What's on my ballot? |Elections in 2025 |How to vote |How to run for office |Ballot measures
Government	Who represents me? |U.S. President |U.S. Congress |Federal courts |State executives |State legislature |State and local courts |Counties |Cities |School districts |Public policy