Illinois 17th Congressional District election results

The most at-risk member of Congress in Illinois is U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen, a Democrat from Moline. As he completes his first term in Washington, he faces former Judge Joe McGraw of Rockford, who retired after 20 years on the bench to run for a 17th District seat that has served all but two years since the 1980s is solid blue.

Sorensen’s victory in 2022 was narrow, so the race has attracted some national attention and out-of-state fundraising as one of a few districts that could impact the Republican majority in the House. The Illinois delegation (of which Sorensen, 48, is the only openly gay member) is naturally heavily Democratic-leaning (14 to 3), as state Democrats, who have long held a supermajority in the General Assembly, pre-election In 2022, district boundaries were redrawn to favor their own party.

Illinois’ 17th District wraps the Chicago suburbs in a C-shape from Rockford to the northwest, touches the Quad Cities on the state’s western border, and runs through downstate Galesburg, Pekin and Peoria before ending in Bloomington, just over two hours south of Chicago , ends .

This means residents live in college towns and urban areas as well as on farms.

Sorensen, the only former congressional meteorologist to work in television markets in Rockford and the Quad Cities, outspent McGraw by more than three to one. In one of the state’s most expensive races, McGraw raised about $1.3 million and still had $331,000 on hand, according to Federal Election Commission reports as of Oct. 16; Sorensen has raised about $4.7 million and has $1.3 million left.

Both candidates said they wanted to focus on making life affordable for the common man.

For McGraw, 69, in addition to fighting inflation and supporting manufacturing jobs, that also means closing immigration at the border with Mexico – as former President Donald Trump also wants to do.

“With the economy, interest rates and the open border, Americans are struggling to survive and just can’t make it,” he recently told WBEZ.

Sorensen, 48, pointed to his success in getting local needs — like bridge repairs and water main replacements — funded through Congress because he has worked across the aisle.

From Sun-Times Staff Writer