Amid the flood of super PAC spending in four open-seat House primaries in the Chicago metro area, the primary campaign to replace soon-to-retire Sen. Dick Durbin in the U.S. Senate has gotten a bit lost. But super PAC money from corporate interests like the cryptocurrency industry has also characterized that race, along with millions from supporters of the major candidates.
Illinois Democrats will choose their next Senate nominee among Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, who has called for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to be abolished and is leaning on her close association with Gov. JB Pritzker’s progressive brand (and financial war chest); Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who emphasizes his immigrant identity in anti-ICE ads; and Rep. Robin Kelly, who is running from the left and has called out the other two candidates for not labeling Israel’s bombardment of Gaza a “genocide.”
Fairshake, the pro-cryptocurrency PAC that has also spent millions in Illinois’s Second District and Seventh District races, has spent almost $10 million opposing Stratton, a number that far outweighs their spending in the other Illinois races. Fairshake’s affiliated PAC, Protect Progress, has spent an additional $163,639 against her. Protect Progress also spent $277,000 in favor of Kelly and $30,183 in favor of Krishnamoorthi.
Despite railing against Trump, Krishnamoorthi, who has led in polling from virtually the beginning, has benefited from MAGA-affiliated donors, including venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, Heritage Foundation senior adviser Michael Pillsbury, and Shyam Sankar, the chief technology officer at Palantir and a Trump adviser who has donated hundreds of thousands to Republican causes already in 2026.
Palantir, of course, is the data analytics company that has come under fire during Trump’s second term for collaborating with ICE and aiding the government’s domestic surveillance operations. Palantir is also the main contractor behind Project Maven, a Department of Defense project that uses AI chatbots to plan and conduct war. The U.S. has reportedly used Project Maven to conduct deadly bombings in Iran.
After ICE terrorized Chicago during last fall’s Operation Midway Blitz, opposing the agency has become a critical policy position for Democratic candidates in the state. All three Senate candidates have vocally opposed ICE in one form or another. Stratton has called to abolish ICE, Kelly wants to see it dismantled, and Krishnamoorthi said he wants to abolish “Trump’s ICE.” Krishnamoorthi has been a longtime member of the House Oversight Committee and has shown aptitude for public hearings that challenge administration actions in Trump’s first term.
At a Stratton rally that was joined by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on Friday, attendees told me that Stratton’s opposition to ICE was her biggest draw. One attendee, Carlos Bernal, said that Stratton had been a consistent presence in his neighborhood, Back of the Yards, a largely Hispanic neighborhood on Chicago’s southwest side.
“A lot of us are worried about ICE,” he said. “She came there with a plan if she were to become a U.S. senator … to further protect our community members.”
Progressive Values Illinois is another super PAC that has jumped into the race. Backed by Krishnamoorthi supporters, the PAC has spent hundreds of thousands to support Kelly and oppose Stratton, who appears to be Krishnamoorthi’s main competitor. Polls show a tight race between the two candidates, with Kelly a distant third.
The Impact Fund, an arm of Indian American Impact, has put nearly $1 million total to support Kelly and oppose Stratton.
Based on these expenditures, Krishnamoorthi and his supporters have fielded accusations of trying to split the state’s Black vote between Kelly and Stratton, who are both Black women. The crypto-funded ads favoring Kelly may also be serving the same function, strategically boosting her to split the vote and help Krishnamoorthi.
Some of the Protect Progress ads feature clips of former President Obama praising Kelly and note that the powerful Congressional Black Caucus supports her. The caucus endorsed Kelly’s bid and criticized Pritzker’s endorsement of Stratton. “A sitting governor shouldn’t be heavy-handing the race. Quite frankly, his behavior in this race won’t soon be forgotten,” caucus chair Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY) said after Pritzker’s endorsement.
Pritzker, a billionaire with potential 2028 White House ambitions, has put at least $5 million of his own money toward Stratton’s campaign.
Both women have strong ties to the state’s Black community. One Black woman who attended Friday’s rally, Alex Nealy, said that she admired Stratton’s work on Black maternal health. In 2023, Stratton started the Birth Equity initiative, and helped secure funding to improve health care outcomes for Black women in 2024.
On Sunday, Stratton announced that she had received an endorsement from the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the former presidential candidate and civil rights leader who died on February 17. Jackson’s family disputed the posthumous endorsement and withdrew it on Monday.
Unlike in the Chicagoland House races, the Senate race so far has received no direct money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). In those House races, AIPAC-backed PACs like United Democracy Project, Affordable Chicago Now, and Elect Chicago Women have poured millions of dollars in to support their chosen candidates.
But at least 27 major AIPAC donors have given to Stratton’s campaign, The Intercept reported, and a former president of AIPAC and Pritzker adviser, Lee Rosenberg, sits on her finance committee.
When I asked Stratton about those AIPAC ties after her rally on Friday, she noted that she supports a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine and had not been endorsed by AIPAC. I asked whether she would accept money from an AIPAC-affiliated group, and she dodged, simply saying: “I have not accepted any money from the PAC.”
At that rally, Sen. Warren praised Stratton and called out the influence of super PAC money in the race and in the other Illinois congressional primaries.
“Right now, Illinois is the test ground for whether or not our democracy survives,” Warren said. “They are the test case for whether or not they get to buy the candidate they want. I’m here because I’m hoping you will say: ‘Illinois is not for sale!’”
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