SPRINGFIELD — Democratic Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton vowed to serve as a check on President Donald Trump while Republican Don Tracy largely defended the president’s positions in their only face-to-face meeting in the race to succeed retiring Democratic U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin.
In the hourlong WTTW forum Tuesday evening, Stratton stuck to the unapologetically progressive message that helped her win the Democratic nomination against more moderate primary opponents earlier this year. And she repeatedly tied Tracy to Trump policies that she said have driven up the cost of living.
Tracy, on the other hand, labeled Stratton as a tax-and-spend liberal and accused her of being a Democratic socialist “even though she won’t admit it.” He presented himself as a pragmatic conservative and suggested that Stratton was too focused on Trump.
Stratton enters the final two weeks of the campaign as the heavy favorite, with a recent poll showing her ahead by double digits in a state where Republicans haven’t won a statewide election since 2014. But Tracy, who has loaned his campaign $3.5 million and is airing television ads, is betting that his message can resonate with Illinois voters.
A third candidate on the ballot, Whitfield Harrington of the American Center Party, did not meet the station’s 15% polling threshold required to participate.
THE TRUMPQUESTION
The candidates debated cost of living and affordability, tariffs and trade policy, immigration, health care costs, energy and climate, and how to balance representing the varying needs of the regionally diverse state.
But nearly every issue came back to Trump, the two-term Republican president who Illinois voters have rejected by double-digit margins in three consecutive elections.
Stratton, Gov. JB Pritzker’s No. 2 since 2019, echoed the governor’s pugnacious playbook for dealing with Trump, labeling the president a “wannabe dictator” and “the biggest threat to national security” while promising to hold him accountable.
“I will be a check on this president,” Stratton said.
She also pledged not to confirm any of Trump’s nominees.
Midway through the forum, Tracy seemed to tire of Stratton’s invocations of Trump, saying he was “starting to wonder if my opponent is running against me or against the president.”
“But I have to say, it’s nice that you’re able to say the Trump name without using the F word,” Tracy told Stratton, a reference to the viral digital ad Stratton’s campaign released during the primary earlier this year.
He also argued Stratton would spend her first two years focused solely on impeaching Trump.
Stratton then chided Tracy for saying earlier this year that he’d “welcome” Trump’s endorsement. Unlike GOP gubernatorial nominee Darren Bailey, Tracy hasn’t been endorsed by Trump. But he told reporters at the Illinois State Fair in August that he “would certainly welcome the endorsement of the president of the United States.”
Tracy countered that he would accept an endorsement, though he isn’t actively seeking one.
COST OFLIVING
The issue of affordability seeped into nearly every topic discussed.
According to AAA, the average price of unleaded gasoline in Illinois was $4.65 per gallon as of October 20, nearly 50% higher than this time a year ago. And the Consumer Price Index rose 3.7% year-over-year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Stratton blamed Trump for initiating the war in Iran and for enacting tariffs on friends and foes alike. She vowed not to vote for any bills that provide supplemental funding for the war effort and called for an end to tariffs.
“It has caused chaos,” Stratton said. “It has caused a trade war with our allies, and that is not the kind of leadership we need. And it’s why I’m going to hold this president accountable.”
Tracy said the cost of living was “higher than it should be,” but suggested that gas price hike was a “temporary spike.” He said that he would consider the war and the economic pain it has caused “just” if it prevented Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
On tariffs, Tracy repeated what he told Capitol News Illinois in July: “The jury’s still out.”
“I just like the fact that that the president recognizes that we’ve been subsidizing the world and we’ve been taken advantage of by the world with unfair trade practices out there, and so he’s trying to use, I think, tariffs as a tool, not an objective, to reset world trade policy to make it a more level playing field,” Tracy said.
Stratton rebutted that “the jury is not still out,” noting the Supreme Court’s ruling that Trump cannot unilaterally impose tariffs. She then said “refunds are owed” to Americans for tariffs paid over the past year.
Tracy, however, broke with Trump’s decision to waive new sanctions on Russia that would have imposed significant tariffs intended to stymie the nation’s war effort in Ukraine. Calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a “thug,” Tracy said he would have voted against it and an associated deal to supply Russian diesel to U.S. markets.
The Illinois Republican said inflation remains “too high” but that he would focus on addressing “root causes” to lower costs, such as reducing government spending. He also said affordability could be addressed by cutting taxes, hitting Stratton for various tax and fee hikes enacted under the Pritzker administration.
To put more money into people’s pockets, Stratton reiterated her support for raising the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $25 per hour, a middle-class tax break to be paid for by hiking taxes on income over $1 million and establishing a Medicare for all healthcare system.
“This is an issue of priorities, and if (Trump) can find all of this money for everything else, and to drag us into an illegal war of choice, then we should be able to make sure that people are not choosing between cutting their medication in half or going to the doctor and being able to put food on the table,” Stratton said. “That’s a false choice.”
Tracy said a hike in the wage floor would be “a death sentence to small businesses,” though Stratton pointed out that the Pritzker administration incorporated feedback from the business community that resulted in the incremental hike of the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour.
The Republican disagreed with Stratton on overhauling the nation’s healthcare system. In fact, he believes it’s “one of the best systems in the world,” albeit “not perfect” and “too expensive.”
“We cannot ditch a really good system that provides very good healthcare for 92% in a quest for this perfect healthcare system,” Tracy said. “We need more market competition.”
IMMIGRATION
One of the key stances that helped Stratton solidify progressive support in the primary was her unequivocal call to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which came following the aggressive enforcement campaign known as Operation Midway Blitz.
She stood by that position Tuesday night, repeating her belief that the federal agency can’t be reformed. She called for comprehensive immigration reform that includes a pathway to citizenship for people living in the U.S. without legal permission, including immigrants who came to America as children, as well as more judges and caseworkers to unclog a process that often takes years.
“What I don’t want to see is the criminalization of our immigrant neighbors,” Stratton said. “I don’t want to see racial profiling of Black and brown people. I don’t want to see people killed by an agency that is paid for with our tax dollars. It is not OK.”
Tracy acknowledged that Midway Blitz was “ugly and chaotic” and that the administration “should have figured out a better way” to enforce immigration law in sanctuary cities like Chicago. But he blamed Illinois’ Democratic leaders and protestors for not cooperating, noting that former President Barack Obama deported more than 3 million immigrants without as much backlash.
“The worst of the worst didn’t have to be picked up in neighborhoods with armies of immigration advocates encouraged on by my opponent to obstruct immigration enforcement,” Tracy said.
Government data and analyses conducted by various news organizations, however, conflicted the “worst of the worst” narrative, showing that the vast majority of people arrested during Midway Blitz did not have a criminal record.
“Donald Trump went after tamale vendors and daycare workers — our neighbors,” Stratton said. “And so I’m always going to stand up and speak out when we are seeing people getting killed in the streets by a federal agency.”
OTHER TOPICS
Stratton said she opposed Trump’s planned dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education. Tracy said he would “keep an open mind” on the topic but generally believes more education functions should be at the state and local level.
On agriculture, both expressed support for the return of a five-year farm bill. The last one was enacted in 2018 and the most recent extension expired last month. The bill has traditionally included subsidies for farmers as well as funds for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Tracy said Democrats were the reason it hasn’t gotten done, to which Stratton fired back that “Republicans are holding SNAP benefits hostage.”
“I will fight to make sure that we can get back to that bipartisan piece of legislation that will include all of the things that are already in it related to conservation and commodities, but also SNAP benefits,” Stratton said.
Tracy defended the more stringent work requirements for adults to qualify for food assistance, which were included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
“There is dignity in work, and we need to get more able-bodied people into the workforce,” Tracy said. “It is better for them, and it is better for society. Whereas the other side seems to like welfare dependency, whether you need it or not.”