How this works

Data current as of October 12, 2026 · latest report received October 14, 2026. From the State Board of Elections' data files; we refresh them by hand, so new reports can take a while to appear here.

What's covered

Every candidate for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, Comptroller, Treasurer, the Illinois Senate and the Illinois House in the 2022, 2024 and 2026 elections (primary, general, or both), and the money their campaign committees reported raising and spending in each election cycle. A cycle runs from January 1 after the previous general election to December 31 of its own election year (January 1, 2025 through 2026 for the 2026 elections); a committee that runs through several cycles has its money counted in the cycle its dates fall in. Federal offices (Congress) report to the Federal Election Commission instead; county and local offices and judges aren't covered yet.

Where it comes from

Everything comes from the Illinois State Board of Elections' campaign disclosure data files(elections.il.gov/campaigndisclosuredatafiles), the Board's whole campaign finance database as published for download: candidates and the elections they ran in, committees and the candidates they're linked to, every report filed, and every itemized receipt and expenditure on them. We download the files by hand (the Board's site doesn't allow automated access) and keep the rows that concern these candidates for state office.

• Candidates and races: the Board's candidate records for each general primary and general election, with whether they were the incumbent and whether the Board lifted contribution limits in the race.
• Raised: itemized receipts on the candidate's committees' reports: individual contributions, transfers from other committees, in-kind contributions and other receipts. Loans are kept apart; a loan from the candidate counts toward their own money. A contribution of $150 or less from one source in a reporting period isn't itemized, so it isn't here.
• Each contribution once: when a report is amended, or a contribution first reported on an A-1 is listed again on the next quarterly report, the Board marks the earlier copy archived; we leave archived rows out.
• Large since last report: a contribution of $1,000 or more must be reported on an A-1 within days of receipt, ahead of the next quarterly report. Those not yet repeated on a quarterly are shown as such (they're already in Raised).
• Spent: the committees' itemized expenditures, including transfers to other committees, grouped by the purpose each payment lists.
• Outside spending: independent expenditures for or against a candidate reported by any committee, matched to the candidate by office and name (or the name of their committee). An expenditure that doesn't fit exactly one candidate is left out rather than guessed.
• The district on race pages: each Illinois Senate and House district's population, median household income, median home value, share of homes lived in by their owner and share of adults with a bachelor's degree, from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey 5-year estimates (the only ones made for legislative districts), beside the same figures for Illinois. Statewide races show Illinois's.
• District maps for “Find your races”: the Census Bureau's 2025 cartographic boundary files for the Illinois House and Senate. Your location is matched to them in your browser and never sent anywhere.

Election results

Official results come from the State Board of Elections' results pages: every candidate's total votes in each contest for statewide office, the Illinois Senate and the Illinois House, for the 2022, 2024 and 2026 primaries and general elections. A primary candidate's share is of the votes cast in their party's primary. “Last time” is the seat's latest general election before the cycle's (from 2022 on) and the winner's margin over the runner-up, in points; the district lines have been the same since 2022.

The Board's candidate file sometimes leaves out a candidate who was on the ballot (keeping only another of their candidacies, such as a ward committeeman's). Anyone in the official primary results with 100 votes or more and no candidacy on file is added, and a primary winner is added to the November race. Their campaign committee is found by its stated purpose ("to support the candidacy of … for the 8th State Senate District"), and they count as the incumbent if they won the seat at its last general election. When one person filed twice for one race, the two records are merged.

Congress

Illinois's U.S. House members and candidates file financial disclosure reports with the Clerk of the House: assets and unearned income, earned income, debts, outside positions, agreements, gifts and travel, and (members) a report of every stock trade over $1,000 within 45 days. We read every Illinois filing since 2021 from the Clerk's yearly indexes and the reports' PDFs. Values are the ranges the form offers ($1,001–$15,000 and so on); a total adds up the bottoms and the tops, so it says what someone has at least and at most. Reports filed on paper are scans we don't read yet, and are linked as filed.

Illinois's senators and U.S. Senate candidates file theirs with the Secretary of the Senate (efdsearch.senate.gov). Its search asks each visitor to agree to the Ethics in Government Act's limits on using the reports (not for commercial purposes other than news media's, nor for credit ratings or fundraising); we agree as any visitor does and only publish them. Reports filed electronically are read the same way as the House's (assets, income, debts, positions, agreements, gifts, travel and stock trades); paper filings are linked as filed. Candidate reports stay on the Senate's site for a year after someone stops running, so past candidates' may be gone. Sitting House members who run for the Senate keep filing with the House.

Their campaign money comes from the Federal Election Commission's bulk data files for each two-year period: each candidate's totals (raised, from individuals, PACs and parties, their own money and loans, spent, cash on hand, debts), every contribution from a PAC or party committee, independent expenditures for and against them, and itemized contributions from individuals to their campaign committees (memo entries left out). A candidate is matched to their disclosure filings by name, or by district and last name; one with no disclosure filings who raised $5,000 or more is listed too. The same files cover Illinois's U.S. Senate candidates: the 2026 race lists everyone on the March primary ballot or who raised $5,000 or more, with the sitting senators (one retiring, one next up in 2028) listed apart. Vote counts for both chambers are the State Board of Elections' official results. A candidate's "moved in from their other campaign committees" is money transferred from another committee of theirs, such as a House committee to a Senate one.

Companies

The Secretary of State publishes its corporation and LLC records in bulk under the Business Data Transparency Act: each company's status and dates, a corporation's president and secretary, an LLC's managers and members, and registered agents. We download them by hand (the Secretary of State's site doesn't allow automated access). A candidate is matched to a company only when their name and ZIP code agree with the address the State Board of Elections has for them, or when their name agrees and the company itself gave to their campaign; a name alone mostly finds someone else. Contributions from a company a candidate runs count as their own money. Being a registered agent (the person who receives legal papers, often a lawyer for a client) is shown apart from running a company.

Home values

Candidates file a home address with the State Board of Elections. We look that address up in the county's own assessment records and take the latest value for the parcel:

• Cook County: the Assessor's open data (datacatalog.cookcountyil.gov: parcel addresses and assessed values). Homes are assessed at 10% of market value, so the market value is ten times the assessed value. Only class 2 property counts (houses, two-to-six flats, condominium units, townhomes).
• DuPage County: the county's parcel service (gis.dupageco.org), with each parcel's address, class and assessed value. Outside Cook County, property is assessed at a third of market value, so the market value is three times the assessed value (before homestead exemptions). Only residential (class R) parcels count: nine in ten carry the homestead exemption, so they're lived in by their owner, while the county's L and A parcels (houses and apartment buildings, almost all rented) rarely do, and a renter's address would otherwise be given the value of someone else's building.
• Lake County: the Chief County Assessment Office's Data Extract, a spreadsheet of every parcel, downloaded by hand (its site doesn't allow automated access). We read only each parcel's address, class, assessed value and assessment year. Assessed at a third of market value, like DuPage; the Board of Review's value is used once it's set. Only residential (RES) parcels count.
• Will County: the Supervisor of Assessments' Address Search, looked up by hand for each candidate's address (the site doesn't allow automated lookups, and has no open file of values). Residential classes only, not vacant land; assessed at a third of market value.

An address that's an office or a commercial building gives no value, and a condominium building counts only when the candidate filed their unit. Other counties aren't covered yet, so candidates there show no home value.

The value is shown only as a range: $100,000 steps up to $1 million, $250,000 steps to $2 million, $500,000 steps to $5 million, then “over $5 million”. Addresses, parcel numbers and exact values aren't published, and candidates who asked the Board to redact their address are left out. Assessments trail the market and can be appealed, so a range is a rough figure, not an appraisal. The chart's line is the median value of owner-occupied homes in Illinois from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey; a person's page compares their range with their own county's median.

Findings

Findings check each candidate's reports against rules in the Illinois Election Code (and, for contributions from abroad, the federal ban on foreign money in any U.S. election). Each quotes the law it rests on, checked against a copy saved with the code, and lists what to check next, including exceptions the reports can't show. “Worth a look” means something on the face of the records stands out; “Context” is background. Neither is an accusation: the Board's records can carry typos, and the Board decides on fines and can waive them.

• Contributions over the limit: a candidate's committee may accept only so much from one source in an election cycle (10 ILCS 5/9-8.5(b)), adjusted for inflation each odd year. We use the amounts the State Board of Elections published: $6,000 / $12,000 / $59,900 for 2021–22, $6,900 / $13,700 / $68,500 for 2023–24 and $7,300 / $14,600 / $72,800 for 2025–26 (an individual / a corporation, union or association / a PAC or another candidate's committee). The primary cycle runs from January 1 after the office's last general election (for statewide offices, four years back) to primary day; the general cycle from the day after through December 31. Party and legislative caucus committees are unlimited; the candidate's and their family's own money falls under self-funding instead. Races whose limits the Board lifted are left out (a primary self-funder's lifted limits carry into the general), as are cycles a candidate wasn't on the ballot for. A person is matched by name and ZIP code, an organization by name; when a report doesn't make clear whether money came from an organization or its PAC, the PAC's higher limit is used, so only plain businesses get the corporate limit. Refunds back to the source are subtracted. Worth a look when $500 or more over. When the limit rose during a cycle, the higher one is used.
• Large contributions reported late: a contribution of $1,000 or more must be reported on an A-1 within 5 business days of receipt, or 2 in the last 30 days before an election the candidate is on the ballot for (10 ILCS 5/9-10(c)). Counted from the receipt date the committee reported to the day the Board received the first A-1 listing it, skipping weekends and state holidays. In-kind contributions are left out: the law dates them by when the committee was notified, which the reports don't show. A day or two late is context; more than 5 business days past the deadline is worth a look.
• Large contributions with no A-1 found: a $1,000+ contribution on a quarterly report with no A-1 entry for the same contributor (allowing for a name written longer or shorter) within a week, for about the same amount, and no A-1 for that exact amount within 3 days under any name. In-kind contributions are left out.
• Quarterly reports filed late: due by the 15th of the month after each quarter (10 ILCS 5/9-10(b)); a deadline on a weekend or holiday is taken as the next business day.
• Self-funding with no notice found: more than $250,000 (statewide) or $100,000 (other offices) of the candidate's own contributions and loans in the 12 months before an election, with no Notification of Self-funding on file and the race's limits still on (10 ILCS 5/9-8.5(h)).
• Contributions from addresses abroad: a country other than the United States on the contributor's address (52 U.S.C. 30121). An address abroad doesn't make someone a foreign national.
• Rent, mortgage or utilities to the candidate or their home: payments whose description mentions rent, a mortgage, a lease or utilities, paid to the candidate, someone with their last name at their home address, or anyone at the candidate's home address on file with the Board. Campaign money can't pay expenses relating to a personal residence (10 ILCS 5/9-8.10(a)(4)). The address itself is never shown.
• Car leases and other restricted spending (context): payments described as gym or club dues, clothing or laundry, a vehicle lease or payment, or tuition (10 ILCS 5/9-8.10(a)). Each has exceptions: an event held at a club, campaign apparel, a vehicle used mainly for the campaign, education tied to an official's duties. Purposes that mention an event, fundraiser, food or campaign goods are left out.
• Mileage, reimbursements and pay to the candidate (context): campaign money may go to a candidate or family member only as pay for work actually done (10 ILCS 5/9-8.10(a)(11)); reimbursements for campaign costs are common and allowed. Repaying the candidate's loans and returning their money aren't counted.
• Money from red-light or speed camera companies: since July 28, 2023, vendors of red-light, speed and rail-crossing camera systems to Illinois towns and counties, their PACs, owners and executives may not contribute to any candidate (10 ILCS 5/9-50). We match contributors' names to the companies that sell these systems in Illinois; owners' and executives' personal contributions can't be identified from the reports.
• Money from more than one caucus committee: a General Assembly candidate may accept contributions from only one legislative caucus committee (10 ILCS 5/9-8.5(b)), the committees set up by the four legislative leaders (or by 5 senators or 10 representatives of one caucus, which the Board's data can't show). We count the committees the Board registered as party committees for General Assembly races, and one whose stated purpose says it's the Minority Leader's; leaders' committees registered as PACs (the Senate Republican Victory Fund, the House Republican Organization) aren't counted, since a candidate may take PAC money too.
• Payments with no purpose given: every itemized payment over $150 must be reported with its purpose (10 ILCS 5/9-11(a)(12)). Transfers to other committees are left out. Worth a look when $1,000 or more of them went to the candidate or family, whose payments must be pay for work they did.
• Donors with no employer or occupation (context): individuals giving over $500 in one report must be listed with their occupation and employer, or a note that the committee tried to find out (10 ILCS 5/9-11(a)(4)).
• Mostly party and caucus money (context): half or more of a campaign's itemized money ($50,000 or more) from political party committees.

Matching people

The Board links each committee to its candidate, so a candidate's money is matched by the Board's own ids, not by name. A candidate who ran in both the primary and the general for the same office is one person here.

Committees

Legislators' committee seats come from the Illinois General Assembly's site (ilga.gov): each chamber's committees and subcommittees and their members' roles (chair, vice-chair, the minority party's spokesperson, member). They're the current General Assembly's, shown on this cycle's pages for the legislators who hold them, matched by chamber and district.

Connections and rankings

Connections link the money across pages. Giving in Springfield and Washington matches people who gave to a cycle's state candidates with the FEC's itemized contributions to Illinois's U.S. House and Senate candidates in the same two years, by last name, first name and ZIP code (two people with the same name in one ZIP would be added together). Where donors work adds up contributions by the employer each contributor reported, leaving out retirees, the self-employed and the like, and a candidate's own money; an employer is listed when two or more of its people gave. Officeholders funding others lists candidates' own campaign committees giving to two or more other candidates in the cycle; money between one person's own committees isn't counted.

Rankings are each cycle's top ten on one measure: money raised, their own money (contributions and loans in their name and from companies they run, with its share of everything the campaign took in), cash on hand at the latest quarterly report, outside spending for and against them, and findings worth a look.

Donors

A donor is a contributor as the candidates' committees report them: a person by name and ZIP code, anyone else by name, cleaned of spelling differences (“IL” and “Illinois”, “Assn.” and “Association”, “Inc.”) and merged where we've checked that two spellings are the same donor. A company and its PAC are separate donors, as they are in law. Only donors who gave to two or more of a cycle's state candidates are listed; pages for individual people aren't offered to search engines.

“Where the money comes from” sorts every contribution by kind of donor, read from the name and how it was reported: labor unions, businesses, trade, professional and issue groups (associations, chambers, PACs), parties and the legislative leaders' caucus committees, other candidates' committees, and individuals. A candidate's own money is what they gave in their own name and what their other committees moved over. Names can mislead, so each kind is approximate.

Contribution limits

Illinois limits what a candidate's committee may accept from one source in each election cycle (the primary and the general are separate cycles), adjusted for inflation every two years. The limits come off for every candidate in a race when one of them reports putting in more than a threshold of their own money, or when independent spending in the race passes one; the Board records when that happens, and race pages show it.

Snapshot built 2026-10-14T19:32:32+00:00; campaign data current as of October 12, 2026.