Illinois Primary Results: Anita Concedes To Foxx, Stratton Trounces Dunkin

By aaroncynic in News on Mar 16, 2016 2:04AM

Tuesday night's state primary results have already had some huge upsets for Illinois incumbents. State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez has been ousted by challenger Kim Foxx; when she conceded shortly after 8:30 p.m. she was lagging by a margin of nearly 30 percent. Alvarez, who’s held the position since 2008, faced a huge swath of criticism for her role in the investigation of the shooting death of Laquan McDonald by Chicago Police officer Jason Van Dyke, along with dozens of other police shootings where she failed to prosecute officers.

Organizers with the #ByeAnita effort—who held several protest actions at campaign events, dropped 16 banners across the city denouncing her Monday, and flew planes connecting her with Hillary Clinton, Rahm Emanuel and Laquan McDonald on Tuesday—said they were excited. "This demonstrates what people power looks like," said Veronica Morris-Moore, who worked with the group. "When we started protesting Alvarez was in the lead and she lost by a huge margin. Make no mistake that has everything to do with the actions young black people have been bringing to the campaign trail."

The organizers behind the #ByeAnita actions never formally endorsed Foxx, rather instead putting all their focus on criticizing her failures. While Morris-Moore said they were currently celebrating, she added "you'll hear soon about an accountability plan for our new State's Attorney."

The group Assata's Daughters also made a statement on the State's Attorney's race. "This is about a legacy of anti-black state violence against our people, and this is just one step in the process of getting us free," the group said in a video posted to Facebook. "We were able to do this without endorsing a candidate, a very small budget, in coalition with other organizations...as young black mostly queer women...we were able to push passed the 16 shots and that spectacle of violence into the daily grind of the criminal justice in this country."

Meanwhile, in the hotly contested 5th District, challenger Juliana Stratton trounced current representative Ken Dunkin, snapping up more than 30 percent of votes than the incumbent. Dunkin, who’s represented the 5th since 2002, took harsh criticism when he chose to break ranks with Democrats in the Illinois House, failing to vote on several key pieces of legislation Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner opposed. President Barack Obama not only made a dig at him when he spoke to the Springfield legislature, but also formally endorsed Stratton.

And in another, less-surprising race with relatively early results, Republican Senator Mark Kirk and Democratic Rep. Tammy Duckworth each won their respective primaries tonight, meaning they will face off for Kirk's U.S. Senate seat in November. Duckworth beat out Andre Zopp and state senator Napoleon Harris for the Democratic nomination, while Kirk beat James Marter. The Tribune is already calling it the November race to watch.

And finally, in the presidential primary race, Donald Trump's victory in the Republican primary was called relatively early, while Hillary Clinton held a narrow lead over Bernie Sanders with over 90 percent of precincts reporting after 11:00 p.m.