The Gate's 2018 Primary Guide

By Alexandra C. Price, Jacob Toner Gosselin, Brett Barbin and Kaeli Subberwal / March 6, 2018, 9:40 p.m.

In less than three weeks, Chicago area voters will have the chance to make their voices heard. The 2018 Illinois primary, scheduled for March 20th, includes significant races up and down the ballot, and its outcome will be felt from the Governor's mansion to the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District office. Yet primary races like this often have the worst turnout, as residents feel they have neither the time nor the resources to make an educated decision on these races. We at The Gate thought we'd do our part to address this issue by creating our very first Voter's Guide, with in-depth looks at every contested race this year in both the Democratic and Republican primaries. Throughout our pieces, we link to external resources; we encourage readers to look at these, and do their own research on the candidates vying to be part of the Illinois government this year. We also did not include third party candidates in our write-up; we similarly encourage readers to look into these candidates, and the unique platforms they offer. Finally, while our staff does include members of some of these campaigns, none of our writers are affiliated with the races they reported on in any way.

Election Day will be March 20th, but Early Voting has already begun! We encourage readers to use the Illinois Voter Registration Website to find their Early Voting locations, as well as their Election Day voting locations.

Democratic Primaries:

Republican Primaries:

This guide is valid for residents of the UChicago campus (i.e. zip code 60637); students who live off campus may find a slightly different ballot, with races and candidates not included in this guide. The image featured in this article, and all articles within the primary guide, is licensed under the Creative Commons; the original image can be found here.

Alexandra C. Price

Alexandra Price is a third-year History and Russian Eastern European Studies double major particularly interested in the Cold War and modern developments in the former Eastern Bloc. As the 2016 recipient of the Gate's annual Reporting Grant, she spent a summer in Germany reporting on refugee integration in Berlin. When she's not writing for the Gate, Alexandra loves to study foreign languages, read, and take long bike rides around the city.

Jacob Toner Gosselin

Jacob Gosselin is a fourth-year majoring in Math and Economics and minoring in Creative Writing. He is interested in health policy and criminal justice reform. He's currently working as a data journalist with Injustice Watch, a non-profit newsroom in Chicago. He's previously interned at the Brookings Institution's Center for Health Policy, and the Kaiser Family Foundation. On campus, Jacob is the Captain of the Varsity Cross Country and Track teams, and was the Managing Editor of The Gate from 2017-2018. He enjoys reporting on local issues, running with his friends, and tutoring at Chavez Middle School with the Chicago Peace Corps.

Brett Barbin

Brett Barbin is a fourth-year Public Policy and Political Science double-major, interested in American history, geography, and political rhetoric. This summer, he worked in the investigative division of the Public Defender Service for DC and previously served as the Deputy Political Director for Senator Mark Kirk’s re-election campaign. On campus, Brett is the president of College Republicans, the vice president of the Political Union, and a College Council representative. He enjoys walking Chicago, collecting books, and reading way too much into public opinion polls.

Kaeli Subberwal

Kaeli Subberwal is a fourth-year majoring in political science and minoring in physics. She has spent her summers working in local journalism at the Summit Daily News and national journalism at HuffPost, and doing archival research through the College Summer Institute in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. In her free time, Kaeli enjoys reading, hiking in the Rocky Mountains, and doing crossword puzzles instead of studying.