Vice President Kamala Harris will defeat former President Donald Trump in Illinois’ presidential election, NBC News projects.
It was assumed that Harris would capture Illinois’ 19 electoral votes, as the state has not voted for a Republican presidential candidate since delivering a narrow victory for George H.W. Bush in the 1988 election.
In fact, Illinois voted with the Republican candidate in six consecutive elections from 1968 to 1988, and has now gone into the Democratic column in nine straight elections.
Trump received 38.8% of the vote in the 2016 election, and increased it to 40.6% in 2020, though President Joe Biden bumped up Democrats’ performance to 57.5% in that election year.
Illinois also lost an Electoral College vote due to population changes between the 2020 and 2024 elections.
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