For months, Democrats have kept their eyes glued to an Illinois congressional primary race that seemed to foretell just how progressive an expected “blue wave” in the November 2018 midterms might be. With all the votes nearly counted, progressive hopefuls likely came up empty-handed: their first time candidate, who ran on a platform that promoted public health and abortion rights, seems likely to lose to an anti-abortion incumbent in the Democratic primary. But that wasn’t the only drama Tuesday night, as the winner of that race will officially face-off against a Holocaust denier in November; while the GOP candidate Arthur Jones ran unopposed, his party now finds him so undesirable that the state’s party leadership just said it will recruit another candidate to run against him in the fall as an independent.
But even against a third candidate, the Democrat is favored to win in November. Before midnight on Tuesday, Dave Wasserman of the Cook Political Report predicted Dan Lipinski, the Democratic congressman who has represented Illinois’ third district covering the outskirts of Chicago for seven terms, would secure victory over Marie Newman, a marketing executive who put her pro-choice position at the center of her campaign and earned endorsements from women’s rights champions like Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and groups like NARAL Pro-Choice America and Emily’s List. Lipinski, meanwhile, maintains a staunch anti-abortion stance and was one of the few blue-district Democrats to vote against the Affordable Care Act. This particular battle, hinged on reproductive rights, attracted a lot of money from beyond the state: Planned Parenthood spent $150,000 on Newman’s behalf, while the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List…
