The governor of Illinois is the head of government of Illinois, and the various agencies and departments over which the officer has jurisdiction, as prescribed in the state constitution. It is a directly elected position, votes being cast by popular suffrage of residents of the state. The governor is responsible for enacting laws passed by the Illinois General Assembly. Illinois is one of 14 states that does not have a gubernatorial term-limit along with Connecticut, Idaho, Iowa, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, North Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, District of Columbia, Vermont, New Hampshire and Puerto Rico. The governor is commander-in-chief of the state's land, air and sea forces when they are in state service.
Kenneth Dunkin, commonly known as Ken Dunkin, is an American politician. Dunkin previously served as a Democratic member of the Illinois House of Representatives, representing the 5th District from December 2002 until January 2017 and as an appointed by Governor Bruce Rauner to fill a vacancy on the Board of Commissioners for the of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago in May 2018, serving until December of that same year.
The Illinois Governor's Mansion is the official residence of the governor of Illinois. It is located in the state capital, Springfield, Illinois. The Italianate-style Mansion was designed by Chicago architect John M. Van Osdel with a modified 'H' shaped configuration with a long central section, and the front and back on the sides of the 'H'. The 16-room manor was completed in 1855 and was first occupied by governor Joel Matteson, who held the official grand opening on January 10, 1856. It is one of the oldest historic residences in the state of Illinois and one of the three oldest continuously occupied governor's mansions in the United States. In 1898 alterations to the exterior added neoclassical elements. In 1972, the Illinois Governor's Mansion Association was founded as a charitable corporation to assist in the maintenance and programming at the mansion. The Mansion was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
The Illinois Republican Party is the affiliate of the Republican Party in the U.S. state of Illinois founded in May 29, 1856. It is run by the Illinois Republican State Central Committee, which consists of 18 members, one representing each of the state's congressional districts. Once the dominant party in Illinois, the state GOP has become a minority party within the last few decades, holding little power in the state. The current chairman is Don Tracy, who has served since 2021.
The Comptroller of Illinois is a constitutional officer in the executive branch of government of the U.S. state of Illinois. Ten individuals have held the office of Comptroller since the enactment of the Illinois Constitution of 1970, replacing the prior office of Auditor of Public Accounts that was first created in 1799. The incumbent is Susana Mendoza, a Democrat.
Daniel K. Proft is an American political commentator and activist. A member of the Republican Party, he is a talk radio host for Chicago radio station WIND and was a candidate for Governor of Illinois in 2010. He voices a political commentary, "Sixty Seconds of Sanity" on the Salem Radio Network. He is also the president of Local Government Information Systems, an entity controlling sites like Kendall County Times and Will County Gazette.
Lura Lynn Ryan was the First Lady of the U.S. state of Illinois from 1999 to 2003. She was the wife of former Illinois Governor George Ryan.
The 2014 Illinois gubernatorial election was held on November 4, 2014, to elect the Governor and Lieutenant Governor of Illinois, concurrently with the election to Illinois's Class II U.S. Senate seat, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.
Christian Mitchell is the incoming Vice President for Civic Engagement at the University of Chicago. He currently serves as Deputy Governor for Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker’s administration. Prior to assuming that role, Mitchell represented the 26th District of Illinois as state representative from 2013–2019. He also served as the executive director of the Democratic Party of Illinois during the 2018 election cycle, becoming the first African-American to hold the position.
Bruce Vincent Rauner is an American businessman, philanthropist, and politician who served as the 42nd governor of Illinois from 2015 to 2019. Prior to his election, he was the chairman of R8 Capital Partners and chairman of the private equity firm GTCR, based in Chicago. The Republican nominee in the 2014 Illinois gubernatorial election, he defeated Democratic incumbent Pat Quinn by 50.3% to 46.4%. In 2018, after narrowly surviving a challenge in the Republican primary from State Representative Jeanne Ives, Rauner lost the general election to Democratic challenger J. B. Pritzker in a landslide. As of 2023, Rauner and his lieutenant Evelyn Sanguinetti are the last Republicans to have held statewide office in Illinois.
A general election was held in the U.S. state of Illinois on November 4, 2014. All of Illinois' executive officers were up for election as well as a United States Senate seat, and all of Illinois' eighteen seats in the United States House of Representatives. Primary elections were held on March 18, 2014.
Jeanne M. Ives is an American politician. A Republican, she is a former member of the Illinois House of Representatives for the 42nd district. She has run for governor of Illinois, and for U.S. Representative for Illinois's 6th congressional district.
Evelyn Sanguinetti is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 47th lieutenant governor of Illinois from 2015 to 2019. She previously served on the Wheaton City Council. Sanguinetti announced her candidacy for the 2020 election in Illinois's 6th congressional district, challenging first-term Democratic incumbent Sean Casten, but dropped out on October 11, 2019.
Leslie Geissler Munger is an American politician and business executive who served as the Illinois Comptroller in 2015 and 2016. She was appointed by incoming Governor Bruce Rauner to fill the vacancy caused by the death of re-elected Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka.
A special election for Illinois Comptroller took place on November 8, 2016. After comptroller Judy Baar Topinka died shortly after her reelection in 2014, Republican Governor Bruce Rauner appointed Leslie Munger, a former business executive and unsuccessful 2014 nominee for the Illinois House of Representatives, to fill her seat at the beginning of his term in 2015. Per Illinois state law, a special election was held to elect a comptroller to finish Topinka's term. Munger ran as the Republican nominee against Democratic Chicago City Clerk Susana Mendoza. State Senator Daniel Biss ran for the Democratic nomination, but dropped out in November 2015.
The 2018 Illinois gubernatorial election took place on November 6, 2018, to elect the Governor of Illinois, concurrently with the 2018 Illinois general election and other midterm elections. Incumbent Republican Governor Bruce Rauner ran for re-election to a second term in office, but was defeated by Democratic nominee J. B. Pritzker.
Juliana Stratton is an American lawyer and politician, serving as the 48th lieutenant governor of Illinois since 2019. She previously served as a Democratic member of the Illinois House of Representatives from 2017 to 2019. She is the first African-American woman to become Illinois' lieutenant governor, and the state's fourth woman lieutenant governor overall, after Corinne Wood, Sheila Simon, and Evelyn Sanguinetti.
The Illinois Budget Impasse was a 793-day-long budget crisis in the state of Illinois. From July 1, 2015, to August 31, 2017, Illinois was without a complete state budget for fiscal years 2016, 2017, and part of 2018. As a result, many state agencies had to cut services or continue borrowing to operate. The budget impasse has adversely affected Illinois' economy, its credit rating, and public confidence in Illinois' state government.
Start Early, formerly known as The Ounce of Prevention Fund, is a nonprofit organization in Chicago that promotes early childhood development in underserved communities across Illinois. Their programs include Educare Chicago, the Educare Learning Network, and Home Visits for Homeless Families. They base their programs off of early childhood development research.
Thank You, Bruce Rauner was a 2018 political advertisement against the gubernatorial campaign of incumbent Republican governor Bruce Rauner of Illinois. The ad was aired by Illinois state representative Jeanne Ives, a fellow Republican who was challenging Rauner in the Republican gubernatorial primary. In the commercial, which parodied a commercial Rauner had aired the previous year in support of his re-election, a variety of actors — portraying, among others, a transgender woman, a Women's March protestor, and a Chicago schoolteacher — thank Rauner for signing legislation which they believe benefitted them, and which was opposed by conservatives in the state legislature.
