(11-6-26) Gov. JB Pritzker carried just 17 of the state’s 102 counties, while Republican Darren Bailey won 84. One county, White, had reported no votes at all as of the latest count.
Pritzker, the Democratic incumbent, defeated Bailey 2,410,256 votes (59.8%) to 1,484,724 (36.8%), with independent Collin Corbett at 135,388 (3.4%). The margin was 925,532 votes, about 23 points, out of 4,030,368 votes counted.
The Associated Press called the race for Pritzker at 7 p.m. CT on Nov. 3, as the polls closed.
The result is the mirror image of the Ohio governor’s race the same night, where the Democrat won the state while carrying only 15 of 88 counties. In Illinois, the imbalance is even starker: Cook County alone gave Pritzker 1,116,463 votes, nearly half of his statewide total, and he won it 78.9% to 18.3%.
Pritzker’s 17 counties
Pritzker swept the Chicago-area collar counties — Cook (78.9%), Lake (66.2%), DuPage (62.9%), Kane (61.7%), Will (57.5%) and McHenry (53.2%) — plus Kendall (57.3%), DeKalb (54.9%) and Winnebago (53.2%) in the north, Rock Island (59.3%) on the Mississippi, Champaign (64.3%), McLean (55.5%) and Peoria (54.7%) in central Illinois, Sangamon (50.3%), St. Clair (55.8%) and Jackson (52.5%) downstate, and Alexander (73.3%) at the southern tip.
Two of those flips were historic. Pritzker carried Sangamon County, home of the state capital, after losing it to Bailey in 2022 — the first Democrat to carry it in a governor’s race since 1964. And he carried McHenry County, the first Democrat to do so in a governor’s race since 1852.
Bailey’s 84 counties
Bailey won everywhere else on the map, and by wide margins in most of it. Among the counties with exact figures, his strongest were Edwards (86.1%), Clay (85.0%), Fayette (83.3%), Brown (81.9%), Cumberland (80.9%), Effingham (80.5%), Greene (79.2%), Lawrence (77.9%), Wabash (77.4%), Gallatin (76.6%), Clark (76.5%), Calhoun (76.1%), Clinton (75.8%), Adams (74.3%), Edgar (74.1%), Bond (70.7%), Christian (70.5%) and Douglas (70.2%). His narrowest verified win was Boone County, 50.9% to 45.5%.
The full list of counties Bailey carried: Adams, Bond, Boone, Brown, Bureau, Calhoun, Carroll, Cass, Christian, Clark, Clay, Clinton, Coles, Crawford, Cumberland, De Witt, Douglas, Edgar, Edwards, Effingham, Fayette, Ford, Franklin, Fulton, Gallatin, Greene, Grundy, Hamilton, Hancock, Hardin, Henderson, Henry, Iroquois, Jasper, Jefferson, Jersey, Jo Daviess, Johnson, Kankakee, Knox, LaSalle, Lawrence, Lee, Livingston, Logan, Macon, Macoupin, Madison, Marion, Marshall, Mason, Massac, McDonough, Menard, Mercer, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Moultrie, Ogle, Perry, Piatt, Pike, Pope, Pulaski, Putnam, Randolph, Richland, Saline, Schuyler, Scott, Shelby, Stark, Stephenson, Tazewell, Union, Vermilion, Wabash, Warren, Washington, Wayne, Whiteside, Williamson and Woodford.
Corbett won no counties. His best showing anywhere was 4.6% in McHenry County.
A third term, and a rematch
The race was a rematch of 2022, the first gubernatorial rematch in Illinois since 1986. Pritzker, running with Lt. Gov. Christian Mitchell, is the first Democratic governor in Illinois history elected to a third term, and the first governor of either party to win a third term since Republican Jim Thompson in 1982. He will become the longest-serving Democratic governor in state history. His roughly 60% of the vote is on pace to be the highest for a Democratic governor in Illinois since Adlai Stevenson II in 1948.
What is still outstanding
These are unofficial results from the Associated Press, based on about 94% of the estimated vote as of Nov. 5. The Illinois State Board of Elections had not yet posted 2026 General Election results as of Nov. 6, and nothing is certified. White County, in southeastern Illinois, had reported zero votes — 0% counted — so it cannot yet be assigned to either candidate, leaving the final county split at 17-84 with one to come. Alexander County was only 25% counted, but Pritzker’s 73.3% lead there is decisive. A few county margins may move slightly as the remaining votes are counted.
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