Polls close at 8 PM ET throughout Illinois. Our
guide to tonight's key races can be found here: We'll be bringing you the results as they come in.
Results: AP: Statewide | By County
6:53 PM PT (Steve Singiser): IL-11 (R)/IL-13 (R): Two interesting GOP primaries are developing downballot. In the battle to face Bill Foster in the 11th district, Darlene Senger is clinging to a slight (36-34) lead over Chris Balkema. Bert Miller is not all that far behind at 26 percent.
Meanwhile, in the 13th district, incumbent GOP Rep. Rodney Davis is still pretty underwhelming, leading Erika Harold by a 55-40 margin. Davis is almost certain to face Democrat Ann Callis. The AP has not yet called the Democratic side of that race despite a 61-27 lead for Callis over George Gollin. Roughly a third of the vote is tallied in both districts.
6:55 PM PT (Steve Singiser): IL-Gov (R): 59 percent of the vote is now in, and the lead for Bruce Rauner continues to slowly dwindle. Kirk Dillard has now pulled within 18,200 votes of Rauner (percentage-wise, we are looking at a 41-37 Rauner lead). Pre-election polls, mostly conducted by the GOPers at We Ask America, staked Rauner to a considerably more comfortable lead.
6:57 PM PT (Steve Singiser): IL-Gov (R): Whoa, kids. This is getting fun. Up to 61 percent reporting, and the Rauner lead over Dillard is down to 13,500 votes.
7:04 PM PT (Steve Singiser): IL-11 (R)/IL-13 (R): One lead is solidifying, while the other shifts, in two key downballot primaries. In the 11th district, Chris Balkema has moved into a narrow lead over Darlene Senger (37-34). In terms of raw votes, we are looking at a 567 vote lead for Balkema. In the 13th, meanwhile, incumbent Rep. Rodney Davis has shored up his edge a bit, now leading Erika Harold 56-39.
7:06 PM PT (Steve Singiser): IL-Gov (R): Now we are at just about two-thirds of the precincts reporting, and Rauner, for the moment, has staunched the bleeding. The lead stands roughly where it did before, with him edging Kirk Dillard by 14,200 votes (40 percent-37 percent).
IL-13 (D): In case there was any doubt, the AP check mark has been placed beside the name of Ann Callis. She will face, assuming nothing shocking occurs from this point out, freshman Republican Rep. Rodney Davis.
7:11 PM PT (Steve Singiser): IL-Sen: Hahaha. Give incumbent Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin credit for rapid response. His team has already sent out a fundraising ask where Jim Oberweis is defined using two descriptive phrases: "ultra-conservative" and "self-funding."
7:17 PM PT (Steve Singiser): IL-Gov (R): We are now up to 73 percent reporting, and Bruce Rauner still holds roughly the same lead we have seen for a while: 13,900 votes. In terms of percentage of the vote, it has now dropped to just two points (40-38), but with only about a quarter of the vote, the raw vote becomes the important indicator.
IL-13 (R): It has been a mighty underwhelming performance, but the AP has declared incumbent Rodney Davis the winner here. At last check, with about two-thirds of the vote in, he led Erika Harold by a 56-39 margin.
7:22 PM PT (Steve Singiser): IL-Treasurer (R): We stepped away from this one for a while, but nothing changed as the night wore on. Therefore, the AP has called this race for Tom Cross, who beat Bob Grogan rather easily (58-42). He now faces Democrat Michael Freirichs in the general election.
7:31 PM PT (Steve Singiser): IL-Gov (R): We are now up to 78 percent reporting, and Bruce Rauner is still hanging on, but the margin has been cut ever-so-slightly. Kirk Dillard has now pulled within 12,000 votes of the longtime frontrunner in the race.
7:39 PM PT (Steve Singiser): IL-Gov (R): Now up to 82 percent of the vote in, and Bruce Rauner is starting to pad his very narrow lead. The margin has crept back out as more precincts dribble in, and he now leads Kirk Dillard by around 15,200 votes.
7:42 PM PT (Steve Singiser): IL-Gov (R): A pretty decent-sized dollop of votes just got dumped, putting us up to 88 percent of the precincts reporting. Bruce Rauner's lead continues to inflate very slowly. The raw vote lead is now a tick under 17,000 votes. In terms of percents, Rauner leads Dillard 40 percent to 38 percent.
7:45 PM PT (Steve Singiser): IL-11 (R): There is no AP check mark yet, but the last dump of votes included a bunch in the 11th district, and they have moved Darlene Senger back into the lead here. Her lead over Chris Balkema is now up to a bit over 1100 votes. Those totals are with 89 percent of the precincts in.
7:48 PM PT (Steve Singiser): Side note—as downstate has chimed in, it is evident how clear it was that all of the action tonight was on the GOP side. Despite the fact the Democrats have a big voter ID edge in the state, there have been nearly twice as many votes cast in the Republican primary tonight than the Democratic one. That might serve to explain why polls underestimated Kirk Dillard, who was largely perceived to be less conservative than Bruce Rauner.
8:07 PM PT (Steve Singiser): IL-Gov (R): Now, as is customary towards the end of an election, the returns are just creeping in. In the last 20 minutes, we've only crept up to 93 percent of precincts reporting, and the margin is virtually the same. Bruce Rauner still leads Kirk Dillard by 17,600 votes.
8:10 PM PT (Steve Singiser): With 95 percent of precincts in, and Bruce Rauner continuing to inch forward (the lead is now 19,100 votes), the AP finally cries uncle. Rauner is the Republican gubernatorial nominee, and will face incumbent Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn in November. It would seem, however, that Kirk Dillard has a legitimate beef with both Brady and Rutherford, who were utter non-factors but may have provided Dillard with the slight push he needed to defeat the wealthy Rauner.
8:20 PM PT (Steve Singiser): IL-11 (R): ...And the last race of import has been called. The AP calls the GOP primary in the Illinois 11th for Darlene Senger. She will square off in November with Democratic Rep. Bill Foster, in a race where Foster is the betting favorite.
And with that, primary night #2 of the 2014 election cycle is in the books. Thanks for hanging out with us!