Illinois Public Media News

Apart from the gubernatorial campaigns, the big question nationally is whether Republicans can hold on to Congress. Here in Illinois, several districts are up for grabs. We checked in with reporters from all over the state to give us the rundown of what's going on in their local communities.

On the 21st: March Madness is here, and this year's Illinois representation is Loyola Chicago's men's basketball team; we spoke with Nick Schultz, The Loyola Phoenix assistant sports editor, about what this means for the Ramblers. Then, we aired interviews from our gubernatorial candidates on their tax plans upon election. We also spoke to reporters about the congressional district elections taking place all across Illinois, specifically the 16th, 13th, 12th and 3rd districts. 

We’re a week out from the March 20 primary, and so we wanted to break down one of the most important issues for many of you voting for governor: taxes. Some of the candidates want to create new ones, some of the candidates want to reduce them, and some want to keep them pretty much the same. So before you head into the voting booth, let’s take a listen back to what all 7 of the Democrats and Republicans running for governor had to say. Governor Rauner did not take us up on our invitation to come on the show. But we did link his State of the State address here, which features some of his ideas on tax policy. 

Will the pressure be too much for the long-standing speaker and state party chair?

The United States’ population of farmers is growing older, and it’s more pronounced in the black farming community. The Trump administration has proposed to strip funding in the coming farm bill for a program that helps minority and veteran farmers.