* Another poll from the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association conducted by PPP…
● In the initial matchup, 39% are undecided, down slightly from 41% in September. Krishnamoorthi leads with 32%, followed by Stratton at 20% and Robin Kelly at 9%. In September, Krishnamoorthi led with 33% to Stratton’s 18% and Kelly’s 8%. So, despite Krishnamoorthi spending another $5 million, he has not continued to grow his support.
● Krishnamoorthi’s name identification also saw no movement, stagnating at 61%.
● Stratton’s name identification continues to grow despite zero spending from her campaign, going from 37% in September to 42% in December.
Methodology…
Public Policy Polling surveyed: 667 likely Democratic primary voters from December 8-9, 2025. The margin of error is +/- 3.8%. 58% of the interviews for the survey were conducted by text message and 42% by telephone.
Seems like no real movement by anyone.
* The react from the Raja campaign didn’t actually talk about the poll, but instead focused on the campaign’s current messaging about Stratton…
Today, following the release of yet another DLGA poll on behalf of Juliana Stratton, Raja for Illinois spokesperson Hannah Goss released the following statement:
“Once again, the Stratton campaign is showing that their alleged ‘no corporate PAC pledge’ is nothing but a hypocritical sham meant to confuse voters and hide her corporate ties. Juliana Stratton has taken a quarter of a million dollars in contributions from corporations and continues to drive her polling through a corporate-funded super PAC. This is why people hate politics — cheap games and empty pledges that have become typical of the Stratton campaign.”
ICYMI: Chicago Sun-Times: Stratton vows to not take corporate PAC money in Senate bid but has history of getting corporate backing
• But Stratton has a history of accepting corporate PAC and direct corporate contributions into her state campaign funds since 2016 — and this year returned a $5,000 check from The Marquis Energy Corporate PAC for her Senate campaign while taking in $21,000 from the same family controlling the company.
• This year, she also received $5,000 in corporate PAC money and $46,000 from corporations in her super PAC, the Level Up PAC, a hybrid PAC she created in January in anticipation of a Senate run.
• She has also taken in thousands of dollars from corporate executives and company leaders in her Senate bid. While the money is not coming from corporate PACs — as she vowed in her pledge — it is still coming in steadily from people who run corporations and companies.
• Corporate PACs that have previously contributed to Stratton’s state campaign fund include the Illinois Restaurateurs PAC, the Illinois Bankers PAC, Manufacturers PAC, Illinois Hotel-Motel PAC, AT&T Illinois Employee PAC, the Illinois Merchants PAC Team and United Airlines PAC.
• “This is what people hate about politics — people who say one thing and do another,” the congressman told the Sun-Times in a statement. “It’s rich that someone who condemns others for taking corporate PAC money has accepted nearly a quarter of a million dollars in direct corporate contributions, including multiple checks just weeks before launching her Senate bid.”
* That response appears more of a react to this press release sent by Stratton yesterday…
Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi continues to avoid accountability for the MAGA allies funding his campaign. Krishnamoorthi claims to be a fighter against Trump, but his donor list proves otherwise, and rather than taking responsibility, he continues to double down. While the Congressman is known for his “prolific” fundraising, it’s about time he answered some questions about where his money is coming from.
FIRST: Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi’s Senate campaign downplayed the tens of thousands of dollars he accepted from MAGA advisers and ICE profiteers, calling them “just .2%” of his fundraising, and stating they “welcome anyone” who supports his mission.
THEN: After being pressed by CNN’s Brianna Keilar, Congressman Krishnamoorthi said he “may revisit the contributions” from one of those MAGA allies, Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar. Over 50 elected officials and community members signed a letter urging him to donate the funds.
NOW: Krishnamoorthi’s campaign says they’ve donated the money, but they refuse to say where, and they have not answered to the other tens of thousands in MAGA money.
So which is it, Congressman? Do you “welcome anyone” or are there more contributions you’d like to revisit?
Before Illinoisans head to the polls, Krishnamoorthi owes voters answers – so we have some follow up questions:
• Will you revisit the $120,000 you’ve taken from the corporations building Trump’s ballroom, which you called “corrupt special interests”?
• Will you revisit the $34,000 you’ve taken from a man who “saluted” Trump’s “historic leadership,” praised Pete Hegseth, and celebrated Kristi Noem for “aligning border security, ICE operations, and inter-agency force in a way no administration has before”?
• Will you revisit the repeated donations from Bharat Barai, who believes Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is a “great Patriot”?
• Will you revisit Project 2025 contributor and Heritage Foundation advisor Michael Pillsbury’s $5,000?
• Will you revisit the $1,667 from “DOGE’s unpaid intern” Marc Andreessen?
“Despite Team Raja originally doubling down on their ICE money and saying they welcome support from “anyone,” we’re glad to see that they’ve course-corrected, and we look forward to their full and transparent accounting of where the money was sent,” said Juliana for Illinois spokesperson Allison Janowski. “While they’re busy revisiting their donations, they should also revisit the tens of thousands of dollars they’ve collected from Trump advisors and MAGA colluders. Values that you only uphold when you’re held publicly accountable aren’t values – they’re talking points. Illinoisans see through it.”
Happy holidays! /s
- lol - Thursday, Dec 11, 25 @ 12:13 pm:
team raja flailing - guess their 13M is not paying off like they thought it would
- Excitable Boy - Thursday, Dec 11, 25 @ 12:27 pm:
I’ve been pretty unimpressed by the blandness of both campaigns. This is a Democratic primary in Illinois, someone needs to distinguish themselves as a fighter instead of imitating Durbin.
- Think again - Thursday, Dec 11, 25 @ 12:40 pm:
The Stratton team seems great at oppo research; just not sure that running every Raja donor through a political background check will move any undecided voters.
- Center Drift - Thursday, Dec 11, 25 @ 12:50 pm:
Excitable Boy-how about a candidate who has a clear plan for effective governance and opposed to issues that divide us. Who will stay faithful to their oath to the constitution and not to their party. Who will insist on working together with all parties.
- Alton Sinkhole - Thursday, Dec 11, 25 @ 1:00 pm:
It’s sort of crazy to me just how far out of it Kelly continues to be. Just absolutely no juice for her so far. I know a lot can change, but it sure seems like a fizzling out of a decade-plus long Congressional career is coming for her.
- Ohhello - Thursday, Dec 11, 25 @ 1:05 pm:
I just want to hear more about the issues and how they plan on improving the lives of all Americans. The endless back and forth about campaign contributions is tiring
- Friendly Bob Adams - Thursday, Dec 11, 25 @ 1:13 pm:
The flinging of maga mud at Krishnamoorti won’t work. I don’t think anybody cares. Nobody thinks he’s a secret T***p supporter.
- Lincoln Lad - Thursday, Dec 11, 25 @ 1:14 pm:
The back and forth is tiring, and ineffective. Stratton needs a strategy as to why we should vote for her… not rely on trying to dissuade us from voting for Raja. She needs a better team - the one she has is ineffective.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Dec 11, 25 @ 1:18 pm:
===I don’t think anybody cares===
If that was true, he would not have given those contributions to charity and be so adamant about fighting back against the claims.
In other words, if nobody cared, he’d just stay quiet and move along.
- Demoralized - Thursday, Dec 11, 25 @ 1:25 pm:
==Who will stay faithful to their oath to the constitution and not to their party. Who will insist on working together with all parties.==
This is the primary. Democratic primary voters aren’t voting for anyone who wants to play footsies with the Republicans.
- Meh - Thursday, Dec 11, 25 @ 1:25 pm:
Rich, I don’t think this is the animating issue for the vast majority of primary voters. Most people are trying to live their lives and want to know which candidate might make their lives a bit better. I agree with Friendly Bob that painting him as a Trump supporter seems ridiculous.
But mostly I wish there were more coverage of issues in this campaign.
- Excitable Boy - Thursday, Dec 11, 25 @ 1:25 pm:
- Who will insist on working together with all parties. -
No thanks. I don’t want someone that will work with MAGA. I want someone that will beat MAGA into irrelevence.
- AlabamaShake - Thursday, Dec 11, 25 @ 1:39 pm:
**team raja flailing - guess their 13M is not paying off like they thought it would**
Huh. A poll from a Stratton supporter showing Raja with a big lead, and your takeaway is that he’s flailing and his money is working?
- re alabama - Thursday, Dec 11, 25 @ 1:49 pm:
*Huh. A poll from a Stratton supporter showing Raja with a big lead, and your takeaway is that he’s flailing and his money is working?*
His own polling shows the same thing…that his millions of dollars on ads aren’t moving the needle for him. With the kind of money he is sinking into this race, you’d expect him to be consolidating support and running away with with it but he isn’t. He’s hitting his ceiling and when the other candidates start spending, they’ll have the *shiny new thing* factor, and Raja won’t
- Pundent - Thursday, Dec 11, 25 @ 1:55 pm:
If the campaign continues to be about who’s taking money from whom, Raja will win. Stratton needs to make her own case and hope that Kelly will drop out. Because right now she comes across as a weak candidate who’s being outspent.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Thursday, Dec 11, 25 @ 2:07 pm:
Raja appears stuck at 30%, and that is not going to be enough to win what is essentially a two-person race.
I assume that the poll numbers from the 9th CD are pretty representative of Pritzker’s approval across the burbs.
I imagine 8 weeks of tv in Chicago featuring endorsements of Duckworth and Pritzker should be enough to put Stratton in the 40’s.
- Sue - Thursday, Dec 11, 25 @ 2:27 pm:
Julia who- I guess somethings are even beyond the Governor’s grasp in Illinois- it truly never made any sense for JB to go so far out on the endorsement limb for a candidate so unqualified to become a US Senator
- Dupage - Thursday, Dec 11, 25 @ 2:30 pm:
At one time a few years ago, Illinois was reported to rank a very low (if I recall correctly) 48th out of 50 states in the ratio of money sent to the Feds compared to federal money sent to the state. Durban was unable to do much to correct this. I want his successor to work 24/7/365 to correct this situation. Let’s at least strive for getting back an amount closer to what we pay in.
- Keyrock - Thursday, Dec 11, 25 @ 2:48 pm:
It’s a shame that Rep. Underwood couldn’t see a path and dropped out. She is both a fighter and someone who has had real accomplishments in the House.
- Steve - Thursday, Dec 11, 25 @ 3:00 pm:
- for a candidate so unqualified to become a US Senator-
Sue, come on. This is Illinois.
- Tom - Thursday, Dec 11, 25 @ 3:16 pm:
Raja is fine. Remember, it is a 14-person race, so mid-30s is okay in mid-December. I find it funny that people don’t think he is moving the needle. He is, and I strongly suspect those undecided if asked a second time who they chose, it falls faithfully Raja.
- Candy Dogood - Thursday, Dec 11, 25 @ 3:19 pm:
===Juliana Stratton has taken a quarter of a million dollars in contributions from corporations and continues to drive her polling through a corporate-funded super PAC.===
One of the challenges that the Lt Governor has when it comes to fundraising for her senate race is that her greatest political ally, Governor JB Pritzker, has relied on self funding for his political en-devours.
There is no giant book full of thousands of donors that participated in the two previous races for Governor where Stratton was on the ballot. There’s no prolonged history of the Lt Governor of the Governor doing call time to talk to folks who might be able to write a $200 check every quarter or maybe even a cool $1,000 here or there.
There’s no already established schedule or pattern of full time campaign finance folks arranging for fundraisers throughout the state, maybe even in other states, or setting up call time.
Members of congress spend so much time on the telephone dialing for dollars mostly talking to folks who are in the upper middle class or better. That is something that I believe has an over all negative impact on how those members of congress prioritize their votes since they spend so little time talking to what Game of Thrones would call the ‘Small Folk.’
But the fact that this relationship with donors does not already exist for the Governor and the Lt Governor has had an unfortunate impact on the Lt Governor’s Senate campaign.
The Lt Governor simply lacks the long relationship with individual donors and small donors that other candidates have. That might make her a better US Senator in the long run, but it is something that certainly has made it harder for her to become a US Senator.
Especially if folks with well established donor lists aren’t eager to share them.
- Rahm's Parking Meter - Thursday, Dec 11, 25 @ 3:22 pm:
I think this ends up being tighter, but Raja is the favorite.
- don the legend - Thursday, Dec 11, 25 @ 3:28 pm:
Sue and Steve, All three are qualified:
To be a U.S. Senator, you must meet three constitutional requirements: be at least 30 years old, have been a U.S. citizen for at least nine years, and be an inhabitant (resident) of the state you represent when elected, with requirements generally needing to be met by the time you take the oath of office. These qualifications, outlined in Article I, Section 3, have remained unchanged since the Constitution’s framing, with states unable to add extra requirements.
- lake county democrat - Thursday, Dec 11, 25 @ 3:31 pm:
The biggest threat to Raja would have come from the DSA-left winning a split ticket, but I don’t see Kelly or Stratton capable of tacking far enough to appeal to such voters. I actually think Raja has done a good job defining himself early as a likeable anti-Trump kind of guy. He had to put out this brush fire, but he did, however clumsily.
- Excitable Boy - Thursday, Dec 11, 25 @ 3:32 pm:
- - for a candidate so unqualified to become a US Senator-
Sue, come on. This is Illinois. -
Apparently the two of you have never heard of Tommy Tuberville.