December 4th was the last day for candidates planning to run for office in Illinois to file their petitions. Here is a quick look at who will be on ballots here in Champaign County. All active candidates can be found on the Illinois State Board of Elections website:
County
You can find the full list of county candidates on the Champaign County Clerk and Recorder website. There really aren’t going to be many contested races this time around. Auditor, Circuit Clerk, Coroner, and State’s Attorney are all on the ballot, and only the Coroner job will be contested, with current Coroner Duane Northrup stepping down. Democrats Laurie Brauer and Seon Williams will participate in the March primary to see who will challenge Republican Steve Thuney. The other countywide positions will seemingly remain with the current office holders: Democrats George Danos, Susan McGrath, and Julia Reitz respectively.
There will only be one contested County Board race. Democrat Matthew Sullard will face Republican Lucas Atwood. Atwood ran for District 5 in 2022 and lost. Sullard ran for Champaign City Council in 2021 and lost. The rest of the County Board districts will fall along the usual D/R lines.
State
Democrat Paul Faraci, who was appointed to fill Scott Bennett’s District 52 senate seat after his untimely passing, is running to keep the job. He will be challenged by Republican Jeffrey Brownfield, who unnsuccessfully ran for school board last year.
On the house side of things, Democrat Jarrett Clem and Republican Brandun Schweizer are running for District 104, the seat formerly occupied by Mike Marron, who stepping down. Clem is currently on the Parkland Board of Trustees. Carol Ammons is running unopposed again for District 103.
National
Nikki Budzinski will be running for the 13th District again, and there are two Republicans trying to challenge her: Thomas Clatterbuck and and Joshua Lloyd. Neither of them think guns are a problem, so that’s cool and fun.