Stratton, Tracy clash over Trump, affordability in lone U.S. Senate
forum
[October 22, 2026]
By Brenden Moore
SPRINGFIELD — Democratic Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton vowed to serve as a
check on President Donald Trump while Republican Don Tracy largely
defended the president’s positions in their only face-to-face meeting in
the race to succeed retiring Democratic U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin.
In the hourlong WTTW forum Tuesday evening, Stratton stuck to the
unapologetically progressive message that helped her win the Democratic
nomination against more moderate primary opponents earlier this year.
And she repeatedly tied Tracy to Trump policies that she said have
driven up the cost of living.
Tracy, on the other hand, labeled Stratton as a tax-and-spend liberal
and accused her of being a Democratic socialist “even though she won’t
admit it.” He presented himself as a pragmatic conservative and
suggested that Stratton was too focused on Trump.
Stratton enters the final two weeks of the campaign as the heavy
favorite, with a recent poll showing her ahead by double digits in a
state where Republicans haven’t won a statewide election since 2014. But
Tracy, who has loaned his campaign $3.5 million and is airing television
ads, is betting that his message can resonate with Illinois voters.
A third candidate on the ballot, Whitfield Harrington of the American
Center Party, did not meet the station’s 15% polling threshold required
to participate.
The Trump question
The candidates debated cost of living and affordability, tariffs and
trade policy, immigration, health care costs, energy and climate, and
how to balance representing the varying needs of the regionally diverse
state.
But nearly every issue came back to Trump, the two-term Republican
president who Illinois voters have rejected by double-digit margins in
three consecutive elections.
Stratton, Gov. JB Pritzker’s No. 2 since 2019, echoed the governor’s
pugnacious playbook for dealing with Trump, labeling the president a
“wannabe dictator” and “the biggest threat to national security” while
promising to hold him accountable.
“I will be a check on this president,” Stratton said.
She also pledged not to confirm any of Trump’s nominees.
Midway through the forum, Tracy seemed to tire of Stratton’s invocations
of Trump, saying he was “starting to wonder if my opponent is running
against me or against the president.”
“But I have to say, it’s nice that you’re able to say the Trump name
without using the F word,” Tracy told Stratton, a reference to the viral
digital ad Stratton’s campaign released during the primary earlier this
year.
He also argued Stratton would spend her first two years focused solely
on impeaching Trump.
Stratton then chided Tracy for saying earlier this year that he’d
“welcome” Trump’s endorsement. Unlike GOP gubernatorial nominee Darren
Bailey, Tracy hasn’t been endorsed by Trump. But he told reporters at
the Illinois State Fair in August that he “would certainly welcome the
endorsement of the president of the United States.”
Tracy countered that he would accept an endorsement, though he isn’t
actively seeking one.
Cost of living
The issue of affordability seeped into nearly every topic discussed.
According to AAA, the average price of unleaded gasoline in Illinois was
$4.65 per gallon as of October 20, nearly 50% higher than this time a
year ago. And the Consumer Price Index rose 3.7% year-over-year,
according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Stratton blamed Trump for initiating the war in Iran and for enacting
tariffs on friends and foes alike. She vowed not to vote for any bills
that provide supplemental funding for the war effort and called for an
end to tariffs.
“It has caused chaos,” Stratton said. “It has caused a trade war with
our allies, and that is not the kind of leadership we need. And it’s why
I’m going to hold this president accountable.”
Tracy said the cost of living was “higher than it should be,” but
suggested that gas price hike was a “temporary spike.” He said that he
would consider the war and the economic pain it has caused “just” if it
prevented Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
On tariffs, Tracy repeated what he told Capitol News Illinois in July:
“The jury’s still out.”
“I just like the fact that that the president recognizes that we’ve been
subsidizing the world and we’ve been taken advantage of by the world
with unfair trade practices out there, and so he’s trying to use, I
think, tariffs as a tool, not an objective, to reset world trade policy
to make it a more level playing field,” Tracy said.
Stratton rebutted that “the jury is not still out,” noting the Supreme
Court’s ruling that Trump cannot unilaterally impose tariffs. She then
said “refunds are owed” to Americans for tariffs paid over the past
year.
Tracy, however, broke with Trump’s decision to waive new sanctions on
Russia that would have imposed significant tariffs intended to stymie
the nation’s war effort in Ukraine. Calling Russian President Vladimir
Putin a “thug,” Tracy said he would have voted against it and an
associated deal to supply Russian diesel to U.S. markets.
The Illinois Republican said inflation remains “too high” but that he
would focus on addressing “root causes” to lower costs, such as reducing
government spending. He also said affordability could be addressed by
cutting taxes, hitting Stratton for various tax and fee hikes enacted
under the Pritzker administration.
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Democrat Juliana Stratton and Republican Don Tracy, the state’s
major-party candidates for U.S. Senate. (Capitol News Illinois
photos by Jerry Nowicki)
To put more money into people’s pockets, Stratton reiterated her support
for raising the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $25 per hour, a
middle-class tax break to be paid for by hiking taxes on income over $1
million and establishing a Medicare for all healthcare system.
“This is an issue of priorities, and if (Trump) can find all of this
money for everything else, and to drag us into an illegal war of choice,
then we should be able to make sure that people are not choosing between
cutting their medication in half or going to the doctor and being able
to put food on the table,” Stratton said. “That’s a false choice.”
Tracy said a hike in the wage floor would be “a death sentence to small
businesses,” though Stratton pointed out that the Pritzker
administration incorporated feedback from the business community that
resulted in the incremental hike of the state’s minimum wage to $15 an
hour.
The Republican disagreed with Stratton on overhauling the nation’s
healthcare system. In fact, he believes it’s “one of the best systems in
the world,” albeit “not perfect” and “too expensive.”
“We cannot ditch a really good system that provides very good healthcare
for 92% in a quest for this perfect healthcare system,” Tracy said. “We
need more market competition.”
Immigration
One of the key stances that helped Stratton solidify progressive support
in the primary was her unequivocal call to abolish Immigration and
Customs Enforcement, which came following the aggressive enforcement
campaign known as Operation Midway Blitz.
She stood by that position Tuesday night, repeating her belief that the
federal agency can’t be reformed. She called for comprehensive
immigration reform that includes a pathway to citizenship for people
living in the U.S. without legal permission, including immigrants who
came to America as children, as well as more judges and caseworkers to
unclog a process that often takes years.
“What I don’t want to see is the criminalization of our immigrant
neighbors,” Stratton said. “I don’t want to see racial profiling of
Black and brown people. I don’t want to see people killed by an agency
that is paid for with our tax dollars. It is not OK.”
Tracy acknowledged that Midway Blitz was “ugly and chaotic” and that the
administration “should have figured out a better way” to enforce
immigration law in sanctuary cities like Chicago. But he blamed
Illinois’ Democratic leaders and protestors for not cooperating, noting
that former President Barack Obama deported more than 3 million
immigrants without as much backlash.
“The worst of the worst didn’t have to be picked up in neighborhoods
with armies of immigration advocates encouraged on by my opponent to
obstruct immigration enforcement,” Tracy said.
Government data and analyses conducted by various news organizations,
however, conflicted the “worst of the worst” narrative, showing that the
vast majority of people arrested during Midway Blitz did not have a
criminal record.
“Donald Trump went after tamale vendors and daycare workers — our
neighbors,” Stratton said. “And so I’m always going to stand up and
speak out when we are seeing people getting killed in the streets by a
federal agency.”
Other topics
Stratton said she opposed Trump’s planned dismantling of the U.S.
Department of Education. Tracy said he would “keep an open mind” on the
topic but generally believes more education functions should be at the
state and local level.
On agriculture, both expressed support for the return of a five-year
farm bill. The last one was enacted in 2018 and the most recent
extension expired last month. The bill has traditionally included
subsidies for farmers as well as funds for the Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program. Tracy said Democrats were the reason it hasn’t
gotten done, to which Stratton fired back that “Republicans are holding
SNAP benefits hostage.”
“I will fight to make sure that we can get back to that bipartisan piece
of legislation that will include all of the things that are already in
it related to conservation and commodities, but also SNAP benefits,”
Stratton said.
Tracy defended the more stringent work requirements for adults to
qualify for food assistance, which were included in the One Big
Beautiful Bill Act.
“There is dignity in work, and we need to get more able-bodied people
into the workforce,” Tracy said. “It is better for them, and it is
better for society. Whereas the other side seems to like welfare
dependency, whether you need it or not.”
Capitol News Illinois
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