Senate GOP Pulls Out of Only Contested Race
Senate Republican Leader John Curran speaks at a Statehouse news conference.
NOTE: This story was originally posted for subscribers only. To receive subscriber-only newsletters and content, click here.
Senate Republicans have pulled out of the only contested Senate race in the state, multiple sources tell The Illinoize, leaving no competitive races for the Senate in the lead-in to the November 5 election.
Senate Republicans put more than $470,000 in cash and paid for more than $200,000 in direct mail and staff for Senate candidate Phil Nagel in the third quarter of the year. Nagel is challenging Sen. Patrick Joyce (D-Essex) in the 40th District, which stretches from Kankakee to the far south suburbs.
Republicans went up on TV early to boost Nagel in September in an effort to chip away at Joyce’s name ID and built-in advantage in the district, which President Biden won by about six points in 2020.
Democrats immediately countered with a pile of money and broadcast TV buys and, we’re told, Senate Republican polling showed Nagel wouldn’t be able to make up the gap against the incumbent.
So, sources say, Senate Republican Leader John Curran (R-Downers Grove), his Chief of Staff, Brian Burian, and Derek Murphy, the Executive Director of the Senate GOP campaign arm, made the decision in mid-October to pull the plug.
The decision caused at least come contention inside the Senate GOP caucus.
Some members argued a poll from another organization, which Nagel paid for, showed him within three points earlier this month and the Senate GOP should go “all in” to try to steal a seat from Democrats.
Other members believed the SGOP already spent too much on a “reach” district on what they believed to be a flawed candidate in Nagel.
“This was the problem for Senate Republicans,” one top GOP strategist told The Illinoize. “They were in a position with the map and the seats up this year that there were no real pickup opportunities. But you can’t just spend the entire cycle sitting on your hands.”
Senate Republicans declined to comment on their decision to pull out of the race.
Senate Republicans will have to defend multiple seats in 2026, including for Curran, Sen. Dan McConchie (R-Hawthorn Woods), Sen. Seth Lewis (R-Bartlett), Sen. Don DeWitte (R-St. Charles) and Sen. Erica Harriss (R-Glen Carbon) and will likely need all of the funds they can muster.
That means it seems likely no incumbents will lose their seat in the Senate in November, but that isn’t a completely uncommon occurance. No incumbents lost their seats in 2020. Multiple seats switched parties in 2022, but only one incumbent, appointed Sen. Kris Tharp, lost their race two years ago.