Rep. Dan Lipinski, an avid foe of abortion rights and one of the most conservative Democrats in the House, fended off a fierce challenge from the left on Tuesday night in Illinois, all but assuring an eighth term in Congress.

Lipinski narrowly prevailed over businesswoman Marie Newman, 51 to 49, after a bitter campaign battle that pitted the party’s ideological poles against one another. Lipinski was backed heavily by anti-abortion rights groups and by some unions, while Newman boasted endorsements from a host of outside groups on the left in the 3rd District contest.


"I would like to make Mr. Lipinski to have a very painful evening, so we‘re going to wait," Newman told her supporters shortly before midnight, according to news reports, as she declined to concede before the race was called by The Associated Press.

Illinois voters also set the stage for the most expensive gubernatorial race in the nation’s history. Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner narrowly defeated state legislator Jeanne Ives, 52 to 48 percent. It was a surprisingly strong showing for Ives, who attacked Rauner as insufficiently conservative, and a worrisome sign for the incumbent governor.

Billionaire J.B. Pritzker, who sunk $70 million into his bid, easily clinched the Democratic nomination against several liberal opponents.

Spending in the governor’s race is on pace to top the record $280 million spent in the 2010 California governor’s race.

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“The election in November will be a choice between someone who will stand up to the machine and someone who has long been a part of it,” Rauner said in a statement after his race was called.

Several other House primaries — from the suburbs of Chicago down to the southwestern tip of the state — will also produce Democratic nominees to compete in a handful of GOP-held districts that Democrats must make competitive to retake the majority.

Back in Lipinski’s district, national powerhouse groups — including Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America and Human Rights Campaign — waded into the primary, elevating Newman with endorsements and ads.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee largely stayed out of the primary fray, infuriating Blue Dog Democrats who wanted the campaign arm to officially back Lipinski. Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky, a member of the DCCC leadership, broke with the party and endorsed Newman.

Lipinski, who hails from a longtime political family, was slow to spend in his first seriously contested primary. Newman’s campaign and outside groups hammered him in attack ads for weeks without a response on the air.

Citizens for a Better Illinois, a pro-Newman super PAC, aired ads that attacked Lipinski for opposing same-sex marriage and “pushed to allow businesses to discriminate against gay and lesbians,” the ad narrator said.

“It’s not Trump, it’s your congressman, Dan Lipinski,” the narrator continued. “You can’t fight Trump when you agree with him.”

A week before the election, Lipinski went negative on Newman. A TV ad highlighted a Chicago Tribune story that revealed Newman’s former business partner, James Garofalo, pled guilty to two counts of wire fraud and was sentenced to six months in prison in 2010 for his role in an illegal mortgage scheme.

In November, Lipinski will face Republican Arthur Jones, a Holocaust denier and former member of the American Nazi Party. Jones ran unopposed for the nomination after Republicans failed to recruit another candidate to run against him.

The Republican gubernatorial primary also turned negative, as Rauner was forced to attack Ives in TV ads that linked the state legislator to House Speaker Mike Madigan, a controversial Democratic leader and GOP boogeyman.

Democratic billionaire J.B. Pritzker, who sunk $70 million into his bid, was declared the winner against several liberal opponents. | Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune via AP

In the final days ahead of the primary, the Democratic Governors Association began airing a TV ad arguing that Ives is “too conservative” for the state. On the surface it looked like an attack on Ives. But it was designed, in fact, to appeal to conservative voters to back Ives, who would almost certainly be a weaker general election candidate.

“Meet Jeanne Ives: She’s been rated as one of the most conservative in the state. Ives wants to ban abortions. She has an ‘A’ rating from the NRA, pushing to arm teachers and stop new gun laws. And on Immigration, Ives marches in lock-step with President [Donald] Trump, trying to eliminate protections for undocumented immigrants,” the ad stated.

Ives’ campaign released internal polling that showed a single-digit race, but public polling has shown Rauner with a double-digit lead.

Democrats had their own divided primary. Pritzker easily defeated businessman Chris Kennedy, another deep pocketed Democrat and the son of the late Robert F. Kennedy, and state Sen. Daniel Biss.

The primary was marked by overtones of the larger schism within the Democratic Party. Biss and Kennedy jockeyed for position as the most viable anti-establishment candidate, while Pritzker remained the front-runner. Cementing that position, Hillary Clinton taped a robocall for Pritzker in the final days before the primary. Pritzker picked up major endorsements from local and statewide politicians, including Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth.

Kennedy and Biss touted their own endorsements. Kennedy was backed by Reps. Danny Davis and Bobby Rush in Illinois, among others, and Rep. Joe Kennedy III, a relative. Biss was endorsed by the Bernie Sanders-aligned outside group Our Revolution, as well as Rep. Marcia Fudge of Ohio and Rep. Robin Kelly of Illinois.

House primary races will also yield answers on the kinds of Democratic candidates finding success in 2018.

Seven Democrats are jockeying to take on Republican Rep. Peter Roskam in a red-tinted suburban seat that Democrats are targeting heavily. The district backed Mitt Romney by an 8-point margin in 2012, but Hillary Clinton won it by 7 points in 2016.

With more than 85 percent of the vote counted in the Democratic primary, Kelly Mazeski, a Barrington Hills Planning Commissioner, led clean energy executive Sean Casten by fewer than 300 votes.

A pair of down-state Republicans learned who their general election opponents will be in races that Democrats hope to make competitive.

Rep. Mike Bost will face Brendan Kelly, a St. Clair County state’s attorney, who has outraised the two-term congressman throughout much of 2017 and 2018, nearly matching his cash on hand.

In the 13th district, Betsy Dirksen Londrigan, a businesswoman endorsed by EMILY’s List, defeated attorney Erik Jones for the right to take on Republican Rep. Rodney Davis.

And in the 14th district in northern Illinois, Lauren Underwood, a former Obama administration official, cruised to a primary victory and will face Rep. Randy Hultgren (R-Ill.) in November. Underwood led her Democratic opponents in fundraising, but she lags behind Hultgren in cash on hand for the GOP-leaning seat.

The state’s attorney general’s race also drew notice. State Sen. Kwame Raoul held off former Gov. Pat Quinn in the Democratic primary, while attorney Erika Harold, a former Miss America, won the GOP nod.