MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Primary voting in Illinois closes later today. Voters are deciding who will win the hotly contested Democratic primary to replace U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, who is retiring. From member station WBEZ in Chicago, Mariah Woelfel reports.
MARIAH WOELFEL, BYLINE: In the blue state of Illinois, front-runners for the Democratic primary race for the U.S. Senate have all shaped their campaign around a common enemy.
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RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI: The chaos of Donald Trump.
ROBIN KELLY: Under Donald Trump.
JULIANA STRATTON: Stand up to Donald Trump.
WOELFEL: That's Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, Congresswoman Robin Kelly and the state's lieutenant governor, Juliana Stratton. They agree on the challenge, but they're attacking each other over who's best for the job. Stratton paints herself as the progressive choice and slams Krishnamoorthi for taking some campaign contributions from Trump donors.
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STRATTON: That is not the example of somebody who's going to stand up to Donald Trump and fight for all of our communities.
WOELFEL: Krishnamoorthi says he donated a portion of that money to immigrant rights groups. The more moderate Krishnamoorthi has fired back at Stratton, who has vowed not to take direct money from corporate interest groups but has done so in the past. Speaking at a debate on Fox 32 Chicago...
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KRISHNAMOORTHI: She's not taking corporate money through the front door of her campaign, but it's coming through the side door, the rear door, the garage.
WOELFEL: Kelly falls between the two politically, but has largely stayed out of the fray. In her latest ad, she pushes a TV off a table that was showing attack ads of her opponents.
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STRATTON: Juliana Stratton.
KRISHNAMOORTHI: Raja Krishnamoorthi.
KELLY: Oh, hell, no. My opponents want to attack each other while we struggle to survive.
WOELFEL: Roughly $50 million has flowed into the Senate race and four House primaries, mostly from groups representing AI, cryptocurrency and pro-Israel interests. That's according to a WBEZ and Chicago Sun-Times analysis of federal campaign filings. Veteran Democratic consultant David Axelrod notes money like this is hard to trace.
DAVID AXELROD: We have a kind of Wild West fundraising deal where you just can make up organizations and pour millions of dollars into them and intervene in races.
WOELFEL: Political insiders will be watching just how effective the spending blitz has been after polls close later tonight.
For NPR News, I'm Mariah Woelfel in Chicago.
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