AI, Crypto Suffer Surprise Defeats in Illinois Primary Fights
Senate primary winner Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton during a primary election night event in Chicago, on March 17.
Photographer: Christopher Dilts/BloombergDemocratic voters in Illinois this week rejected most candidates supported by the crypto and artificial intelligence industries, marking an unexpected defeat for well-funded special interest groups as they prepare to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to shape Congress in this year’s midterm elections.
AI and crypto, relatively new industries with ambitious anti-regulation agendas, are courting a new generation of moderate, tech-friendly Democrats in a cycle where President Donald Trump’s own party is facing strong headwinds. In deep-blue states like Illinois, that meant investing heavily in fiercely fought primaries. In the end, only one candidate favored by both industries, Melissa Bean in Illinois’s eighth district, won.