State reference

How does government work in Illinois?

Illinois’s legislature, governor, courts, local governments and election offices, with a source for every fact.

Facts checked November 5, 2026. Anything we could not verify from a source is left out rather than guessed. Rules change, so confirm deadlines with the official election office.

177

State legislators

Legislature

4 years

Governor’s term

Governor

102

Counties

Local

Seats in the US House

Clerk of the House

What may surprise you here

Illinois has no limit on the number of terms a governor may serve, though most states do. source
Illinois elects six executive officers: governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, comptroller and treasurer. source

Legislature

Name: General Assembly source
Upper chamber: seats: 59 source
Upper chamber: term in years: 4 source
Lower chamber: seats: 118 source
Lower chamber: term in years: 2 source
Term limits: None source

Governor and statewide offices

Term in years: 4 source
Term limit: None source
Next regular election: 2030 source
Lieutenant governor: joint ticket source
Attorney general: elected source
Secretary of state: elected source

Courts

Highest court: Supreme Court source
Intermediate appeals court: Appellate Court source
Main trial court: Circuit Court source
How high-court judges reach the bench: mixed: partisan election, then retention election source

Local government

Called: county source
How many: 102 source
Cities and towns: Municipal governments in Illinois are the cities, villages and incorporated towns. source
Schools: Many types of school districts in Illinois are separate governments, including common, community unit and township high school districts (2022). source

Elections

Chief election official: State Board of Elections source
Who runs elections locally: Election authorities (county clerks, plus county and municipal election commissions) source
Primary type: partially open source
Regular governor elections fall in: even source
Citizen initiatives: constitutional initiative only (no statutory initiative) source

Who holds these offices

As of November 5, 2026. Terms of the current Congress run to January 3, 2027. Winners of the November 3, 2026 elections are not shown until results are certified and they take office.

Governor: JB Pritzker Democratic, in office since January 14, 2019. source

US senators for Illinois
Senator	Party	Seat	Senator since	Current term ends
Tammy Duckworth	Democratic	Class 3	January 3, 2017	January 3, 2029
Richard J. Durbin	Democratic	Class 2	January 7, 1997	January 3, 2027

Members of the House for Illinois
Seat	Member	Party	In the House since
District 1	Jonathan L. Jackson	Democratic	January 3, 2023
District 2	Robin L. Kelly	Democratic	April 9, 2013
District 3	Delia C. Ramirez	Democratic	January 3, 2023
District 4	Jesús G. "Chuy" García	Democratic	January 3, 2019
District 5	Mike Quigley	Democratic	April 7, 2009
District 6	Sean Casten	Democratic	January 3, 2019
District 7	Danny K. Davis	Democratic	January 7, 1997
District 8	Raja Krishnamoorthi	Democratic	January 3, 2017
District 9	Janice D. Schakowsky	Democratic	January 6, 1999
District 10	Bradley Scott Schneider	Democratic	January 3, 2017
District 11	Bill Foster	Democratic	January 3, 2013
District 12	Mike Bost	Republican	January 6, 2015
District 13	Nikki Budzinski	Democratic	January 3, 2023
District 14	Lauren Underwood	Democratic	January 3, 2019
District 15	Mary E. Miller	Republican	January 3, 2021
District 16	Darin LaHood	Republican	September 17, 2015
District 17	Eric Sorensen	Democratic	January 3, 2023

Boundaries for the 119th Congress, simplified from the Census Bureau cartographic boundary file. For an exact address, use the House lookup.

Who has held each Senate seat since 2001

Each band is one person in the seat. The line marks November 2026; anything to its right is the rest of a current term. Dates through 2026 come from the congress-legislators public dataset, whose current members are matched against the Senate’s own roster on every build.

Senate seat, Class 2