The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, Carolyn Fiddler, and Matt Booker, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar.
Leading Off
●Illinois: Candidate filing for Illinois' March 17 primaries closed on Monday, and you can find a complete list of candidates here. At least one Democrat and one Republican filed in every district except IL-08, where Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi is running unopposed. However, challenges to nominating petitions are frequent in Illinois, and candidates are often knocked off the ballot, so expect some changes.
IL-03: Running down the key races by district has us starting with Illinois' 3rd District, a solidly blue seat in southwestern Chicago where conservative Democratic Rep. Dan Lipinski once again faces a challenge from businesswoman Marie Newman. Newman held Lipinski to a narrow 51-49 win in last year's primary, but complicating matters for her this time is the presence of two other candidates: activist Rush Darwish and mechanic Charles Hughes. Hughes has been thrown off the ballot twice in prior bids for local office and hasn't even filed with the FEC, but Darwish has raised $345,000. It only takes a simple plurality to win, so Lipinski could benefit if there's a split in the anti-incumbent vote.
You can find our roundup of candidate filings in all of Illinois' other key races in our House section below.