Prairie State Wire

Democrats strengthened their grip on the Illinois Senate by flipping several districts in a midterm election that saw turnout swell over what occurred in the 2014 midterm vote.

Democrats were leading in eight of the 19 contested Senate seats Tuesday night, while Republican candidates led in 11 districts. But some contests remain too close to call.

Even so, if those trends hold, Democrats will widen their control of the Senate. Democrats could have 41 seats in the Senate when the next legislative session begins, compared to 18 for Republicans. That's well over the three-fifths vote threshold needed to override a governor's veto.

Currently, 37 of the 59 senators are Democrats, compared to 22 Republicans. Two-thirds of the Senate districts were on Tuesday's state ballot, but in 20 of them, only one major-party candidate was running.

The number of votes cast in Senate districts that were also on the ballot in 2014 stood at 899,495 on Tuesday. That compares to 658,798 votes cast in those same districts four years ago, indicating that about 37 percent more voters cast ballots for senators this year.

Results from competitive Illinois Senate races

District #	Democrat	Votes	%	Republican	Votes	%	% of votes counted	Total votes 2018	Total votes 2014
9	Laura Fine	71,335	72	Joan McCarthy Lasonde	28,364	28	100	99,699	55,986
21	Laura Ellman	47464	50	Michael Connelly*	47,476	50	100	94,940	61,393
23	Thomas Cullerton*	37,968	54	Seth Lewis	31,847	46	100	69,815
24	Suzanne Glowiak	48,946	50	Chris Nybo*	48,660	50	100	97,606	78,947
26	Tom Georges	39,248	45	Dan McConchie*	48,729	55	98	87,977
27	Ann Gillespie	44,822	51	Tom Rooney*	42,214	49	100	87,036	55,928
29	Julie Morrison*	49,488	63	Barrett Davie	28,910	37	100	78,398
30	Terry Link*	37,921	68	Soojae Lee	17,895	32	100	55,816	44,556
32	Mary Mahady	30,366	44	Craig Wilcox*	38,745	56	100	69,111
33	Nancy Zettler	38,393	48	Donald DeWitte*	40,869	52	100	79,262	54,102
36	Gregg Johnson	37,320	49	Neil Anderson*	38,643	51	100	75,963	66,137
38	Heidi Henry	32,488	40	Sue Rezin*	47,753	60	100	80,241
41	Bridget Fitzgerald	45,714	49	John Curran*	48,253	51	100	93,967
45	David Simpson	29,362	37	Brian Stewart	49,560	63	97	78,922	59,865
48	Andy Manar*	41,789	57	Seth McMillion	31,922	43	100	73,711	61,851
54	Brian Stout	24,589	30	Jason Plummer	58,114	70	100	82,703	60,923
56	Rachelle Aud Crowe	45,356	58	Hal Patton	32,397	42	100	77,753
57	Christopher Belt	43,577	59	Tanya Hildenbrand	30,260	41	100	73,837	59,110
59	Steve Webb	31,726	39	Dale Fowler*	50,172	61	100	81,898
							Totals:	1,538,655	658,798
	* Incumbent