Illinois Senate primary tests Democrats' anti-ICE message

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi’s Senate campaign has been blanketing the Illinois airwaves for months.

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi’s Senate campaign has been blanketing the Illinois airwaves for months. For his final TV ad before the March 17 Democratic primary, he focused on standing up to President Donald Trump and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

So did the TV ad before that. And the one before that, too.

Fully two-thirds of the TV ads in the last month of the race have mentioned ICE, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact. And it’s not just in Illinois: Nearly a quarter of all TV ads from Democratic campaigns across the country in the last month have referenced the agency.

The Illinois race — a contested open primary after Sen. Dick Durbin decided to retire — could be an early test of how anti-ICE messaging is playing out in Democratic primaries this year, including what most motivates the party base. Krishnamoorthi, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton and Rep. Robin Kelly have each staked out slightly different positions on the agency, with Krishnamoorthi speaking of reforms and abolishing “Trump’s ICE,” Stratton taking a simpler “abolish ICE” line, and Kelly calling to “dismantle” ICE.

The focus on ICE comes amid broad pushback on the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown following enforcement surges in cities including Chicago, Los Angeles and Minneapolis, where federal immigration agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens earlier this year. The campaign is also an early test of whether the issue has staying power, even as federal agents draw down some operations. Democrats say it does.