The Illinois governor race could be the most pivotal of the 2018 midterms

Illinois' Republican governor is doomed. Will he take the GOP House majority down with him?

Bruce Rauner and J.B. Pritzker.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Nuccio DiNuzzo/Chicago Tribune via AP, Pool, Joshua Lott/Getty Images, fotoguy22/iStock)

Next week's House of Representatives elections could be bitterly close. Results in a handful of competitive districts could decide whether Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) holds the speaker's gavel come January. With all 435 seats up for grabs, only a fraction of which have actually been polled, pinpointing the pivotal districts is difficult — they could be almost anywhere.

That's where the impending campaign Hindenburg of Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner comes in. Rauner was elected in 2014 by a fluke, and last year, he was declared "the worst Republican governor in America" by National Review, a conservative publication. His Democratic challenger, billionaire J.B. Pritzker, hasn't led any public poll by fewer than 13 points. It seems Rauner is headed toward one of the most legendary general election defeats suffered by a sitting governor in the United States.

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David Faris

David Faris is an associate professor of political science at Roosevelt University and the author of It's Time to Fight Dirty: How Democrats Can Build a Lasting Majority in American Politics. He is a frequent contributor to Informed Comment, and his work has appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times, The Christian Science Monitor, and Indy Week.