Illinois, more than most other blue states, is probably the most open to electing Republicans statewide.
This is somewhat related. I have discussed with a few posters before about a dynamic I could see happening in the future. Atlanta vs Chicago suburbs.
DuPage and Gwinnett counties could well give similar margins for Democratic presidential candidates in 10 years. But an interesting divergence between the two counties could occur for local and state politics.
Let's say a presidential election occurs and Gwinnett and DuPage both give the Democratic presidential candidate a 57 to 39 victory but two years later we would see Democrats sweep all offices in Gwinnett County and the Republican gubernatorial candidate would be dead on arrival in Gwinnett. However, up north in DuPage County the GOP and Democrats could well split local offices and the Republican gubernatorial candidate would have a fighting chance in DuPage.
This is due to more of Cook County vs rest of state dynamic and the fact that DuPage's electorate will be far far whiter compared to Gwinnett County.
Lake County is the only Chicago collar county in which I would see the GOP as locked out in 10 years but even there the Republican candidate could put up a fight if the GOP manages to win Illinois statewide.
Everything I just said about Gwinnettt vs DuPage could probably be stated for Georgia vs Illinois in the future. Both states giving similar margins to Democratic presidential candidates but for state politics it would be more difficult for a Republican to win Georgia. Illinois would have a solid GOP downstate and fairly elastic suburbs while Georgia would no longer have suburbs that could vote GOP under certain circumstances and would have to depend very heavily on outstate Georgia.
Heh, in 2022 we could see Pritzker winning re-election carrying only Cook, Lake and maybe St Clair. In 10 to 12 years a competitive gubernatorial contest there could involve the Democrat carrying only Cook and Lake.
