1986 Illinois gubernatorial election

1986 Illinois gubernatorial election

← 1982 November 4, 1986 1990 →
Turnout	52.37% 9.21 pp
Nominee Jim Thompson Adlai Stevenson III No nominee Party Republican Illinois Solidarity Democratic Running mate George Ryan Mike Howlett Mark Fairchild Popular vote 1,655,849 1,256,626 208,830 Percentage 52.67% 39.97% 6.64%
County results Township results Thompson:      40-50%      50-60%      60-70%      70-80%      80-90% Stevenson:      40-50%      50-60%      60-70%      70-80%      80-90% Tie:      30-40%      40-50%
Governor before election James R. Thompson Republican Elected Governor James R. Thompson Republican

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Ballot measures and referendums State capitol referendum (1834) Cutback Amendment (1980) Crime Victim Rights Amendment (1992) Illinois Governor Recall Amendment (2010) Public Pension Amendment (2012) Marsy's Law (2014) Right to Vote Amendment (2014) Transportation Taxes and Fees Lockbox Amendment (2016) Fair Tax (2020) Right to Collective Bargaining Amendment (2022)
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v t e

The 1986 Illinois gubernatorial election was held on November 4, 1986. Republican candidate James R. Thompson won a fourth term in office, defeating the Illinois Solidarity Party nominee, former United States Senator Adlai Stevenson III, by around 400,000 votes.

Stevenson, a Democrat, originally ran for and received that party's gubernatorial nomination. However, his preferred candidate lost the lieutenant gubernatorial nomination to Mark J. Fairchild in the primary (primaries for both major parties were held March 18, 1986^[1]). When it came out after the primary that Fairchild was a member of the LaRouche movement, Stevenson dropped off of the Democratic gubernatorial ticket to avoid running with Fairchild. At that time in Illinois, the governor and lieutenant governor were nominated in separate primaries, but ran as a single ticket in the general election. Stevenson formed the third party Solidarity Party and ran as its candidate with Mike Howlett as his running mate.

Virtually the entire Democratic establishment supported Stevenson's bid. The "official" Democratic ticket, ultimately running Fairchild on the ballot alone as a lieutenant gubernatorial nominee without a gubernatorial nominee atop the ticket, only just managed to surpass the 5% mark needed for the party to retain their major party status in Illinois after the election.