The 2000 United States presidential election in Illinois took place on November 7, 2000, and was part of the 2000 United States presidential election. Voters chose 22 representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Illinois was easily won by sitting Vice President Al Gore of the State of Tennessee, unlike other states in the Midwest, such as nearby Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, which Gore won, albeit by much smaller margins. George W. Bush, Republican of Texas, did not perform terribly at the county level, as he obtained less than forty percent of the vote in only three counties. Gore's key to victory was Cook County, home of Chicago, by far the most populous county in the state and one of the most populated counties in the nation. Gore won that county with almost seventy percent of the vote, his best performance in any county in the state.

The election marked the first time since 1976 that Illinois did not vote for the winning presidential nominee and marked an end to Illinois’ status as a bellwether state, as it had voted for the winning candidate all but two times in the 20th-century, making it tied with Missouri as having the most consistent streak of backing the winner in that century. Bush became the first Republican to win the White House without carrying Illinois; he also became the first Republican ever to win the White House without carrying Champaign, Peoria, or Whiteside Counties. It was additionally the first election in which the Republicans outperformed in Southern Illinois, a previous Democratic stronghold. This was also the first time since 1848 that a Democrat would carry Illinois without winning the presidency.

Illinois was one of ten states that backed George H. W. Bush for president in 1988 that didn't back George W. Bush in either 2000 or 2004.

Primaries The primaries and general elections coincided with those for congress and those for state offices.

Turnout

For the state-run primaries (Democratic and Republican), turnout was 22.92%, with 1,546,588 votes cast. For the general election, turnout was 66.52%, with 4,742,123 votes cast.

Democratic

The 2000 Illinois Democratic presidential primary was held on March 21, 2000, in the U.S. state of Illinois as one of the Democratic Party's statewide nomination contests ahead of the 2000 presidential election.

161 of the state's 190 delegates were pledged delegates elected in the primary (the remaining 29 delegates were superdelegates). Of the 161 pledged delegates, 35 were elected based upon the statewide popular vote, with the remaining 126 being elected based upon congressional district popular votes. In order to receive delegates from either the popular vote of either the state at-large of the popular vote of a congressional district, a candidate needed to reach the threshold of 15% or more of said vote.

2000 Illinois Democratic presidential primaryCandidateVotes%Delegates Al Gore682,93284.35149Bill Bradley 115,32014.2412Lyndon LaRouche 11,415 1.410Total809,667100%161

Republican

The 2000 Illinois Republican presidential primary was held on March 21, 2000, in the U.S. state of Illinois as one of the Republican Party's statewide nomination contests ahead of the 2000 presidential election.

Illinois assigned 60 directly elected delegates (the state had another 10 delegates that were not directly elected by voters). The Illinois primary was a so-called "Loophole" primary. This meant that the statewide presidential preference vote was a "beauty contest", from which no delegates would be assigned. Instead, the delegates were assigned by separate direct-votes on delegate candidates (whose proclaimed presidential preferences were listed beside their names on the ballot). These delegates were noted voted on at-large by a state vote, but rather by congressional district votes. The number of delegates each congressional district would be able to elect had been decided based upon the strength of that district's vote for the Republican nominee (Bob Dole) in the previous 1996 election.

The remaining ten delegates not directly elected by congressional district were selected at the Illinois Republican Party Convention, and were unpledged delegates.

2000 Illinois Republican presidential primaryCandidateVotes%DelegatesGeorge W. Bush 496,685 67.4064John McCain 158,768 21.540Alan Keyes 66,066 8.970Steve Forbes 10,334 1.400Gary Bauer 5,068 0.690Total736,921100%64

Results

2000 United States presidential election in IllinoisPartyCandidateRunning mateVotesPercentageElectoral votes Democratic Al Gore Joe Lieberman 2,589,026 54.6% 22 Republican George W. Bush Dick Cheney 2,019,421 42.6% 0 Green Ralph Nader Winona LaDuke 103,759 2.2% 0 Reform Pat Buchanan Ezola Foster 16,106 0.3% 0 Libertarian Harry Browne Wayne Allyn Root 11,623 0.3% 0 Natural Law John Hagelin Mary Alice Herbert 2,127 0.0% 0 Constitution Howard Phillips Michael Peroutka 57 0.0% 0 Write In David McReynolds - 4 0.0% 0 Totals 4,742,123 100.00% 22 Voter turnout (Voting age/Registered) 52%/67%

Results by county