Kwame Raoul, 62, has held the post of attorney general for the state of Illinois since 2019.
Raoul faces a Republican challenger in Bob Fioretti, 73, a former 2nd Ward alderman and longtime Democrat who switched allegiances in 2022. In a conversation with us, Fioretti stressed the independence of the office. “Let’s not forget, the attorney general is not the governor’s attorney,” he said, arguing that the attorney general’s client ultimately is “the people of the state of Illinois.” A very good point.
Having lost the 2024 race to become Cook County state’s attorney, Fioretti hopes to do better campaigning for this state post.
That’s unlikely. In our view, Raoul has been stellar during a challenging period for this office. He has proved to be tough on fraud enforcement, antitrust and transparency. And he’s pursued numerous public corruption cases, most recently filing charges against a group of current and former Ford Heights officials and employees who allegedly used public funds for private travel. That’s all important work.
We’re very familiar with Fioretti, given his numerous recent campaigns for Cook County board president and Chicago mayor, among others. He certainly has extensive experience as a litigator and a long track record of serving the public. Today, he’s become something of a perennial candidate.
Raoul has built the office of attorney general into a significant counterweight to the federal government. His office says it filed 63 lawsuits against Trump administration actions between January 2025 and April 2026 alone, protecting an estimated $8.6 billion in Illinois funding; subsequent cases have continued in 2026. This partisan positioning is not exclusive to Democrats; the flip side of the Raoul attorney general coin, you could argue, is Texas’ Ken Paxton, who has bragged about filing over 100 lawsuits against Joe Biden’s administration.
And there’s a good argument that Raoul had no choice but to direct much of his focus toward Washington, D.C. Still, in an ideal world, a state attorney general not only serves as a check on federal overreach, but also as a watchdog laser-focused on his or her state. We’d like to see Raoul do more of that.
Before he was reelected in 2022, Raoul vowed to take a stronger position on public corruption. In the wake of a new round of scandals, including the federal indictment of state Rep. Carol Ammons on allegations that include misusing state grant and campaign funds, it’s undeniable that Illinois’ notorious ethics issues are far from a thing of the past. While we acknowledge the statutory constraints that limit his office, and don’t expect one man to clean up Illinois corruption overnight, we again encourage Raoul to zero in on this close-to-home problem.
In our 2022 endorsement of Raoul, we said that he was clearly the best qualified candidate. That remains true today.
Kwame Raoul is endorsed.
Read all of the Tribune Editorial Board’s endorsements for the 2026 Illinois general election here.
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