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2008 United States House of Representatives elections in Illinois

2008 House elections in Illinois

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 29, 2026
Entity authorityQ3586966 ↗
Source-derived summary

The 2008 congressional elections in Illinois were held on November 4, 2008, to determine who would represent the State of Illinois in the United States House of Representatives, coinciding with the presidential and U.S. Senate elections. Representatives are elected for two-year terms; those elected served in the 111th Congress from January 3, 2009, until January 3, 2011.

Illinois had nineteen seats in the House, apportioned according to the 2000 United States census. Its 2007–2008 congressional delegation consisted of eleven Democrats and eight Republicans. It became, following the election, twelve Democrats and seven Republicans. District 11 was the only seat which changed party (from open Republican to Democratic), although CQ Politics had forecast districts 6, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14 and 18 to be at some risk for the incumbent party.

Statewide

By district

Results of the 2008 United States House of Representatives elections in Illinois by district:

District 1

This district includes part of Cook County. Democratic incumbent Bobby Rush, who has held the seat since 1993, ran against Republican nominee Antoine Members.

Predictions

District 2

This district includes parts of Cook County and Will County. Democratic nominee Jesse Jackson, Jr., who has held the seat winning a special election in December 1995, ran against Republican nominee Anthony Williams.

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The public source identifies “2008 United States House of Representatives elections in Illinois” as 2008 House elections in Illinois. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around United, States and House.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2008, 2009, 2011, 2000—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with United, States and House providing the first useful test.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3586966. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2000.

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This entry incorporates text from “2008 United States House of Representatives elections in Illinois” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.