Chicago · the strongest Democratic and Republican presidential performances recorded here, measured three ways.
1892–2024 · 34 presidential cycles
Highest vote share
Largest share of the presidential candidate vote cast here.
Democratic
Barack Obama2008
67.0%
2,702,602 votes · D+35.1
Runner-up · Joe Biden, 2020 · 64.4%
Republican
Warren G. Harding1920
72.3%
826,877 votes · R+51.0
Runner-up · Calvin Coolidge, 1924 · 63.2%
Most votes
Largest number of votes cast for the party’s presidential nominee here.
Democratic
Joe Biden2020
2,905,962votes
64.4% of the vote · D+30.8
Runner-up · Barack Obama, 2008 · 2,702,602 votes
Republican
Richard Nixon1972
1,938,319votes
57.6% of the vote · R+15.8
Runner-up · Ronald Reagan, 1984 · 1,852,495 votes
Best relative to the U.S.
This Place’s margin against the national margin in the same election — positive when it leaned toward the party more than the country did.
Democratic
Hillary Clinton2016
+29.9pts D vs U.S.
Place D+32.0 · U.S. D+2.1
Runner-up · Barack Obama, 2008 · +27.8 pts
Republican
Warren G. Harding1920
+24.8pts R vs U.S.
Place R+51.0 · U.S. R+26.2
Runner-up · Calvin Coolidge, 1924 · +18.8 pts
U.S. House elections · 3 House
Senate and governor results are in the Office selector at the top of this page.
U.S. House
On a multi-state Place, each row sums votes cast in the separate U.S. House races held inside the Place that year. It is a geographic vote total, not one contest or a seat tally.
Chicago · how this place’s counties split between candidates in each party’s presidential nominating contest, cycle by cycle. A primary is a contest inside one party, so it has no Democratic–Republican margin and is not part of the general-election record above.
Akashic reports votes cast, not delegates awarded. The two can disagree: Clinton led the 2008 national primary popular vote by less than half a point and did not win the nomination.
Primary returns are published at county grain and there is no roll-up above it. Each cell counts how many of this place’s counties a candidate led — a count of records, not a vote total. Who led the place as a whole is not knowable from these returns, because county rows carry a leader and a lead but no per-candidate votes.
Presidential nominating contests in Chicago, by party and cycle.
Party
2008
2012
2016
2020
2024
Democratic
Obama12Clinton41,733,230 votes · 16 of 16 countiesprimary
○no contest record
Sanders13Clinton31,750,740 votes · 16 of 16 countiesprimary
Biden161,447,812 votes · 16 of 16 countiesprimary
○no contest record
Republicannot ingested
○no contest record
○no contest record
○no contest record
○no contest record
○no contest record
○no contest record — Akashic holds no result for that party and cycle here. It is not a claim that no contest was held. Telling apart a contest that was cancelled, one that went uncontested, and one simply not yet ingested needs a nominating-contest calendar, which is a separate ingest from results and does not exist yet.
Republican presidential primaries are not yet ingested — the Republican series runs from 1856 and is in scope. The row is kept so its absence is visible: a Democratic-only panel would otherwise read as though no one else held a contest.
Akashic carries 10 states for 2012 and 3 states for 2024. Cycles in which an incumbent president seeks renomination are thin by nature — few states run a contested primary — so a sparse column is politics, not a hole in the record.
County returns carry a leader and a lead over the runner-up, and nothing more. The full candidate field with vote shares is published at state grain — follow a cycle above to the state contest for it.
voter registration
Registered voters
Total registered voters, over time
Registered voters
Voter registration in Chicago
Year
Total registered
2016
4,689,310
2018
4,802,169
2020
4,885,892
2022
5,145,357
2024
5,018,552
domestic migration
Who moves in and out
Net domestic migration over time
−33,607 net domestic migration · 2025
20112025
Net −999,777 over 2011–2025 · gain loss
Domestic migration in Chicago in Chicago: net domestic migration by year
Year
Net domestic migration
2011
−52,434
2012
−50,952
2013
−50,553
2014
−66,556
2015
−83,158
2016
−87,936
2017
−86,594
2018
−84,576
2019
−75,885
2021
−93,358
2022
−124,266
2023
−67,303
2024
−42,599
2025
−33,607
Chicago's designated market area delivers the state's largest television audience and anchors Illinois Democrats' statewide math, with Cook County alone casting roughly 40% of the state's total votes in most election cycles.
Across the recorded series it reached a Democratic high of 35.1 points in 2008 and a Republican high of 51.0 points in 1920. Between 2020 and 2024 the market moved 7.7 points toward the Republican candidate; the 2024 margin was 23.1 points.
A population of 9,698,861, a 50% non-Hispanic-white share, and a median household income of $91,221 describe the market. The market's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Philadelphia and New York.
Akashic
Political twins — media markets
The media markets whose fingerprint — 2000–2024 trajectory, demographics, ancestry, religion — sits closest to this one, and why.
Twin score (0–100) = weighted cosine between tier-standardized fingerprints: presidential margins 2000–2024 with 12-yr trend and elasticity, ACS income, age, education, population and race, top reported ancestries, and religious adherence — chips name the closest-shared dimensions and the widest gap. Re-weight the groups in the twins explorer.
Compare two places, side by side
Twelve curated comparisons line up election history, demographics, and the divergence story for two places at a glance. Browse all comparisons →
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All citations released under CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Akashic Intelligence.
Chicago, Illinois. Akashic. https://akashic.app/dma/602/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
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In 2024, Chicago, Illinois voted Democratic by 23.1 points (D+23.1), carried by the Democratic candidate. Out of 4,165,419 votes cast, 2,518,309 went Democratic and 1,554,365 went Republican.
When did Chicago, Illinois last vote Republican?
The most recent presidential election in which Chicago, Illinois voted Republican was 1988.
How many people live in Chicago, Illinois?
Chicago, Illinois has a population of 9,698,861 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Chicago, Illinois?
Median household income in Chicago, Illinois is $91,221 — above the national median of $80,734. The Illinois state median is $83,390.
What is the political history of Chicago, Illinois?
Akashic tracks 34 presidential elections in Chicago, Illinois from 1892 to 2024. Of those, 18 went Democratic and 15 went Republican.
