It's debate night in Illinois. Gov. JB Pritzker and Republican challenger Darren Bailey will face off on WTTW in their first and only scheduled forum of the 2026 election.
Not making it to the debate stage? The third man on the ballot, independent Collin Corbett, who says voters won't get a full reflection of their options.
“We independents are a growing force in American politics, now nearly a majority of the electorate and double each of the major parties," Corbett said in a press release. "I’m just the third independent candidate to make the ballot for Governor in Illinois in the last century. And I’ve run the most active campaign of any independent or third-party candidate in recent state history. I should be on that forum stage.”
For what it's worth, Libertarian Scott Schluter was not invited either of the two debates Pritzker and Bailey participated in ahead of the 2022 election. And in 2018, Conservative Party candidate Sam McCann and Libertarian Kash Jackson participated in one of the three debates between Pritzker and Gov. Bruce Rauner.
The debate will air on WTTW at 8 p.m. tonight. It will also stream live and on-demand on the PBS app, wttw.com, Facebook, and YouTube.
As a reminder, we'll update this Daily Digest page throughout the day with news as it comes in. So scroll to the bottom to check back for updates.
Today's read: Evanston faces $20M discrepancy in motor fuel tax fund after years of state warnings
Evanston officials have improperly distributed millions of dollars in road contracts for more than a decade, skirting an Illinois law that requires municipalities to seek authorization from the state and advertise in a weekly bulletin, records show. Now the city could be on the hook to pay back that money to its motor fuel tax fund.