Governor Pat Quinn has conceded his campaign for re-election to Republican Bruce Rauner. Rauner defeated the Democratic incumbent by five percentage points, declaring victory Tuesday night. Quinn said he wanted to make sure all the votes were counted. He says that happened Wednesday:
“But it’s clear that we do not have enough votes to win the election. Therefore we respect the result. We respect what the voters did yesterday."
Quinn did not say the name of governor-elect Rauner — only that he looked forward to working with "the new administration" to ensure a smooth transition. He says in his remaining time in office, he’ll urge lawmakers to raise the state’s minimum wage.
An advisory ballot question on whether Illinois ought to have a 10-dollar-an-hour minimum wage polled considerably better than Quinn did — getting 500,000 more votes than the candidate.