The Adam Mockler Show - Today is the today.

Episode Date: March 17, 2026

Click below for premium Adam Mockler content 👉 https://www.youtube.com/@adammockler/join 👉 https://adammockler.com/subscribe Adam Mockler breaks down the Illinois primary as major races are shaped by outside money, party direction, and high-stakes decisions for voters. With millions pouring in from powerful PACs, the outcome could determine how Democrats position themselves moving forward. JOIN THE COMMUNITY: Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/AdamMockler/ Discord: https://discord.gg/y9yzMU3Gff Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adammockler/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/adammockler.com/ Twitter: https://x.com/adammocklerr/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@adammockler Contact: [e-mail] Business inquiries: [e-mail] Adam Mockler - Mockler Media LLC Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When West Jet first took flight in 1996, the vibes were a bit different. People thought denim on denim was peak fashion, inline skates were everywhere, and two out of three women rocked, the Rachel. While those things stayed in the 90s, one thing that hasn't is that fuzzy feeling you get when WestJet welcomes you on board. Here's to Westjetting since 96. Travel back in time with us and actually travel with us at westjet.com slash 30 years. All right, everybody, today is the day.

If you live in the state of Illinois, I urge you to get out and vote in the Illinois State Primary and make sure that your voice is heard in our democracy. There are both local and state elections that will be deciding how we fight back against Donald Trump and the Republicans over the next few years. And in some of the races, we have a few progressive candidates in the lead, so there's no wrong choice. But in some of the races, there are candidates who are beholden to APEC, beholden a special interest groups and Trump donors, and who would likely be weak in the Senate and in

the House. So we need to make sure that we're choosing the right candidates. In this video, I'm going to give you a quick rundown of just a few of the races that I've been watching in Illinois, and I want to talk about the overall direction of the Democratic Party. Some races I won't have as strong of opinions about as others, but overall, it's important that we're all informed and important that you do more research if you live in the state of Illinois. I hope this video spurs a few people to at least get out and vote. I do want to mention Illinois has same-day voter registration, so if you are a resident of the states, it is quite easy and simple to get out there, register, do some research and vote for candidates that push our country in the right direction. Let's start off with some of the voters' messages that we're getting from the New York Times.

This is thanks to the New York Times. Let's hear it directly from Angel Zanarini, a 37-year-old voter from Rogers Park. This voter said the increased ice raids in Chicago were her biggest concerns right now. Quote, it affected a lot more neighborhoods than we're used to in Chicago. She said, what happened this year was way beyond last year. Quote, I wanted to send a message not just to the White House, but also the people in this state that the Democrats had done a good job of pushing back and that I support the party for doing that. Then, quote, Kara Bouchamp, 39, on the left, voting in the Democratic primary in Williamson County with her wife, Mika Buchamp. The pair said they were concerned about the Trump administration's stance on same-sex marriage as well as the war in Iran.

It is so great to hear from voters who are civically engaged and understand that there is so much on the line. There are so many rights on the line. And even if we're dealing with an imperfect Democratic Party, even if you and I have a lot of critiques of the Democratic Party, we're fighting for a Democratic Party that stands up for human dignity, institutions that protect human dignity. I look at Republicans on the other side, and I see people like Randy Fine who attack Muslims every step of the way,

don't want them to be in our country. I see the far, far-right anti-Semitic groipers that are also hateful, and I'm so glad that we have strong liberals in our country. who can protect the institutions that allow free and fair exchange of ideas. They can allow my Muslim grandpa to go to the mosque and on the way there he drives past two churches in a synagogue and loves the fact that he sees all of that. We're going to break this all down. Make sure you drop a like and subscribe to the Adam Mockler feed, by the way.

I don't know if I asked that yet. We're nearing 2 million subscribers, which is a huge feat for a Gen Z-built media company that is pushing towards a better country every single day. All right. Let's jump into some of the overall broad frameworks that we've been dealing with in this race. A PAC has been a huge theme within the Democratic Party over the past year, over the past decade, to be honest. But it's really come to a peak over the past year during this primary. And in Chicago, APAC poured over $13 million into certain races to put their thumb on the scale.

Powerful special interest groups want to lobby for their own interests over. the interests of the average American. And this happens with so many different groups beyond just APAC. We have the NRA, which is the gun lobby. We have the oil lobby, other sort of lobbies that want to stop any sort of climate change regulations at the expense of the average American. But in here, in Chicago, four Democratic congressional primaries in and around Chicago on Tuesday have turned into the most expensive test yet of a question that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, APAC, would rather not answer. What happens when you're money is so toxic that you have to pretend it isn't yours. APAC has become so toxic. They are now

creating shell companies that they try to make sound progressive. They make it sound progressive, but it's anything but. APAC, one of Washington's most powerful lobbying forces supporting Israel and affiliated political action committees have spent at least $13.7 million across four Illinois races, according to investigation by WBEZ, Chicago's public radio station, funneling it through a pair of super PACs so determined to hide their origins that they don't mention Israel in their ads with anodyne sounding names like elect chicago women and affordable chicago now so they're trying to have progressive facing names in order to insidiously creep into races and elect the least progressive candidates in the illinois ninth district apac has been supporting a candidate named

laura fine now she is the only apac supported candidate among the top three in the race the leading three are Daniel Biss, the current mayor of Evanston, a former math teacher at the University of Chicago, and Kat Abu Ghazale, who is a journalist at Media Matters, and who's actually a pretty big player in the media space that we are currently building up. She does great, great work. And both of these candidates have run a very, very impressive campaign. I think of either of them went over Laura Fine. That is a huge step in the right direction. It's interesting because over the past 24 hours, we've seen a scandal pop up with Daniel Biss, and this scandal at first seemed to be incredibly intense. It alleged that Daniel Biss, who is the current mayor of Evanston, had had a

relationship with a student while he was a professor. But the more details we got, it seems like that was an overblowing of what actually happened. We then learned from Brian Grimm that Watch Press, the professor who made these allegations, published an essay about her allegation. She said that she was a junior when she was Biss's student. In roughly 2004, when he'd have been about 25 or 26, he waited until the course was over and asked her out. They made out a few times, she says. Then he broke it off, saying he shouldn't date a student, and she was about 21 years old at the time. So inappropriate, sure, is a weird power dynamic, sure, but a 26-year-old making out with a 21-year-old is far different from the original allegations that we thought we were seeing.

Most prediction in betting markets have Daniel Biss ahead at this current moment, but we'll see what happens throughout the rest of the day. Here are photos of Kat Abu Ghazale casting her ballot in Rogers Park just about an hour ago. Very interesting dynamics playing out in this race. Kat Abu Ghazale is oftentimes seen as the more progressive candidate, but Daniel Biss is progressive in his own regard. Let's zoom out a little bit from Illinois 09 and talk about the Senate race that is going on in this state, because I've been following this one, perhaps the most closely. A candidate that I've really grown to like and appreciate a lot is Juliana Stratton, the current lieutenant governor of the state of Illinois and a close ally to J.B. Pritzker. I personally truly think that Julianna Stratton and Governor J.B. Pritzker would work great together

and that Julianna Stratton belongs in the Senate. That is the endorsement that I'll be making today. Right now, we don't know who's going to win. Rajah Krishnamorti, a current representative from Illinois, has a lot of money behind him. I currently, personally, view him as somebody who is more behold into the type of special interest groups that we want to fight against. And I think somebody like Julianna Stratton would have a great progressive platform. I mean, let's just look at her website alone. It says fighting for Illinois's working families. This is from Juliana Stratton for Senate. Giuliana knows that working families need government to be a partner, not a roadblock. That's why she fights to make life easier for Illinoisans. Now she's ready to take that fight to the United States

Senate. Julianna's priorities are rooted in her experience as a mother, a lifelong, public servant and a daughter who served as a primary caretaker for her mother during her battle with Alzheimer's. That's why she focused on policies that will uplift Illinois's working class and middle class families, make life more affordable, creating and expanding economic opportunities and protecting our rights and freedom. Now, this is how you run a Democratic campaign, securing Medicaid for all, fighting for minimum wage, $25 minimum wage, sorry, rejecting all corporate pack money in this race, a strong campaign from a strong candidate, and right now, according to the polling markets. It's about a coin flip. I know a lot of people don't like these prediction markets,

but they're a good indicator of how people are feeling. And this sentiment is back and forth. What you're looking at right now is a chart of the two candidates just swapping the lead, back and forth. So if you get out and vote for Juliana Stratton today, then you could make a difference. You could push her over the line, continue to do research on the other candidates, on whatever district you're in. Let's continue to push our country and our party in the right direction. I love you all. I love the community that we've built. I'll see you all in the next one and peace out.

Getting ready for a game means being ready for anything. Like packing a spare stick. I like to be prepared. That's why I remember 988 Canada's suicide crisis helpline. It's good to know just in case. Anyone can call or text for free confidential support from a train responder anytime. 988 suicide crisis helpline is funded by the government in Canada. Thank you.