Julianna Stratton

Lt. Governor Stratton has championed housing programs that have eliminated over $33 million in student loan debt while helping families buy homes. She'll push to tie federal funding to zoning reform and cut red tape blocking new homes.

Juliana Stratton, a Democrat, is the 48th Lieutenant Governor of Illinois and the Democratic candidate for United States Senator from Illinois in the November 3, 2026 general election. Before her election as lieutenant governor in 2018, she represented the 5th District in the Illinois House of Representatives (January 2017 to December 2018); her first elected office was parent representative and later chair of the Kenwood Academy Local School Council. A mediator, arbitrator and restorative justice practitioner, she was director of the Center for Public Safety and Justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago and founder and president of JDS Mediation Services, Inc. Born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, she is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and DePaul University's College of Law, and lives in Bronzeville with her husband, Bryan; they have four daughters.