More than $4 million has poured into the Democratic primary for Cook County state’s attorney. Here’s who’s contributing to the campaigns.

With fundraising limits removed recently and just days to go before Election Day on Tuesday, the race to succeed Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx has turned into a multimillion-dollar effort by both Democrats running in the primary.

Campaign finance records show upward of $4.2 million has poured into the Democratic primary race between Clayton Harris III and Eileen O’Neill Burke, with contributions coming from about 960 individual donors in 27 states plus the District of Columbia.

Ahead of the March 19 election, the two candidates have collected contributions and loaned themselves personal funds to pay for TV commercials, opposition research, polling and campaign literature, according to finance reports from the Illinois State Board of Elections.

A majority of the contributions have come from a select few megadonors, with the top 20 contributors making up about half of all the money infused into the race so far.

Hover over the bubbles to see the which campaign the contributor gave to and how much they donated.

Here’s a closer look at who’s funding the two campaigns.

Clayton Harris III

For his part, Harris, an ex-prosecutor and corporate lobbyist, has raised a little more than $1.1 million since launching his campaign in June. Those funds have come from a number of labor organizations, business owners and finance executives, legal professionals and Democratic political committees.

Harris’ top contributors include longtime Democratic fundraiser Fred Eychaner and his firm Newsweb Corp., with both contributing a combined $163,800. Several branches of the Service Employees International Union have contributed $116,000, and Leo Smith, the director of policy with Chicago CRED, a nonprofit focused on gun violence prevention, forked over close to $57,000. Smith’s wife, former state Sen. Heather Steans, contributed nearly $7,000 in her name and $10,000 through her political committee, Friends of Heather Steans.

Other notable contributors include political action committees for the Chicago Teachers Union and Teamsters Local 705, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s campaign committee, Preckwinkle for President, and the campaign committee for state Rep. Kam Buckner. Local private-injury attorney Bob Clifford, his wife, his law firm, Clifford Law Offices, and an attorney with his firm also contributed $54,700 to Harris.

Eychaner, SEIU, Smith, Steans, CTU, Teamsters and Preckwinkle also either supported Foxx’s initial campaign in 2016 or her reelection in 2020. Some backed her both times.

The following database includes contributions made to the committee Friends of Clayton Harris III from July 2023 through March 13.

Search the database to see who has contributed to Harris’ campaign for Cook County state’s attorney.

Eileen O’Neill Burke

O’Neill Burke, a former Illinois appellate judge, has raised more than double her opponent. In total, she’s raked in more than $3 million since announcing her campaign in late July — and more than $2 million of that was raised just in the last two weeks, after loaning herself $100,000 to knock off the fundraising caps.

Like Harris, O’Neill Burke’s contributions have come from a combination of sources, including attorneys, trade unions, business leaders and those in the hospitality and real estate industries.

Her top contributor is Daniel O’Keefe, the managing partner at Artisan Partners, a global investment management firm. O’Keefe and his wife, Megan, have given a combined $350,000 to the retired judge’s campaign. Other high-dollar contributors include Richard Melman, the founder of Chicago restaurant group Lettuce Entertain You, Craig Duchossois, executive at The Duchossois Group, and Gerald Beeson, the chief operating officer of Citadel, all of whom have given $106,900 in support of O’Neill Burke. Family members of these executives have also given big sums to support O’Neill Burke’s campaign: The Melmans have given an additional $50,700 and the wives of Duchossois and Beeson each gave $6,900.

Additionally, Matthew Simon of Citadel contributed $81,900 and Lettuce Entertain You and two of its executive partners gave another $29,000.

Harris has criticized O’Neill Burke for some of these contributions, saying they made her a “Democrat in name only” because all of the aforementioned top donors have previously backed some Republican candidates. O’Neill Burke told party members she’s voted in every Democratic primary since she was 18, and she had previously been slated by the county’s Democratic Party for judicial seats and sought their endorsement for this race.

The following database includes contributions made to the committee Eileen O’Neill Burke for State’s Attorney from July 2023 through March 7, 2024.

Search the database to see who has contributed to O’Neill Burke’s campaign for Cook County state’s attorney.

How does this stack up against previous races?

Though millions of dollars have gone into the state’s attorney’s race, it doesn’t surpass spending in recent state’s attorney primaries. In 2016, Foxx, then-incumbent Anita Alvarez and attorney Donna More raised approximately $5.8 million. And in 2020, the four Democratic candidates — Foxx, More, now-Ald. Bill Conway and former Ald. Bob Fioretti, who is now running for state’s attorney as a Republican — totaled a whopping $16.3 million. Some experts said that amount was the most ever spent in a county prosecutor race.

In fact, the current contest between Harris and O’Neill Burke is the least expensive Democratic primary race for Cook County state’s attorney dating back to at least 2008, according to the Center for Illinois Politics.

Still, O’Neill Burke has already surpassed the total amount raised by Foxx in her successful 2016 primary bid. And with just days to go before the election, both candidates still have time to ramp up their fundraising efforts and give their campaigns an edge to reach the top prosecutor’s office.

Whoever wins the race will face Fioretti and Libertarian candidate Andrew Charles Kopinski in the general election in November.