Whitfield Harrington Jr. is running for U.S. Senate in Illinois as an independent candidate helping to build the American Center Party. He is certified for the Nov. 3, 2026, general election. Don Tracy (Republican) and Juliana Stratton (Democratic) are also in the race.

Asked why he is seeking office, Harrington said in our candidate questionnaire: "Washington is broken and both parties helped break it. Illinois families are paying more for everything and getting less. I am running as an independent to govern from the center, not the extremes, and to help build the American Center Party."

Candidate information

Family: "I was born and raised in Belzoni, Mississippi, in the heart of the Mississippi Delta, the 20th of 21 children," Harrington said in our questionnaire. "My father was a pastor and a carpenter who also cut hair, farmed, and drove a school bus to feed 21 children. He chaired the Humphreys County NAACP for seven years, taking the post after the first chairman was assassinated and the second was shot."

Education: "I earned my degree in political science from Delta State University in Mississippi, where I studied how government works and why it so often fails the people it is meant to serve," Harrington said.

Party affiliation: "I am not a Democrat and not a Republican. Both parties have had their turn, and both helped create the gridlock and the cost of living crisis we live with today," Harrington said. "The American Center Party is being built for voters who are tired of being told they must choose between two extremes."

Experience and public service

Harrington has never held public office. "My only experience in an elected role came in 1997, when the American Legion's Boys State program elected me Governor of Mississippi Boys State," he said in our questionnaire. "That same year I was chosen as one of Mississippi's two senators to Boys Nation in Washington."

Harrington said he "moved to Chicago in 2013" and has "served as a pastor" since. He said he "worked in the financial industry, inside banks and insurance companies" and "later ran my own insurance practice."

"No one in my family holds elected or appointed government office, and no one in my family has worked as a lobbyist," Harrington said. "I am the first in my family to seek public office."

On the issues

Top priority, cost of living: "The single most important issue is the cost of living," Harrington said. He said he would introduce a Family Affordability Act as his first bill. It would "require banks to make small-dollar mortgages available for homes under $100,000 with the commission rolled into the loan, ban excessive speculation in energy markets … end tariffs on food, and make the first year of community college free."

Health care: "I support Direct Primary Care, where you pay your doctor a low monthly fee, sometimes as little as $100 for an individual or $300 for a family, for unlimited visits with no insurance middleman and no surprise bills," Harrington said. His plan "forgives student loans for doctors who open Direct Primary Care clinics in underserved communities, urban and rural," he said.

Federal spending: Harrington said he would "redirect ten to twenty percent of the defense budget, on a two-year cycle, into rebuilding our own infrastructure …" He also proposed a Cabinet-level anti-fraud department, saying the government's own estimates put fraud losses between $233 billion and $521 billion per year. "I would not raise taxes on working families," he said.

Immigration: "Congress should enforce the laws we have, firmly and with dignity," Harrington said. He said Congress should "secure the border," "deport criminals" and "end family separations." "Make legal immigration easier than illegal entry, because today the opposite is true," he said.

National security: "No American troops should deploy without a clear mission, a clear cost, and a clear exit plan voted on by Congress," Harrington said. He said allies "should carry the stronger voice and the heavier share of their own defense."