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Braun entered the campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 and participated in several candidate debates. But Braun — the first and still only African-American woman to serve in the Senate — was seeking a comeback from her defeat in 1998 after one Senate term, and had neither strong national name identification nor financial resources. She quit the contest prior to the year’s first primaries.

The deep-voiced, bowtie-wearing Simon, who represented Illinois in the Senate from 1985 to 1997, Simon sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988. Although Simon finished third in the first-in-the-nation New Hampshire primary with 17 percent ofthe vote, he trailed the eventual nominee, Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, by more than a 2-to-1 ratio. Simon quickly faded from contention and dropped out of the race.

Crane, who had represented a suburban Chicago congressional district since 1969, was 49 years old when he ran for the Republican nominaton in 1980 as a younger but equally conservative alternative to front-runner Ronald Reagan. It was a dreadful mismatch: Reagan won 50 percent of the New Hampshire primary vote en route to the nomination and two terms in the White House, while Crane took 2 percent and quickly fell out of contention. He kept his House seat until the 2004 election when, the day before his 74th birthday, he lost to Democrat Melissa Bean.
Stevenson was the last major party presidential nominee from Illinois. The Democrat lost the 1952 and 1956 general elections to Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower.