Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry carried Illinois with 54% of the vote. His victory in Illinois was determined by a wide margin of votes cast in Cook County. However, many counties outside of the Chicago metropolitan area voted for President Bush. Illinois is a state put in an odd position in most Presidential elections; Chicago typically overwhelmingly supports Democratic candidates, while the majority of the state has a fairly conservative culture. Several of the notable "downstate" blue spots that contributed to Kerry's win include East Saint Louis, the Quad City region, Peoria, and Champaign and Jackson counties, which have a large college-bound population.
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