1976 United States presidential election in Illinois

The 1976 United States presidential election in Illinois was held on November 2, 1976. All 50 states and The District of Columbia, were part of the 1976 United States presidential election. State voters chose 26 electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

By the second week of September, polls were showing Jimmy Carter ahead of incumbent President Gerald Ford by 14% but running much weaker in the emerging Rust Belt industrial states; his lead in Illinois was estimated at four percentage points. A few days later, another poll had Ford already ahead in Illinois, but another poll had him narrowly behind. Defeated Republican primary candidate and future President Ronald Reagan helped Ford in his fall campaign in Illinois, although Carter preceded him in visiting the state, doing so for the first time on September 24. Ford's running mate Bob Dole followed Carter to the state and said that Carter had "three positions on every issue" during a tour through Rock Island, Quincy, and Decatur. At this time, it was also thought that Ford was helped by the strong GOP gubernatorial campaign of James R. Thompson.

At the beginning of October, Illinois was viewed as "too close to call". Carter paid a second visit to the state with the support of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, which was viewed essential to his chances of carrying the state's electoral votes due to the coolness of the northern and central parts of the state toward a Southern Evangelical Democrat. Carter would subsequently move ahead, but the state remained very close as election day neared, with South Side black voters considered a critical aspect of Carter's hopes.

Ford won Illinois with 50.10 percent of the vote but lost the general election to Carter. Illinois' result was 4% more Republican than the nation at large, and this was the last presidential election where it was more Republican than the rest of the country. It was also the most recent presidential election where a Democrat won the White House without carrying Illinois, and the first time a Democrat did so in 60 years, since Woodrow Wilson won reelection in 1916.