Former Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias has emerged as the frontrunner in the race for Illinois Secretary of State, having raked in impressive sums of money in recent months.

Giannoulias was the youngest state treasurer ever elected in the United States. In 2006, the 30-year-old Democrat defeated Republican State Senator Christine Radogno with 54 percent of the vote.

With his eyes set on an even higher office in 2022, Giannoulias hopes to replace Secretary of State Jesse White (D), who is retiring in 2022.

Giannoulias recently raised $400,000 in a single week, according to filings with the state’s Board of Elections. Legal increases of individual and corporate donation limits – $5,800 to $6,000 and $11,600 to $12,000, respectively – have also been a boon to Giannoulias’s campaign coffers.

Business magnates like clean-energy pioneer Michael Polsky and Black Opal CEO Desiree Rogers, along with Democratic Party megadonors Michael Sacks and Bob Clifford, have all made maximum contributions to Giannoulias’s flourishing campaign.

Other prominent figures, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), former United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Ariel Investments Co-CEO John Rogers Jr., Vistria Group Co-CEO Marty Nesbitt, and The Chicago Sun-Times have thrown their support behind Giannoulias.

Former President Barack Obama even endorsed Giannoulias’s 2010 bid for the United States Senate.

Giannoulias also has the backing of progressive social action organizations, including The Human Rights Campaign, League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club, and Planned Parenthood, as well as support from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, and the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO).