From the start of the year, when the primary election season was starting both in Lake County and across the country, the presidential race was contentious while the situation locally was much calmer.
By July, when Vice President Kamala Harris replaced President Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket and a would-be assassin nicked President-elect Donald Trump’s ear with a bullet, Lake County Democratic and GOP volunteers were flocking to Wisconsin to a campaign on behalf of their candidates as the local campaigns hummed along relatively quietly.
And, when the results were in, voters nationally decided it was time for a change — back — in the party of the president, while Lake County residents largely cast their ballots for the status quo when it came to the local races. That juxtaposition made the election season one of the Lake County News-Sun’s top stories of 2024.
Lake County Republican Central Committee Chair Keith Brin said Thursday that — just like in 2016 and 2020 — some local Republicans outperformed Trump, but the GOP still has work to do to elect more candidates locally.
“Trump’s election was in a silo,” Brin said. “He did not seem to have much influence in down-ballot races. The candidacy of Donald Trump did not translate to down-ballot races.”
Though Trump received more votes statewide than he did four years ago, Lake County Democratic Chair Lauren Beth Gash said Wednesday that was not the case in Lake County, where Harris handily outpolled him.
“We worked very hard here in Lake County, and Trump did not make gains here,” Gash said. “For the second election in a row, Lake County rejected him by a significantly higher margin than the rest of the state.”
Part of the reason all Democratic incumbents, from the U.S. Congress, Illinois General Assembly and Lake County, won their races was hard work, she said. Gash said volunteers started their outreach early, and continued through the Nov. 5 election.
“It was neighbors talking to neighbors,” Gash said. “We engaged voters where they were. We did phone banking, text banking and talked to voters at their doors.”
State Rep. Martin McLaughlin, R-Barrington Hills, said hard work was the reason he was reelected to a third term in the Illinois House of Representatives by 47 votes, though he said he was outspent 17-to-1 by Democratic opponent Maria Peterson and her backers.
McLaughlin received 29,520 while Peterson got 29,473 of 58.993 ballots cast, according to the official results.
Between money raised by Peterson’s campaign and outside interest groups locally, statewide and nationally, McLaughlin said $3 million was spent to defeat him. He raised $170,000. His campaign ordered 12,000 mailers, ran out and ordered 2,000. Thousands of doors were knocked on by a record number of volunteers, he said.
“People understand I’m not Donald Trump,” McLaughlin said. “I have a very reasonable approach. I base my position on numbers. If the numbers work, I advocate on behalf of my constituents.”
Across Lake County, Trump received 38.92% of the votes, while Harris got 59.69%, according to the Lake County Clerk’s official election results. In the contest for Lake County state’s attorney, Democrat Eric Rinehart won with 54.81% to Republican Mary Cole’s 45.19%. Gash said outside groups worked against Rinehart.
In the election for Lake County coroner, Democratic incumbent Jennifer Banek won with 58.35% of the votes to the GOP’s Mark Symonds’ 41.65%, while Democratic Circuit Court Clerk Erin Cartwright Weinstein was reelected with 56.43% to Republican challenger Carla Wykoff’s 43.57%.
