Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle visits Manny's Deli on Nov. 3, 2026. [Cameron Levasseur/The Daily Line]

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle officially won a fifth term as county executive Tuesday night, while Pat Hynes, the Lyons Township assessor, was elected Cook County assessor in some of the county’s biggest general election races.  

The County Board of Commissioners also lost its last Republican-held seat, flipping the body entirely blue next term. 

With the county Democratic Party’s endorsement, Hynes defeated Assessor Fritz Kaegi in March. He easily cruised to a general election win over Libertarian Nico Tsatsoulis Tuesday with over 80 percent of the vote. 

“We're going to be very aggressive about trying to undo the harm that was done in the last eight years and create an environment where where capital wants to invest in Cook County here again,” Hynes told The Daily Line at an event at Manny’s Deli in Chicago on Election Day. “I'm really looking forward to regaining the taxpayers' trust, getting the markets’ trust and getting some buildings out of the ground. Because as I like to tell them, if you don't build it, I can't tax it.” 

Preckwinkle, who warded off a primary challenge from Chicago Ald. Brendan Reilly (42) in March, told The Daily Line Tuesday night her victory came on a great night for Democrats across the country. Democrats flipped multiple U.S. Senate seats and are projected to control both chambers of Congress next term. 

Still, she said, “we’re going to have a tough couple years. Even with the Democratic victories in the midterms, Donald Trump will still be president.” 

The incumbent board president urged Democrats in Washington that “anything they can do to slow the impending cuts in access to Medicaid, we’d be grateful for.” Those cuts are expected to have a substantial impact on the county health and hospital systems’ finances next year. 

Related: As upcoming Medicaid changes impact coverage, charity care costs at county hospitals expected to hit $500M next year 

Preckwinkle defeated Libertarian candidate Michael Murphy with more than 74 percent of the vote, according to unofficial results.

County Board results 

Comms. Tara Stamps (D-1), Michael Scott, Jr. (D-2), Bill Lowry (D-3), Stanley Moore (D-4), Alma Anaya (D-7) and Scott Britton (D-14) were the incumbent county commissioners who ended up unopposed on the general election ballot. 

Three incoming Democratic commissioners also ran unopposed in the general election after winning their primaries in the spring, including Commissioners-elect Drake Warren, who defeated Comm. Bridget Gainer (D-10) in March, Worth Township Supervisor Patricia Joan “Trish” Murphy, who will replace outgoing Comm. Donna Miller (D-6) — now a congresswoman-elect — and Miranda Hernandez, an assistant state's attorney in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office Criminal Appeals Division who ousted Comm. Frank Aguilar (D-16) in the primary. 

In District 5, Comm. Kisha McCaskill (D-5) will keep the seat to which she was appointed for at least another four years. McCaskill defeated Republican Richard Nolan Tuesday with 87.8 percent of the vote. 

McCaskill, who previously served as executive director of the Harvey Park District, was appointed to the county board in early 2025 to serve out the remainder of Monica Gordon’s term after Gordon was elected Cook County Clerk.  

In the county’s 8th District, incumbent Comm. Jessica Vásquez (D-8) was elected to a full term after defeating Republican opponent Ramona Bonilla-Anaiel with 87.8 percent of the vote. Tuesday. Vásquez was appointed to the county board in May 2025 when Chicago Ald. Anthony Quezada (35) relinquished his county seat to join the Chicago City Council. 

Comm. Maggie Trevor (D-9) won reelection to a second term Tuesday night, defeating a Republican opponent, retired software engineer Jon Luers, with just under 61 percent of the vote. 

In the 11th District, Comm. John P. Daley (D-11) defeated Charles Spizzirri, a retired Chicago firefighter running as a Republican, with an estimated 72.4 percent of the vote to win a ninth term on the board. Daley was appointed in 1992 and won a full term two years later. 

Elizabeth Granato, former bureau chief for the Cook County Bureau of Asset Management, won the race to succeed Comm. Bridget Degnen (D-12) on the board. Granato defeated Republican Xiaoli “Alice” Hu, a Chinese immigrant and business owner who also ran for the seat in 2022, with 84.5 percent of the vote. 

Comm. Josina Morita (D-13) also won a second term on the board, defeating a Republican challenger, Aasi Siddique, with about 81.6 percent of the vote.  

In the 15th District, Ted Mason defeated Daniel Lee to replace outgoing Comm. Kevin Morrison (D-15) on the board. Mason, who is Morrison’s chief of staff, won with 66.3 percent of the vote, according to unofficial results. 

Lee, the Republican candidate, is a small business owner who sits on both the Economic Development Commission and Plan Commission in Hoffman Estates.

Morrison unsuccessfully ran in the Democratic primary for Congress in Illinois’ Eighth Congressional District in March.

Finally, in the 17th District, Lyons Township Clerk Elyse Hoffenberg, a Democrat, won the race to replace outgoing Comm. Sean Morrison (R-17), the only Republican on the board, with 57.2 percent of the vote, thereby flipping the seat and ensuring full Democratic control of the county board.

Hoffenberg defeated former 17th District Comm. Elizabeth “Liz” Doody Gorman, a Republican who was notably not endorsed by the outgoing 17th District commissioner. Gorman’s decision to resign from the seat in 2015 led to Sean Morrison’s appointment. Morrison defeated Gorman when she challenged him in the 2022 GOP primary.