2018 Cook County Board of Commissioners election

2018 Cook County Board of Commissioners election

← 2014 November 6, 2018 2022 →
All 17 seats on the Cook County Board of Commissioners 9 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party   Party Democratic Republican Seats before 13 4 Seats won 15 2 Seat change 2 2 Popular vote 1,292,420 287,854 Percentage 81.79% 18.22% Swing 4.67% 4.62%
Results by gains and holds Results by winning party vote share Results:      Democratic gain      Democratic hold      Republican hold Vote Share:      50–60%      70–80%      80–90%      >90%      50–60%

The 2018 Cook County Board of Commissioners election was held on November 6, 2018,^[1] and was preceded by primary elections held on March 20, 2018.^[2] It saw all seventeen seats of the Cook County Board of Commissioners up for election to four-year terms and coincided with other 2018 Cook County, Illinois, elections (including the election for president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners).

Anticipating a potential wave election year for Democrats, President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners and Cook County Democratic Party Chairwoman Toni Preckwinkle made a focused effort to increase the Democrats' majority on the Cook County Board of Commissioners, focusing these efforts on three of the Board's four Republican-held seats. Preckwinkle-backed Democratic nominees ultimately succeeded in ousting Republican incumbents in the 14th and 15th districts, but fell roughly a mere 2,000 votes shy of unseating the 17th district's Republican incumbent.^[3] Preckwinkle did not target the Republican-held 9th district seat, as the incumbent Republican, Peter N. Silvestri, was both popular and a political centrist and had a reputation for being a peacemaker on the Board at times when conflict arose between its members.^[4] Democrats ran candidates for all seventeen seats, compared to the fifteen seats that the party had contested in the preceding 2014 election. Meanwhile, Republicans ran candidates for eight seats, and increase from the five seats they had contested in the 2014 election.

Seven new members were elected,^[5] and ten incumbents were reelected. Three incumbents did not seek reelection. Four incumbents lost reelection, with two being defeated in primaries and the other two losing their general elections.

Two races saw seats change party, in both instances seeing an incumbent Republican losing to a Democratic challenger, creating a net gain of two seats for Democrats and a net loss of two seats for Republicans. Nine races saw a Democrat unchallenged in the general election.