CHICAGO (CN) — Local election authorities in Illinois reported a strikingly low voter turnout in Tuesday's primary elections, as residents submitted their ballots for presidential and congressional primaries, judicial vacancies, a myriad of state legislative offices and a tax referendum.
Cook County reported a 17% turnout for Tuesday's primary elections, compared to a 22% voter turnout for the 2022 primary elections.
The two Democratic congressional primaries in the 4th and 7th districts, each of which include part of Cook County, featured longtime incumbents but were expected to be competitive races. Ultimately, the incumbents in both districts handily defeated their challengers.
Incumbent Representative Jesus "Chuy" Garcia beat his opponent, 15th Ward Alderperson Raymond Lopez 65% to 34%, according to the Associated Press, which called the race at 7:52 p.m. Central Time.
Garcia was the first Mexican-American to serve in the Illinois State Senate when he was elected in 1992. He's a progressive who has advocated for criminal justice and immigration reform and has long been a champion of labor issues.
Lopez, on the other hand, represented a more moderate side of the ticket. He's spoken against Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson handling of the influx of migrants to the city and his stance on policing. Endorsed by Chicago's police and firefighter unions, Lopez was one of a handful of alders who supported privatizing misconduct proceedings for Chicago police officers.
Garcia had a fundraising advantage over Lopez, as he had raised $336,000 in campaign contributions as of Feb. 4, compared to Lopez's $46,000, which he attributed to entering the race later.
Lopez came under fire ahead of Tuesday's primary after Garcia's campaign issued a statement accusing him of handing out money and donuts to local election judges. In a statement on X, Lopez said he was simply helping election judges get lunch.
"Garcia and his team should work better on rectifying his lack of respect for working class election judges and stop his desperate and baseless accusations at the 11th hour," he said in the statement.
In the 7th Congressional district, incumbent Democratic Representative Danny Davis, who has held the office since 1997, beat four challengers with 52% of the vote.
Davis, 82, served on the powerful House Ways and Means committee and posited himself to voters as someone who can reach across the aisle to make things happen.
City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin, progressive activist Kina Collins, state employee Kouri Marshall and Nikhil Bhati, a math teacher, challenged Davis in the race.
Davis fired back at criticisms about his age in his acceptance speech.
"My last words are: don't ever write off seniors," he said.
Conyears-Ervin was Davis' biggest competition, as she bested him in campaign contributions. She's said that Chicago's South and West sides have little to show for Davis' decades in Congress. Ultimately, Conyears-Ervin received 23% of the votes.
Tuesday's primary was Collins' third attempt to unseat the longtime incumbent, and she came close in 2022. This time, however, she lacked the support of a left-wing political action committee that propped her up previously and ultimately received 16% of the votes.
Beyond the congressional primaries, voters were also tasked with weighing in on a real estate tax referendum, dubbed by progressives as "Bring Chicago Home." A key campaign goal of Mayor Brandon Johnson, the referendum has been mired in legal challenges since the city council passed it in November.
Chicago's voters ultimately voted down the measure, with 53% of votes against it and 46% of votes in favor of it Tuesday.
The referendum would have introduced tiers to the city's current real estate tax system, lowering the percentage taxed on most sales but raise the rates for high-end properties.
Chicago's real estate transfer tax currently sits at a flat rate of 0.75%, or $3.75 per $500, for the entire value of the property. Johnson's proposal would introduce three distinct tax rates that vary based on the cost of the property. The adjustment, the mayor says, could have generated up to $100 million in additional funding to fight homelessness.
The transfer tax for properties worth less than $1 million would have decreased to 0.6% and increased to 2% for properties sold for between $1 million and $1.5 million. Properties sold for more than that would have been subject to a 3% transfer tax, or $15 per every $500 of the transfer price — almost quadruple the current rate.
The Bring Chicago Home campaign indicated that Tuesday's results are not the end for the real estate tax referendum.
"While tonight's election results are disappointing, we are nowhere near the end of our journey," the campaign said in a statement. "There are still 100,000 outstanding mail-in ballots to be counted, but whatever the final count, one thing is abundantly clear tonight: how determined our opponents are to continue profiting from displacement and inequality."
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