Election coverage for Chicago and the surrounding area including results, analysis and voter resources.
Northwest suburban state Rep. Martin McLaughlin was clinging to a razor-thin lead in his bid to hold onto his 52nd House District seat Tuesday night over Democratic challenger Maria Peterson.
With nearly 91% of expected votes counted in the northwest suburban district, McLaughlin held 50.8% of the vote over 49.2% for Peterson, according to the Associated Press. The candidates were separated by just 901 votes.
The lead bounced back and forth Tuesday night in a race that likely won’t be decided for several days as mail ballots trickle in for counting in the district that includes parts of Cook, McHenry and Lake counties.
Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch put all the party’s chips behind Peterson, a retired attorney for the U.S. Department of Labor who lost a 2022 state Senate campaign by fewer than 400 votes.
The speaker directed more than $1.2 million to Peterson’s campaign, which painted McLaughlin as a hardline conservative in the purple 52nd House District that stretches north to Wauconda.
McLaughlin, an investment advisor who sought a third term, had only raised about $90,000 for his campaign since June, with some support from organized labor. He won reelection by almost five percentage points in 2022 in the once solidly Republican district, which went to President Joe Biden in 2020.
Peterson said she would push for an amendment adding abortion rights to the state constitution. McLaughlin has called himself “an advocate for life” who follows former President Bill Clinton’s 1990s-era mantra of keeping abortion “safe, legal and rare.”
