Toni Preckwinkle, a progressive Democrat and four-term incumbent, won her party’s nomination for another four years as president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday, The Associated Press said, as she beat back a moderate challenger.
Ms. Preckwinkle will be heavily favored in the November general election.
Cook County, which includes Chicago, has the second-largest population of any American county, with nearly 5.2 million residents. And though Cook County’s government is often overshadowed by the city’s, the County Board presides over a more than $10 billion budget that includes funding for health programs, highways and a sprawling jail.
The race presented Democratic voters in Chicago and its inner-ring suburbs with a significant stylistic and ideological contrast. Ms. Preckwinkle’s victory over Brendan Reilly, a Chicago City Council member, was a sign of enduring political strength for progressives in one of the country’s most dependably Democratic counties.
Ms. Preckwinkle, a former teacher, spent nearly 20 years on the Chicago City Council before her election as Board president in 2010. She has defended her administration of the county budget, touted declining crime rates and sought to portray Mr. Reilly as insufficiently critical of President Trump. Ms. Preckwinkle noted that she banned federal agents from using county property for civil immigration enforcement, while her opponent had supported loosening a Chicago ordinance that limited cooperation with immigration officials.
“Donald Trump has declared war on blue counties, blue states and blue cities,” Ms. Preckwinkle said in a recent forum hosted by Chicago Tonight. “And I’m the only candidate in this race that has the courage and the experience to stand up to him.”
Mr. Reilly, a moderate Democrat who has represented a downtown ward on the City Council since 2007, focused on public safety and called on the campaign trail for more disciplined spending. He sought to weaken Ms. Preckwinkle by tying her to Mayor Brandon Johnson of Chicago, whose liberal policies have divided Democrats. And he argued that Ms. Preckwinkle had become less effective during her decades in politics.
“The Toni Preckwinkle we have today is nothing like the one who ran for that office 15 years ago as a reformer against the machine,” Mr. Reilly said in a recent debate hosted by Fox 32 Chicago.
Ms. Preckwinkle, who is also chairwoman of the Cook County Democratic Party, has helped shape the political landscape in Chicago for decades. But her personal political strength has been in some doubt since 2019, when she ran for mayor of Chicago but lost all 50 wards in the runoff election to Lori Lightfoot, a political newcomer who went on to serve a single term.
Mitch Smith is a Chicago-based national correspondent for The Times, covering the Midwest and Great Plains.
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