Krishnamoorthi likely winner over Dargis in race for 8th Congressional District

Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi of Schaumburg leads with more than half the votes counted in his quest for a fourth term in the U.S. House.

With 83% of the count completed, unofficial results show Krishnamoorthi with 111,843 votes or 56.3% of the total to the 86,989 votes of Republican challenger Chris Dargis of Palatine.

"It's looking promising," said Krishnamoorthi, who was still reluctant to claim victory with that plenty more votes to be counted.

He spoke to what the early results told him about the voters of the 8th District.

"I think they're looking for pragmatic problem-solvers," Krishnamoorthi said.

He envisioned how a fourth term would differ from the previous three.

"I have a much bigger district now, geographically and population-wise," Krishnamoorthi said. "I'm really looking forward to talking them more in depth about what their challenges are, outside of a campaign setting."

Krishnamoorthi overcame a challenge from progressive candidate Junaid Ahmed in the Democratic primary in late June, while Dargis prevailed in a five-way Republican contest to move on to the general election.

The two candidates expressed widely different views on their preferred fixes of inflation and immigration policy, as well as the implications of the Supreme Court's summer overturn of Roe v. Wade, which had set the nation's stance on abortion rights for half a century.

In August, a bipartisan group of 11 mayors from the 8th District endorsed Krishnamoorthi's candidacy.

Like every other, the 8th District's borders shifted somewhat this year from the 2020 U.S. Census data. But it remained largely centered in Schaumburg and still includes areas of northwest Cook, northeast DuPage and northeast Kane counties.