Hynes leads incumbent Kaegi in Cook County Assessor race

Challenger Pat Hynes is leading incumbent Fritz Kaegi in the Democratic primary for Cook County Assessor, 284,200 votes to 259,712.

Nearly 90% of precincts in Chicago and suburban Cook County are reporting results.

Hynes is in his first term as Lyons Township Assessor, a largely service-oriented post that doesn’t actually do any assessing or handle appeals like township assessors in other suburban counties. He spent more than 20 years as a field inspector with the Cook County assessor’s office, including three years under Kaegi.

Hynes received the backing of Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch, along with a number of Chicago-based politicians, though Kaegi led Hynes among Chicago voters, according to unofficial results.

Kaegi, from Oak Park, has served two terms in the post despite being largely seen as a party outsider. He wasn’t endorsed by the county Democratic Party when he first ran eight years ago, though he was endorsed by Cook County Democrats in 2022. However, he was once again passed over this year in favor of his opponent.

Kaegi was largely endorsed by suburban Democrats as well as both U.S. senators from Illinois and most of the Democratic congressional delegation.

Kaegi was criticized for COVID-era assessment breaks he gave to residential property owners, which put the burden on commercial property owners at the time. Commercial property owners appealed — often successfully — which in turn shifted the tax burden back to residential property owners.

Hynes was attacked for taking thousands of dollars in campaign donations from real estate lawyers who handle property tax appeals. Kaegi said electing Hynes would undo many of the reforms he’d enacted following his 2018 victory over the previous scandal-plagued Assessor Joe Berrios.

No Republican filed for the office in the primary, but Nico Tsatsoulis is running as a Libertarian.