Morrison holds on for 37-vote victory over Trevor in 54th House district
After the counting of provisional and late-arriving mail ballots, Republican state Rep. Tom Morrison of Palatine will hang on to his seat with only 37 votes separating him from his Democratic challenger.
The Cook County clerk's office finalized results in the tight 54th House District race Tuesday evening, tallying 22,484 votes for Morrison and 22,447 for Maggie Trevor of Rolling Meadows. The results are still unofficial until certification by the Illinois State Board of Elections next week.
Morrison, an eight-year incumbent, had a lead of less than 500 votes on election night, but that narrowed to 242 last week, before the latest results reported Tuesday.
It's the closest race yet for Morrison, a fiscal and social conservative first elected in 2010 after defeating 12-year incumbent Suzanne Bassi in the 2010 GOP primary. He's faced a Democratic challenger every two years except in 2016.
In a statement released Wednesday, Morrison thanked voters and his volunteers who "pushed back and gave me their confidence and support" amid money spent by Democrats on behalf of Trevor. He promised to return to Springfield to work on reforms to address the migration of people out of Illinois, high property taxes, and growing state and local debt.
Plans to increase income taxes, legalize marijuana or expand gambling "will not address our underlying problems as a state, and likely will make them worse," he said.
Trevor didn't respond to requests for comment Wednesday. But in a statement the day after the election, she wrote that even if the late vote tallies didn't turn out in her favor, "we have shown that Democratic candidates can be competitive in the Northwest suburbs."
The 54th District includes portions of Arlington Heights, Barrington, Hoffman Estates, Inverness, Palatine, Rolling Meadows and South Barrington.