Republican Bos leads in bid to unseat Democrat Edly-Allen

With rare exception, it wasn't a blue or red wave that traversed Lake County suburbs in state legislative races on Election Day, but dominance by incumbents instead.

That exception, if early results hold, may go to Republican Chris Bos, who is trying to unseat first-term state Rep. Mary Edly-Allen, after she narrowly won the long-held 51st District GOP seat two years ago.

Bos, a Lake Zurich minister and Ela Township trustee, led Edly-Allen, of Libertyville, by a 27,000 to 22,608 margin, according to unofficial totals.

He declared victory on Facebook Wednesday morning, even though a number of mail-in ballots were still to be counted in Lake County.

Edly-Allen defeated incumbent Helene Miller Walsh weeks after the polls closed in 2018, with the final tally of provisional and late-arriving mail ballots propelling the Democrat to a 373-vote victory.

The district covers much of central Lake County and a sliver of Cook County.