Catalina Lauf leading in 11th District GOP race

The Republican race to face Democratic U.S. Rep. Bill Foster of Naperville for Illinois' 11th Congressional District seat could be close - but one candidate was widening her lead Tuesday night.

With about 70% of votes counted, according to The Associated Press, Woodstock's Catalina Lauf was in front of the six-candidate field with 15,189 votes, or more than 31% of the group's total, unofficial results showed. Running second was Warrenville's Jerry Evans with 10,997 votes, or less than 23%.

Those figures don't include all votes cast early or by mail or provisional ballots.

Also in the contest are North Aurora Trustee Mark Carroll, Susan L. Hathaway-Altman of the Geneva area, Andrea Heeg of the Geneva area and Cassandra Tanner Miller of Elgin.

Lauf, an adviser for a children's nutrition company who worked at the U.S. Commerce Department under former President Donald Trump, ran for the 14th District seat in 2020.

Neither she nor campaign representatives responded to interview requests Tuesday night, and she made no comments about the election results on social media.

Unopposed in the primary, Foster was dramatically better funded than all of the GOP candidates, with more $4.8 million in his coffers as of early June. Lauf had a relatively paltry $33,826 saved at that point.

The general election is Nov. 8.

Redrawn for the 2022 election, the 11th District encompasses parts of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, Will, DeKalb and Boone counties.