Gov. JB Pritzker and other Democratic officials were in Highwood earlier this week campaigning for an assortment of local candidates, hoping to keep Lake County, once a securely red county, firmly blue.

With election day barreling closer, local political figures shared their views on Lake County’s political landscape, how it’s shifted in recent decades and what’s to come after Nov. 5.

When exactly Lake County started turning blue is up for debate. Lake County Republican Chair Keith Brin pointed to 2016.

“There was a rapid shift in the electorate and within four to six years, Lake County had flipped from a super majority of Republicans on the County Board to a super minority,” he said.

Brin said the cause was national politics, which “forced people to polarize.” Suburbs were no longer “mildly red or mildly blue,” and the national elections, “didn’t play well for Republicans in Lake County.”

Brent Paxton, a former Lake County Board member of 20 years who was ousted in 2020, said he believed the issue dates farther back. Over his two decades, he said he watched the GOP majority grow smaller every cycle.

Paxton attributed the change to shifting demographics as Republicans left the county, speaking anecdotally about campaigning and seeing the change in his own neighborhoods as new residents, people “fleeing Chicago,” moved to the suburbs.

“Every time I ran for elections, I would go out and knock on doors,” he said. “As I was campaigning from 2016 on, I knew less and less people. In the last election, I kept remarking to myself how I hardly knew anybody in any of the houses that I was going to.”

Paxton argued former residents were avoiding high taxes, crime and looking for “better run government, as far as I’m concerned.”

Lake County Democratic Chair Lauren Beth Gash was also witness to the drastic shift in her own political career. When she served in the Illinois House of Representatives from 1993 to 2001, she said she was the only Democrat in the Illinois House or Senate for Lake County.

The “collar counties” around Chicago used to be “solidly Republican,” Gash said, but that “simply isn’t the case anymore.”

Beginning around 2012, more Democrats were added every election cycle, she said,  which she attributed to an issue of political values. Lake County voters know, “Republicans don’t share their values,” Gash said.

“The difference today is that so many people who didn’t consider those issues at risk for so long now realize what’s actually on the ballot,” she said, pointing to the overturning of Roe v. Wade as an example.

Mary Ross-Cunningham, the senior-most County Board member today with more than two decades under her belt, pointed to grassroots campaign efforts for a plethora of Democratic candidates that helped defeat several powerful Republicans in the area.

“We’re very proud of ourselves with what we did, and how we’re keeping it,” Ross-Cunningham said.

While she agreed demographics have shifted as people moved, she noted Illinois was a blue state overall with “pockets” of red.

2024 election

Depending on what happens on election day, the balance on the County Board could shift, although even if every Republican challenger took a Democratic incumbent’s seat, it wouldn’t switch majorities, Brin said.

“Hopefully we can impress upon the voters the issues that matter to them, and we can slowly bring the County Board back to where it used to be,” he said.

Beyond the County Board, several high-level positions are also up for election in Lake County, including the state’s attorney, Circuit Court clerk, coroner and the representative of Illinois’ 10th Congressional District, offices currently held by Democrats.

For Gash and Ross-Cunningham, this year was about continuing the successes that have already been achieved. Gash highlighted gun violence, reproductive rights and a clean environment as the major issues concerning voters.

“We have a ground game,” Gash said. “We have tons of grassroots volunteers walking door to door, talking to their neighbors and letting people know what our Democrats stand for. We have momentum. There are Republicans who are saying they’re voting Democrat.”

Brin said it is “kitchen table issues” that drive people, including crime and safety, taxes and inflation.

“I think the politicians do everyone a disservice by talking about these great big issues that stir emotion, but fail to talk about the everyday things people are talking about,” he said.

As a solidly blue state, Brin said he didn’t expect Illinois to be a big player in the national election for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, although he predicted more Lake County voters will go for Trump than before.

However, there will be “some surprises in Lake County” for Democrats, Brin said, arguing they had stepped down efforts in the area. Whether those changes will be seen this election or in the future is still to be determined, he said.

“After having more than a few years now of success, they’re starting to get complacent,” Brin said. “I believe the Republican Party is hungry to talk to the voters, and I think the Democrats are on cruise control now.”

Paxton was far less optimistic looking ahead. He said he didn’t see the county flipping back to Republican anytime soon.

“As a lifelong Republican, I don’t hold out much hope for this area at all,” Paxton said.

Ross-Cunningham encouraged everyone to vote, regardless of political affiliation.

“If you vote, you get a voice, your voice,” she said. “That’s what I’m telling people when I’m knocking on doors and talking to people.”