Democrats will hold 17 of 18 seats on the DuPage County Board once winners from the Nov. 3 election are sworn in.
The unofficial results, first reported by Shaw Local, mark a sharp expansion from the 11-7 majority Democrats secured in 2020. That was the party's first majority on the board in decades. Four Republican incumbents lost their seats, and Democratic candidates won every contested county board race.
In District 2, which stretches from Woodridge to Elmhurst, lifelong Downers Grove resident Christopher Espinoza won the four-year seat with nearly 63% of the vote, according to unofficial results. Espinoza is a Community High School District 99 Board of Education member. Mary Rada Walters, also a Democrat, won the District 2 two-year seat with about 62%.
Three veteran Republican board members lost: Brian Krajewski, James Zay and Grant Eckhoff. The trio had a combined 66 years on the board, Shaw Local reported. A fourth Republican, Kari Galassi, lost after a single term.
In the District 3 two-year race, Krajewski lost to Democratic challenger Ericka Polanco-Webb, a Burr Ridge resident and Gower School District 62 board member who also chairs the Downers Grove Township Youth Services Advisory Committee. Polanco-Webb collected about 59% of the vote.
Krajewski, a Republican attorney and county board member since 2010, said the outcome did not surprise him.
"People were voting and sending a message to Washington, and the Republicans locally got tied up with that," he said, according to Shaw Local.
He has announced plans to run for mayor of Downers Grove, a position he held from 1999 to 2007. He will face Downers Grove Commissioner Chris Gilmartin in the April contest.
Melissa Mouritsen, a professor of political science at College of DuPage, said the results surprised her. "I've been writing about the blue wave in DuPage since 2018 and even I didn't see such an obliteration," Mouritsen said.
She said the shift reflected 15 to 20 years of hard work combined with a long-term political realignment and national politics, and she cautioned against attributing the results to any single factor, Shaw Local reported.
In District 6, newcomer Jesse Gutierrez defeated longtime board member James Zay with nearly 58% of the vote. Gutierrez, a realtor, engineer and small business owner, campaigned on attainable housing and road maintenance.
Democratic candidates won every contested race in DuPage County for the second consecutive year. Democrats re-elected County Board Chair Deb Conroy, flipped the treasurer's office and regional superintendent of schools, and held the clerk's office. The Democratic Party of DuPage County called the new sheriff "the first Democratic sheriff in living memory" in a party news release cited by Shaw Local.
Defeated Republican candidate Chris Jacks said Nov. 4 that he plans to leave the GOP, telling Shaw Local he can no longer stay in the party.
All results remain unofficial. Krajewski will face Gilmartin for the Downers Grove mayor's seat in April.
