■ Bluewave drenches DuPage County, a one-time GOP stronghold. Butwill it last?
Democrats enjoy surge in one-time GOP stronghold
The electoral blue wave predicted by political scientists might have fizzled in much of the U.S., but on Tuesday it drenched a corner of the Chicago area that, not long ago, was practically untouched by Democrats.
DuPage County, once known as one of the most solidly Republican areas in the country, appears to have given Democrats control of the County Board for the first time since the 1930s. Two more Democrats are leading their races for countywide office, and could be joined by another when the final votes are tallied.
DuPage voters also backed Democrats in every federal race from president to U.S. representative, as well as every state senator and nine of 13 state representatives.
It’s a stunning turn of fortune two decades in the making, observers say, the result of shifting demographics, shrewd campaigning and the divisive reign of President Donald Trump.
“He doesn’t do well with suburban women and I think that hurts us,” said Jim Zay, a County Board member and chairman of DuPage County Republicans. “It’s time to rebrand and regroup and come back in two years.”
Many of the county’s races ended on a paper-thin margin — nine were within a percentage point or two as of Friday afternoon — so it could be contested territory for years to come. But College of DuPage political science professor Melissa Mouritsen, who has written about the county’s transformation, said it’s following a path already traveled by other American suburbs.
“DuPage is purple; it’s not fully Democratic yet,” she said. “But it’s at that tipping point.”
A history in red
For more than a century DuPage County was as Republican as could be, home to GOP stalwarts such as U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde, who led the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, Pate Philip, president of the Illinois Senate for a decade, and two-time Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan. As recently as 2000, the election of a single Democrat to the County Board was cause for a wonder-struck story in the Tribune.
But Mouritsen said the changes thatwould result in the county’s political realignment were already underway. One was demographic: The county went from 79% white in 2000 to 66% now, and median household income, expressed in 2018 dollars, dropped from $99,000 to $88,000.
As the population diversified by race, income and political ideology — many newcomers hailed from the Democratic power center of Cook County, Mouritsen said— a growing number of people proved amenable to the Democrats. The redrawing of political districts after the 2010 census, a process controlled by House Speaker Michael Madigan, also helped to elevate Democrats to national and state offices, she said.
County offices, however, remained thoroughly red. Liz Chaplin, who was first elected to the DuPage board with two other Democrats in 2012, was by 2016 the last of her party on the 18member panel.
“Sometimes I just felt like I was hitting my head against the wall,” she said. “It’s hard when you’re the only one.”
Then came Donald Trump.
He was the favorite among the county’s Republican primary voters in 2016, but the DuPage electorate as a whole rejected him, giving him only 39% of the vote in the general election, the lowest GOP share in decades.
Two years into Trump’s tumultuous administration, the county’s moderate Republicans were open to hearing a new message, said Cynthia Borbas, chair of the DuPage Democrats.
“Previously they were like, ‘ Oh, Democrats? We don’t even want to talk to you,’” she said. “But because of Trump, more people are paying attention and they’re willing to have more conversations with us. And we’re connecting on the values and issues we care about.”
Trickle to a flood
In the 2018 election, DuPage voters elected Jean Kaczmarek as county clerk, making her the first Democrat to hold countywide office in 84 years. They also added six Democrats to the County Board.
Jamie Wood, who moved to Lisle from Detroit two years ago, said he votes Democratic all the way down the ballot, even for candidates whose names and policy stances are unfamiliar.
“My mindset right nowis to just have as much of a blue wave as I possibly can just because of how much I’m fed up with the status quo,” he said.
Wood, 33, who grew up in Elgin, is familiar with DuPage’s political history, but said young families like his are replacing older residents who were reliably Republican. These new families, he said, consider schools their top priority and aren’t as focused on traditional GOP concerns such as public safety.
State’s Attorney Robert Berlin, who ran unopposed, emphasized law and order in a letter he sent in his role as Republican committeeman to Democratic households in his precinct. He wrote that county GOP officials from coroner to auditor “stand for one thing: the importance of public safety and adherence to the rule of law.”
Two of those candidates, aspiring recorder Babette Holder Youngberg and incumbent Circuit Court Clerk Chris Kachiroubas, were trailing their Democratic opponents Friday afternoon with thousands of votes left to be counted. Auditor Bob Grogan led his Democratic rival by just 676 votes.
But Berlin noted that a referendum asking whether the county should keep law enforcement as its top funding priority was approved by a 3-to-1 margin, suggesting the message was still potent. He said he didn’t know why Republicans stumbled in DuPage, but added that it happened in many other suburbs across the country.
“We’re not unique in that regard,” he said.
Purple future?
Amy Chavez, a Naperville Democrat who won election to the County Board, said her constituents are chiefly concerned about COVID-19 — “When they think safe, they want to be safe from the virus” — and that the new Democratic majority will ensure the health department has what it needs to conduct testing and contact tracing.
Paula Deacon Garcia, of Lisle, who was leading her race for a board seat Friday, said her issues are climate change, sustainability and public health, along with lowering the temperature at public meetings.
“Since I’ve been attending, they’ve become quite partisan,” she said. “I’m looking for a bipartisan approach.”
Republican board Chairman Dan Cronin could not be reached for comment.
Zay was hopeful a return to form might not be far away for DuPage Republicans. The GOP needs to do a better job claiming credit for making DuPage an appealing place to live, he said, and must bring more women and young people into the fold.
He noted that every seat on the County Board will be up for election in two years. Trump won’t be on that ballot, but another polarizing figure likely will: Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, whose shutdown orders during the pandemic have angered plenty of suburbanites.
Borbas, meanwhile, said the county’s Democrats aren’t taking anything for granted. They fought Republicans for every vote in the 2020 election and are ready to do it again, she said.
“I don’t think it’s a fluke, I don’t think it’s a one-off, I don’t think DuPage is blue,” she said. “But I think what it means is that we’re in the game now and we’re here to stay.”