Unofficial election results reported Tuesday night showed Democrat Brenda Rodgers leading Republican incumbent John “Jack” Cunningham in the race for Kane County clerk, with Rodgers pulling almost 59% of the vote to Cunningham's a little over 41%. The figures, posted by the Kane County Clerk's Office Tuesday night, could still shift before results are certified.
According to the Chicago Tribune, roughly 292,000 people are registered to vote in Kane County, and almost 168,000 ballots had been cast as of the unofficial count — a little more than 57% turnout. If the lead holds, it would end Cunningham's long run atop the clerk's office, which has made him a fixture of county government for more than two decades.
A Two-Decade Incumbent Faces a Familiar Challenger
Cunningham has served as Kane County clerk since 2002, and a win Tuesday would have given him his seventh term in the role, the Tribune's earlier coverage of the race noted. Rodgers, a longtime Realtor, spent four years on Elgin's City Council from 2003 to 2007 but had not held elected office since then before mounting this bid.
This was not Rodgers's first run at countywide office. She ran unsuccessfully for Kane County recorder as a Democrat in 2024, part of a pattern the station's report traces back further: according to Shaw Local, Rodgers ran for recorder twice and lost both times to incumbent Republican Sandy Wegman. This time, she cleared a primary hurdle first, defeating Brian Pollock to secure the Democratic nomination for clerk in March.
Rodgers Pitched Changes to How Kane County Votes
On the campaign trail, Rodgers laid out specific plans for the office she was seeking to lead. “I would work to expand vote-by-mail drop box locations. I will partner with high schools, colleges and universities to encourage students to vote and to serve as election judges,” she told Shaw Local.
Those proposals landed against a backdrop of rising early and mail voting across the county. Cunningham said 25% of Kane County's registered voters had already cast ballots early or by mail by Election Day this year, and the clerk's office reported receiving 84,116 ballots by midday Tuesday alone, a total still expected to grow as more mail ballots arrived.
Turnout Numbers in Historical Context
Kane County logged 234,781 total ballots in the 2020 presidential election, 159,613 in the 2022 midterm, and 223,155 in 2024. Early voting climbed from 72,537 ballots in 2016 to a record 100,001 in 2020.
On the ground Tuesday, that enthusiasm showed up early. About 300 people had already voted at the Gail Borden Public Library precinct in Elgin by mid-morning, according to a pollster cited in the same Tribune account of turnout across the county.
The results reported Tuesday night remain unofficial, and the Kane County Clerk's Office has not indicated when certified totals will be released.
