Democratic U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider held onto his Illinois 10th Congressional District seat, with the Associated Press calling the race just after 10 p.m. Tuesday. The Associated Press reported Schneider had 69% of the vote with more than half of the votes counted as he led Republican challenger Carl Lambrecht in the north suburban Chicago district.
AP and CBS Both Call Race for the Incumbent
According to WTTW, the Associated Press declared Schneider the winner of the 10th District. CBS News separately projected that Schneider had won re-election in the district, part of its broader coverage noting that Democrats had already reached the 218 seats needed for a U.S. House majority by about 9:10 that evening. Vote counts varied by county: Schneider received nearly 69% of the vote in Lake County with all precincts reported and nearly 55% in McHenry County, though as of 10 p.m. Tuesday, less than 20% of McHenry County's precincts had reported, according to Shaw Local. The 10th Congressional District includes a large part of Lake County and extends into northwestern McHenry County, per the same outlet, while the Daily Herald describes the district as also including parts of Cook County.
A Familiar Seat With a Complicated History
Schneider's tenure in the seat has not been a straight line. Cook Political Report notes that after unseating Republican Robert Dold in 2012, Schneider lost the seat to Dold in 2014 before beating Dold again in 2016. Accounts of exactly when Schneider was first elected to Congress diverge: WTTW reports he was first elected to the seat in 2012, lost in 2014 and was reelected in 2016, while CBS News states he was first elected to Congress in 2016. The district itself has long leaned blue, with Cook Political Report characterizing it as “Solid Democratic” and noting Schneider took 66% of the vote against Republican Doug Bennett in 2018.
In Congress, Schneider serves on the Ways and Means and Foreign Affairs committees, according to the same WTTW report, and chairs the moderate New Democrat Coalition. He has pushed to repeal the cap on the federal deduction for state and local taxes and co-founded the bipartisan Abraham Accords Caucus. Before his political career, Schneider worked as a business adviser for nearly three decades. In this cycle, he beat Morgan Coghill in the Democratic primary with 78.8% of the vote and, per Federal Election Commission figures, raised over $3.6 million for his midterm campaign, ending with a cash balance of more than $1.7 million.
Who Was Carl Lambrecht?
Schneider's Republican opponent in Tuesday's election was Carl Lambrecht of Highland Park, a 93-year-old optical engineer who owns a Highland Park optical instrument manufacturer, according to the Chicago Tribune. Lambrecht had no opponents in the Republican primary. Accounts differ on his most recent electoral history: the Daily Herald reports Lambrecht ran for the Illinois House in 2024 and lost to state Rep. Bob Morgan in the 58th District by 36 percentage points, while CBS News states that Schneider also defeated Lambrecht in a 2024 matchup. The Daily Herald additionally reported that Lambrecht had no campaign website or campaign social media pages that could be found online, and had not filed a formal statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission for 2026.
Four Write-In Candidates Also Appeared on the Ballot
Beyond the major-party contest, four write-in candidates were listed for the 10th District race, the Chicago Tribune reported: James Jay Mote, Alexandria Keating-Sofiakis, John Minarcik and Thomas Rudd. Write-in votes are not tallied on election night. Keating-Sofiakis, who identifies as a Green Party member focused on environmentalism and social justice, spoke out about Schneider's position on Israel during the campaign; Schneider has called himself a Zionist who believes Jewish people have a right to a state in their historical homeland while also criticizing Israel's policies on settlements and settler violence.
John Minarcik, a Democrat from Zion, was reportedly removed from the ballot for getting only three signatures, and his Facebook page was found to contain antisemitic diatribes and material, including calls for Jews' extinction. Thomas Rudd withdrew from the ballot for lacking enough signatures; Rudd pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor election law violation in 2018 and was temporarily prohibited from running for office again.
