Washington County Election Results

Washington County voters made their voice heard in Tuesday’s general election, overwhelmingly choosing Republicans up and down the ballot.

County Offices

Republicans Cynthia Barczewski and Mark Styninger will serve another four years in their respective offices of circuit clerk and county coroner after running unopposed.

Daniel Janowski won the Republican primary for state’s attorney, defeating incumbent Dan Bronke. He was unopposed in the general election and will be sworn in as the county prosecutor in January.

One race for Washington County Board of Trustees was contested, but Democrat Samuel Pruitt fell well short in his quest to unseat incumbent Republicans Eric Brammeier, Paul Todd and Victor Shubert in County Board District 3. 

Pruitt managed just 8.33 percent of the votes cast (576) in the three-way race, with Brammeier (2,290), Todd (2,059) and Shubert (1,988) all winning by comfortable margins.

The other county board races were uncontested. In District 1, Democrats Kate Muenter and Dennis Shemonic, and Republican Larry Unverfehrt will serve another four years.

Republican incumbents David Ibendahl and Leo Barczewski won reelection in County Board District 2, with fellow GOP member Rodney Small elected to fill the unexpired term of Letisha Luecking, who resigned after moving out of the county.

Voters Reject Proposed Fair Tax Amendment

The Fair Tax Amendment to the Illinois Constitution failed to pass in a statewide ballot initiative.

With most of the votes in the state counted, the ballot measure, which needed approval from 60 percent of Illinois voters, had garnered just 45 percent of the vote. 

In Washington County, 84 percent of voters (6,540) were opposed to the measure.

If it had been adopted, the Illinois Constitution would have been amended to allow for a progressive income tax rather than the flat rate currently levied by the state.

General Assembly Races

State Representative Charlie Meier cruised to an easy reelection victory in the 108th General Assembly District, tallying 74.01 percent of the votes overall and 84.78 percent (5,002) in Washington County.

The other local race for the General Assembly saw Paul Jacobs win easily in the 115th District with 83 percent of the vote, fending off Libertarian Ian Peak and Paul Auxier of the Green Party.

Bryant Wins State 

Senate Race

Terri Bryant won an uncontested race for the 58th District of the Illinois State Senate.

Miller Wins Shimkus Seat

Republican Mary Miller won her race in the 15th Congressional District after the retirement of John Shimkus. Miller won 73 percent of the vote overall, including 78 percent (5,960) of the votes in Washington County.

Judicial Races

In the race for a spot on the Illinois Supreme Court, Republican David Overstreet topped Democrat Judy Cates to take over the seat of retiring Justice Lloyd Karmeier.

Overstreet held a lead of more than 140,000 votes over Cates, and he won almost 80 percent of the votes in the County (6,157).

Republican Mark Boie beat Democrat Sarah Smith in the race for the 5th Judicial District. Boie won 76 percent of the vote in Washington County (5.693).

Presidential Race Too 

Close to Call

The race for President of the United States remains too close to call, though incumbent Donald Trump (R) proved vastly more popular than Joe Biden among county voters. Trump won 77 percent of the vote (6,110) in Washington County, with Biden managing just over 20 percent (1,639).

Vote totals are preliminary.