Eileen O’Neill Burke wins race for Cook County state's attorney

Seeking to become Cook County’s top prosecutor, Eileen O’Neill Burke told voters that her depth of experience in the courts made her uniquely positioned to tackle some of the toughest issues facing the county.

After a landslide win on election night, she’ll now have to prove it.

The former judge declared victory Tuesday night from her watch party at Moe’s Cantina in River North shortly after the Associated Press called the race with more than 59% of the expected votes.

“I ran for this office because I had a stubborn belief that we could make Cook County safer and build a justice system that is fair and truly works for everyone,” O’Neill Burke said in a statement. “Together, that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”

As of 9:30 p.m., O’Neill Burke had 65% of the vote to Republican Bob Fioretti’s 30.6%. Libertarian candidate Andrew Kopinski trailed far behind with little more than 4%.

After years working as a young prosecutor in the office she’ll now lead, O’Neill Burke rose to become an appellate court justice.

“I’ve seen the criminal justice system from every angle you can see it from, and I know what works and what doesn’t work,” Burke says confidently in an interview during the primary.

O’Neill Burke said she saw crime holding back Chicago at a time when she felt the city should be booming. She promised to tackle retail thefts by charging cases more aggressively and to use new statewide restrictions on assault weapons to go after illegal guns.

But even as O’Neill Burke ran on a platform that promised to scale back some of the policies of her progressive predecessor, Kim Foxx, she also embraced many of the positions that Foxx championed, including the elimination of cash bail in Illinois and restorative justice court alternative for some people charged with nonviolent offenses.

But with touting her courtroom experience also came criticism of her work, in particular her prosecution in the ‘90s of a 10-year-old Black boy for the murder of an elderly white woman. He was later exonerated by DNA evidence.

That case led Civil Rights icon Jesse Jackson to endorse Fioretti and encourage Black voters to split their ballots and vote for a Republican for state’s attorney this election.

But she was the favorite to win in a county that hasn’t elected a Republican for state’s attorney in more than three decades. Voters in deep blue Cook County largely stuck with her, giving Fioretti his seventh straight election loss.

Fioretti conceded the race, but claimed a level of success for elevating his party.

“One thing we have established here in Cook County is that we have a new Republican Party. We have a bench. We have people ready to step up,” Fioretti said while standing in front of a large campaign sign inside the Billy Goat Tavern on Chicago’s West Side.

Fioretti won his first election in 2007 for 2nd Ward alderperson, and was reelected in 2011 — both times by a significant margin over his closest opponent in crowded races.

But when his ward was redistricted he decided not to run for reelection and has struggled to win over voters since.

Fioretti ran for mayor in 2015, losing to Rahm Emanuel and finishing second to last. In 2016, he ran for a state senate seat and lost to Patricia Van Pelt in the Democratic primary. He suffered another loss two years later to Toni Preckwinkle in the Democratic primary for county board president. Both times he lost by more than 20 points.

Fioretti came near last in a crowded mayoral election that saw Lori Lightfoot win in a runoff with Preckwinkle. His last attempt to win a Democratic primary likewise resulted in a bruising defeat to incumbent State’s Attorney Kim Foxx in which he came in last place.

In 2022, Fioretti switched parties to run as a Republican against Preckwinkle for county board president, but lost again having secured less than a third of the vote.

Fioretti told the Sun-Times last month that he switched parties not because he found himself losing, but because the Democratic party had left him behind. Fioretti said he hoped to appeal to voters who felt similarly disenchanted with Democratic rule in Cook County.

“The winds of change are happening. It may not have happened today, but we see what happened,” Fioretti said. “I want to congratulate Ms. Burke. Hopefully she can make the change and be a change agent.”