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WCBU is committed to bringing you NPR's special coverage of the 2020 election.The League of Women Voters Greater Peoria and Fondulac District Library hosted a Candidates Forum on Thursday, Sept. 17 at 6 p.m.Click here to read about or listen to the forum. Local Races91st House District:Mark Luft (R)Josh Grys (D)92nd House District:Jehan Gordon-Booth (D)Chad Grimm (L) 46th Senate District:David Koehler (D)Mary Burress (R)

Peoria County Remains A Pale Blue Dot In A Red Sea, and Other 2020 Election Trends

Daniel Musisi / WCBU
Voters cast their ballots at the Peoria Heights Public Library on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020.

Peoria County again sits alone as a blue county in a ruby red region, opting for Joe Biden and down ballot Democratic incumbents. The county voted 52-46% in favor of Biden over President Donald Trump on Tuesday. The county has voted for Democrats in every presidential election since 1992. Hillary Clinton defeated Trump by a 48-45 margin four years ago, with Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson claiming about 5% of the vote.

The nearest Biden county was McLean, home of Illinois State University, which backed the Democrat 50% to 47% over Trump.

These results weren't mirrored in nearby Tazewell and Woodford counties. Tazewell County, which hasn't opted for a Democrat in a presidential election since 1992, supported Trump by a 62-38% margin. Nearly 70% of Woodford County voters cast their ballots for Trump. That county hasn't voted blue since 1932.

Tazewell County Republicans also bolstered their majority on the county board, booting Democrat Sue Sundell out of her District 1 seat and shutting Democrats out in races countywide. The Woodford County Board remains entirely Republican, as it's been for decades. Democrats are poised to maintain control of the Peoria County Board.

Peoria County also supported U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Moline, over Republican challenger Esther Joy King by a 62-38% margin in the 17th Congressional District. Tazewell and Fulton counties opted for King.

Bustos declared victory after pulling narrowly ahead of King late Tuesday, but King hasn't conceded, and the Associated Press hasn't yet called the race as thousands of mail-in votes remain to be counted statewide.

Megan Remmel, a political scientist at Bradley University, said the historically Democratic district is trending increasingly red.

She predicted the Democrats who control the General Assembly and governor's office may reapportion both the 17th District and the 13th Congressional District, where incumbent Republican Rep. Rodney Davis of Taylorville has twice fended off challenges from Democrat Betsy Dirksen Londrigan in a district drawn to lean blue.

"I think that those two districts are going to be pretty important to the state legislature when they redraw the maps next year, because of how tight these races have been, and in trying to shore them up for future elections," she said.

Peoria County made the difference for incumbent state Sen. Dave Koehler,(D-Peoria, who won there by a 10,500 vote margin. His Republican challenger, Mary Burress, carried the less populous Tazewell and Fulton counties by large margins.

Remmel said Koehler performed well in a district that Republicans considered competitive. However, Remmel said the trend here may favor the GOP over the longer term.

"I do think that there there are areas, especially again outside the Chicago area, where Republicans are making gains," said Remmel. "Now, I'm in no way saying that Illinois is going to flip and become a red state by any stretch of the imagination. But I do think Republicans did better than expected last night."

That may be the case in historically blue Fulton County, a key part of both the 17th Congressional District and the 46th Senate District represented by Koehler since 2006. The county voted for Barack Obama over Mitt Romney by a 54-43% margin in 2012, but pivoted to Donald Trump 54% to 39% in 2016. Trump increased his margin of victory there on Tuesday, defeating Biden by 63-35%. Republicans also made inroads on the county board and claimed the county clerk's office from an incumbent Democrat.

Another nearby pivot county, Knox, also again backed Trump in 2020.

However, Peoria County voters decisively rejected the graduated income tax amendment to the state constitution backed by Gov. JB Pritzker on a 57-43% margin. That amendment also failed to gain traction at the statewide level, with supporters conceding defeat Wednesday morning.

Remmel said the pro-tax team didn't explain the amendment very well to voters, and didn't employ an effective advertising strategy, particularly downstate. That spelled doom for Pritzker's initiative, when combined with a sluggish economy, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and an aggressive opposition campaign mounted by GOP and business groups.

"I do think that side of the campaign sort of dropped the ball," Remmel said. "And they already had an uphill battle, so they couldn't afford to drop the ball."

Overall, enthusiasm was high in Peoria County this year, shattering the previous voter turnout record.

"We surpassed '08; we went about another about 1,000 more. In '08, we were like, 82,700--and that was the final number for '08," said Peoria County Election Commission Executive Director Tom Bride. "We still have a lot of vote-by-mail ballots still to count."

Woodford County ran short of ballots at polling places in El Paso and Roanoke as turnout surged past 21,000 people. Just over 16,000 people turned out to vote in 2016.

Woodford County Clerk Dawn Kupfer said she had ordered enough ballots to serve 80% of the county's 26,000 registered voters.

"You don't order 100%, or at least we never have here," Kupfer said. "So what I had ordered was for an 80% turnout, but then when you add the additional people who registered to vote and the people who surrendered ballots, that's where it hurt at a couple of precincts."

But in Tazewell County, turnout fell about 4,000 votes short of making the history books.

"I was a little disappointed. It was smaller than I thought," said Tazewell County Clerk John Ackerman. "I mean, looking at how heavy the early vote was and how the enthusiasm we had, I thought we might be looking at a record turnout."

Ackerman said about 10,000 mailed-out ballots weren't returned, but he believes many were surrendered at polling places.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin received support from Peoria County, while Tazewell, Woodford and Fulton backed his GOP challenger, former Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran. That race was called by the Associated Press just moments after polls closed Tuesday evening.

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Tim is the News Director at WCBU Peoria Public Radio.
Contact Joe at jdeacon@ilstu.edu.