18th District Illinois House Election Results: Gabel Defeats Cho

EVANSTON, IL — Rep. Robyn Gabel, 65, an Evanston Democrat representing the 18th District of the Illinois House defeated Wilmette Republican Julie Cho, 47, who owns a health care consulting business. According to unofficial results, Gabel earned more than 37,000 votes to fewer than 14,500 for Cho to take nearly 72 percent of the vote.

The heavily Democratic district includes all or part of Evanston, Glencoe, Kenilworth, Northbrook, Northfield, Wilmette and Winnetka. Gabel faced a Republican opponent in two of her four elections to the North Shore House seat, winning about two thirds of vote in 2012 and 2016. Both candidates were unopposed in their party primaries.

Cho's long-shot campaign focused on an end to partisan redistricting, arguing it dilutes the votes of thousands of eligible black and Latino voters in Evanston by splitting them between three districts. For instance, in the last round of redistricting in 2011, a portion of Evanston between Emerson Street and Dodge Avenue with a largely black population was shifted into the 17th District, while more Republican areas near the border between Cook and Lake counties were also split between three districts. Other priorities of Cho's campaign include improvements to school safety and ensuring equitable implementation of any expansion of legal marijuana.

Gabel, who has represented the 18th district since 2010, cited rebuilding the state's human services network from funding shortfalls as a result of the state's two years without a budget, environmental protections, clean energy, women's rights and juvenile justice reform as top priorities. Her campaign said she has worked to build coalitions to reduce gun violence, reform health care and save the the environment from degradation and overuse, calling for a "bulwark of good governance and common sense that can withstand the current Rauner and Trump attacks." (Despite pushing for automatic voter registration and supporting the principle of "one person, one vote," Gabel has not signed on to a bipartisan proposal for a "fair map" constitutional amendment to end partisan redistricting, which state Democratic leaders have relegated to the rules committee in the House and the assignments committee in the Senate.)

Cho's campaign started the month of October with less than $11,000 in the bank, but received donations of $19,000 or more from six political action committees in the past month, including Asian Small Business PAC, Illinois Fair Representation Project, Asian Voter Engagement PAC, Asian Americans for Family Values PAC, Korean Republicans PAC, Equality for Asian Americans and the Lake Cook Asian Republican PAC.

Gabel's largest contributions this cycle have been from the Illinois Political Action Committee for Education, which provided $25,000, followed by $8,000 from the Chicagoland Operators Joint Labor-Management PAC and $7,500 from the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association PAC. Her campaign committee controlled nearly $300,000, minus whatever it has spend since Sept. 30. Gabel has been endorsed by the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times.

Election results

Return to Patch Tuesday night for the latest vote tally. Subscribe to free News Alerts for election results. The polls open at 6 a.m. Tuesday and close at 7 p.m. NOTE: Tuesday's results are unofficial and do not include provisional and late absentee ballots.

More About Cho and Gabel

Read more about these candidates from their campaign websites:

• Julie Cho
• Robyn Gabel

More Illinois voting info: Everything To Know About The Illinois 2018 Midterm Elections