Sean Casten has won the 6th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, defeating challenger Peter Roskam, according to returns as reported by the Associated Press.
The race for the last Republican seat including part of Cook County was closely followed in 2018. The 6th district was traditionally Republican, but broke for Hillary Clinton by seven points in 2016. In the 2018 midterms, it stood in for a raft of suburban, Romney-Clinton congressional seats Democrats hoped would secure them a majority.
Money piled into the district. Numbers given to the Sun-Times in late October showed that $7.6 million had been spent on television ads to elect Casten, against $6.5 million for Roskam.
Experts who rate Congressional races generally gave Casten a slight advantage, though polling analysis site Fivethirtyeight gave a small edge to Roskam.
The Sun-Times endorsed Casten for the 6th District Congressional seat, after Roskam declined to appear before the editorial board.“Now we know how his constituents feel,” the editorial board wrote. “Roskam has infamously refused to hold unscreened town meetings in his district because some people have not been nice to him. Meeting with constituents, even the ones who disagree with you, would seem to be the first order of business for an elected official in a democracy.”Roskam served as a congressional aide and was elected to the Illinois House and Senate before being elected to Congress in 2006 to replace his old boss Henry Hyde.Sean Casten was a green business CEO before running for Congress.
- For live election results, visit the Sun-Times election guide.RELATED:Will Democrats Casten, Underwood beat Republicans Roskam, Hultgren?
- In final debate, Roskam and Casten haggle over whether tax cut helped or hurt
- Fact-check: Sean Casten tax claim taxed by facts
- Fact-check: Rx needed for Peter Roskam’s portrayal of Casten’s healthcare stand
