- Republican Catalina Lauf failed to unseat Democratic Rep. Bill Foster in Illinois' 11th Congressional District.
- The 11th District covers much of Chicago's suburban area.
Republican Catalina Lauf failed to unseat longtime Democratic Rep. Bill Foster in Illinois' 11th Congressional District.
Polls closed in the state at 7 p.m. local time, or 8 p.m. EST.
2022 General EmbedsIllinois' 11th Congressional District candidates
Lauf, who sits on the large bench of Republican Latino candidates the GOP built this year, is a Woodstock, Illinois, native and daughter of Latin American immigrants.
She's also a former Trump administration appointee who worked under US Department of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.
The Southern border was a top issue for both Lauf and Foster. Lauf called for immigration reform and securing the border, and Foster advocated for asylum cases to be decided quickly.
Foster, a former business owner and physicist, was first elected to Congress in 2012 and serves on the House Committees on Financial Services and Science, Space, and Technology. As the only member of Congress with a Ph.D. in physics, he chairs the Science Committee's Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee, which is empowered to investigate and oversee federal scientific research.
The 67-year-old Democrat believed abortion would be a big factor in the race.
"I think for many women of all ages it may be the number one issue," Foster told a local station.
Conversely, on the issue of abortion, Lauf told a local Chicago station that "to think that women in particular only care about, you know, one issue is something that Democrats are very much miscalculating."
Voting history for Illinois' 11th Congressional District
Illinois' 11th Congressional District, which under its previous boundaries covered the west and southwest suburbs, now stretches into the northwest territory of McHenry, Boone, DeKalb, and Kane counties.
Joe Biden had an over 25 percentage point margin of victory over President Donald Trump under the district's previous boundaries in 2020 before the once-in-a-decade redistricting process following the 2020 Census made it less favorable to Democrats. The new district would have had Biden winning with only a 15.3 percentage point margin.
The money race
According to OpenSecrets, Foster had raised more than $3.4 million, spent nearly $4 million, and had almost $3.2 million of cash on hand, as of October 19. His challenger, Lauf, had raised $2.4 million, spent $2.25 million, and had $140,000 in cash still left to spend, as of October 19.
As of late October, several super PACs, national party committees, politically active nonprofits, and other non-candidate groups had together spent about $1.2 million to advocate for or against candidates in this race, including during the race's primary phase. Most of that spending came from one source: pro-Lauf super PAC Club for Growth Action.
What experts say
The race between Foster and Lauf was rated as "likely Democratic" by The Cook Political Report, and "likely Democratic" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.