Evanston’s entry in the race for 17th District State Representative, Candance Chow, narrowly lost to Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz of Glenview. Mary Rita Luecke of Skokie came in third.
With all 78 precincts reporting, Gong-Gershowitz had 7,620 votes to Chow’s 7,023 and Luecke’s 3,471 in the Democratic primary.
The two other candidates for the Democratic nomination were Alexandra Eidenberg of Wilmette, who came in fourth with 1,751 votes and Peter Dagher of Skokie, who came in last with 984 votes.
The incumbent, Laura Fine, ran unopposed for the 9th District State Senate seat given up by Daniel Biss, who came in second to J. B. Pritzker, who took the Democratic nomination for governor.
At her election party, held at the Bluestone Restaurant on Central Street, Chow said the race for the General Assembly seat in Springfield was “an amazing experience which taught me a lot about how important it was to stand up for what you believe in” and that her life “will never be the same.”
She said she will continue to complete her second term as a member of the Evanston/Skokie School District 65 Board of Education and that she will look forward to other opportunities to serve the Evanston community.
Unopposed for the Republican nomination was Peter Lee of Wilmette, who will face Gong-Gershowitz in the general election in November.
The 17th District includes the northwest portion of Evanston, all of Glenview, and portions of Skokie, Wilmette, Morton Grove, and Northbrook.