Result
Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz (D-Glenview) has won a fifth consecutive term in Illinois House District 17, defeating Republican Jim Geldermann on Tuesday, Nov. 3 in a rematch of their 2024 race. Unofficial results show Gong-Gershowitz with 30,092 votes, or 76.2%, to Geldermann’s 9,424, or 23.8%.
The Associated Press called the race on election night. Geldermann, a software consultant, said afterward that “the numbers just weren’t there” and that he plans to keep organizing for Republican representation in north Cook County.
Candidates and Platforms
Gong-Gershowitz is a human rights attorney who once directed the immigration law practice at the Highland Park-Highwood Legal Aid Clinic. Her grandparents were Chinese immigrants, and she co-sponsored the 2021 law that made Illinois the first state to require Asian American history in public schools.
This year she was the House sponsor of the Children’s Online Social Media Safety Act, which passed both chambers unanimously and was signed by Gov. JB Pritzker in July. Starting in 2028, the law requires devices and app stores to collect a user’s age at setup and limits addictive feeds and late-night notifications for users under 18. She also carried a bill restricting private equity and other nonlawyer control of law firms, which passed the General Assembly in May. Her campaign lists preserving women’s rights and “common sense” gun legislation among her priorities.
District and Chamber
District 17 includes Evanston’s 6th Ward and parts of Glenview, Golf, Morton Grove, Northbrook, Skokie and Wilmette. Democrats expanded their record supermajority in the Illinois House on Nov. 3, flipping at least six Republican-held seats, with one race still too close to call as of Nov. 10.
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