Cook County District Attorney election results

The race for Cook County prosecutor pits a former prosecutor and judge against a former city councilman who failed to win the office four years ago.

Democratic nominee Eileen O'Neill Burke said her decades of experience as an assistant district attorney, law enforcement judge and appeals court judge give her unique insight into how the criminal justice system works — and how it doesn't work.

Her Republican opponent is former Ald. Bob Fioretti. He ran for office as a Democrat as he sought to unseat state Attorney General Kim Foxx in the 2020 primary. Fioretti finished fourth.

Fioretti switched parties to run, supported by Rev. Jesse Jackson

Fioretti, a private defense attorney who was twice elected to represent Chicago's 2nd District, has since unsuccessfully run for several other offices, including mayor and Cook County executive.

Fioretti said he believes his move to the Republican Party will be energized by voters who also feel let down by the Democratic Party and want to turn away from Foxx's progressive policies.

“The Democratic Party has abandoned me, just as it has abandoned hundreds, if not thousands, of people in Cook County. They have gone too far with their approach,” Fioretti said.

But while Fioretti promises that he would be tough on criminals, he has also burnished his image as a former civil rights lawyer – he even attacked O'Neill Burke for prosecuting an 11-year-old black boy in the '90s who was later convicted exonerated in the murder of an elderly white woman.

Largely because of this case, Fioretti received a major endorsement from the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who urged otherwise Democratic voters — particularly black voters — to split their ballot and vote Republican this year.

“We need Bob Fioretti as Cook County State’s Attorney,” Jackson wrote in his endorsement. “This isn’t about party etiquette. This is about electing the best prosecutor in our community who will bring mercy to justice.”

O'Neill Burke rejected Jackson's endorsement, saying, “I respect the fact that they are old friends.”

O'Neill Burke's struggle to woo black voters

While the former Rainbow PUSH Coalition chair's endorsement of Fioretti may seem strange, the endorsement also highlighted O'Neill Burke's efforts to build support in the city's majority-black districts.

O'Neill Burke narrowly won a tough primary against university lecturer Clayton Harris III, decisively losing Chicago's majority-black districts on the South and West Sides.

In supporting Fioretti, Jackson wrote that O'Neill Burke “confronted an 11-year-old African-American boy with a coerced confession that she knew or should have known was false.” During the trial, she called that innocent child ” a whole new kind of criminal.” This racist statement is disqualifying for our community.”

Although it has been 10 months since the issue was first raised during the primaries – at which point she released a statement saying that “her views on juvenile justice have evolved” – O'Neill Burke has not Interested in looking into it further.

“I’ve already said everything I want to say about this case,” she told the Sun-Times.

A WBEZ analysis found that voter turnout in the primary was low in majority-black counties. Had it been a little higher, Harris could have easily won.

How the presidential race could affect who wins the district attorney seat

With former President Donald Trump running again in November, this could lead to a surge in both Republican and Democratic voting, as was the case in the 2020 election.

Asked if she feared she might lose to Fioretti in the same districts as Harris, O'Neill Burke replied: “No, I'm not worried about that at all.”

Still, Fioretti seems to know that sharing a party with Trump, who remains deeply unpopular in Cook County, is a disadvantage for this campaign.

When asked if he had ever voted for Trump and whether he would support the former president this year, Fioretti repeatedly dodged an answer.

“I support the Republican Party and the Republican ticket,” he said, but later added: “I’ve had split tickets my whole life.”

Fioretti also ran the risk of having his vote diluted by the presence on the ballot of Libertarian candidate Andrew Charles Kopinski, whose views largely either align with or to the right of Fioretti.

In contrast, O'Neill Burke said she would “enthusiastically” support Vice President Kamala Harris because she was “the first president to also serve as a prosecutor.”