Challenger Claims Victory In Lake County State's Attorney Race

LAKE COUNTY, IL — Democratic challenger Eric Rinehart has claimed victory in the Lake County state's attorney race. Rinehart, from Highwood, said he received a "gracious" call from two-term State's Attorney Mike Nerheim congratulating him on his win.

The call came after the Lake County Clerk's Office updated its unofficial election results Tuesday with the tallies from 30,000 additional vote-by-mail ballots. According to the unofficial results, Rinehart led with 163,501 votes, or 51.82 percent of the vote total, and Nerheim had 151,991, or 48.18 percent. The results will be finalized once late arriving mail-in ballots and provisional votes have been counted on Nov. 17.

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Rinehart, who started his career with two years at a Chicago civil law firm, went on to spend six years as a public defender in Lake County before starting his own firm in 2009. One of his main goals as Lake County's top prosecutor is to develop a strategic plan to address racial profiling. He will get that started by assembling a task force of prosecutors, defense lawyers, law enforcement and community leaders to address issues surrounding racial injustice, Rinehart said in a statement Tuesday.

"Lake County is beautiful and diverse," Rinehart said. "The people have made it clear that they want a transparent State’s Attorney Office that is dedicated to ending racial and economic injustice while also effectively fighting crime and its root causes."

In addition, he said it is a priority to meet with law enforcement leaders "immediately" to identify how his office can help fight the spike in domestic violence and other violent crimes during the COVID-19 pandemic. He also hopes to set up a data portal to track local crime statistics that will be publicly accessible in "near real-time."

"Every day, we will fight for all the people of Lake County with a renewed sense of urgency to tackle the problems that have confronted our communities for too long," he said.

On Tuesday, Nerheim thanked his supporters for helping him run a "positive campaign centered on trust, integrity and justice."

"I have no idea what the future will bring, but I have no regrets and will walk away from this job that I love so much with my head held high," according to a Twitter post Tuesday from Nerheim.

During his campaign, Nerheim touted successes creating specialized units, establishing an independent case review panel and co-founding a multi-agency initiative to prevent opioid addiction and abuse. He was endorsed by the editorial boards of the Chicago Tribune and the Daily Herald, as well as United Hellenic Voters of America and the Lake County Farm Bureau.

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