Michelle Mussman Beats Jillian Bernas Again In 56th District Race

ILLINOIS HOUSE, 56th DISTRICT — Democrat incumbent Rep. Michelle Mussman will keep her 56th District seat in the Illinois House. She was named the projected winner in Tuesday's election, defeating GOP challenger Jillian Bernas.

Mussman defeated Bernas by 20,482 votes to 14,542. The vote tally is unofficial until it is verified 21 days after the election.

The victory was part of the mini-blue wave that swept over the northwest suburbs. Democrat Mark Walker defeated his GOP challenger, Eddie Corrigan, for the Illinois House of Representative seat for the 53rd District. In the 56th District, Ann Gillespie took down Republican incumbent Tom Rooney for the State Senate.

Another big win for the Democrats was Sean Casten's victory Peter Roskam for the 6th District U.S. Congressional seat. Casten becomes the first Democrat elected in that district in more than 45 years.

Mussman has represented the district for nearly eight years. And on Tuesday, she faced a familiar challenger in Bernas.

Jillian Bernas vs. Michelle Mussman: Election Results

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The two candidates had faced off before. In her first foray into state politics, Bernas took on Mussman in 2016, losing to the incumbent, 55.8 percent to 44.1 percent.

Now Bernas tired to unseat Mussman again. She has been campaigning on a platform of lowering property taxes and increased K-12 educational spending.

"I would be proposing a cap on property taxes," Bernas told the Daily Herald, adding that the General Assembly's lack of movement on addressing property taxes points to bigger problems in Springfield. "It should be a function or a value of our home equity and the value of our homes. And as our home values go down, we shouldn't be expected to pay more and more taxes. And that's what the trend has been these past years."

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Mussman has spent much of her time in the General Assembly sponsoring legislation aimed at addressing abused and neglected children. She also supports proprety tax reform, and it has been an issue she has run on during every campaign.

But she told the Herald that it's a hard nut to crack for state legislators.

"Remember, the state doesn't set the [property tax] bills, the state doesn't collect any of the money," Mussman said. "So we are limited in the tools in our toolbox to drive that. Changing education funding is the biggest thing that we could have done, along with changing those exemptions. So those are the two things that we're going to continue to focus on."

More About the Candidates

• Jillian Bernas
• Michelle Mussman

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When are Election Results Official? All vote totals are unofficial and winners are projected until the clerk's office has tabulated all results, including provisional ballots from Election Day and vote by mail ballots postmarked by Election Day. Those votes will be posted 14 days after Election Day, and 21 calendar days after an election, the results are canvassed and become official.

Final, official vote totals will be on the clerk website for Cook County.

Jillian Bernas and Michelle Mussman (Photos via Bernas campaign | Illinois General Assembly)