Casten wins 6th Congressional District seat over incumbent Roskam

Democrat Sean Casten will take the 6th Congressional District seat after beating out incumbent U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Wheaton, in Tuesday’s election.

Roskam faced off against Casten, of Downers Grove, in the midterm race. The district stretches from Crystal Lake to Darien and covers portions of DuPage, Lake, Kane, McHenry and Cook counties.

Roskam has held the seat since 2006, serving six terms. He also served as the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health chairman and sat on the Tax Policy Subcommittee.

He recently has been vocal in his support for the controversial Tax Cuts and Job Act.

The highly competitive race has sparked national interest, as Roskam held one of the 23 seats Democrats hoped to flip with a so-called blue wave and retake control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

The seat in the district has been in GOP hands for four decades.

Casten, a former CEO and entrepreneur, has voiced strong opinions on the need to address climate change and implement health care and gun control reform.

“I didn’t run for office because I wanted to win an election – I ran for office because I wanted to legislate. The real work starts now,” Casten said. “And while we all need to exhale, it is imperative that we keep this energy and love in place going forward. The grass-roots led this effort, and leaders don’t quit until the work is done.”

Casten won with 149,059 votes across the district compared with his opponent’s vote total of 133,136, according to unofficial results from McHenry, DuPage, Kane, Cook and Lake counties.

All counties with the exception of Lake County favored Casten, unofficial results show.

McHenry County voters gave 52.4 percent of its vote to Casten, with 26,529 people who voted, according to unofficial results. Casten received
54.19 percent of the vote in DuPage County.

Roskam took Lake County with 56.03 percent of the vote, or 8,841 votes. Casten trailed behind with 43.97 percent of the vote, a total of 6,938 votes, according to unofficial totals.

Early voting, vote by mail, provisional and late-arriving vote-by-mail ballots were not included in the totals reported Tuesday.

In Cook County, Casten took 53.1 percent of the vote, and in Kane County, he took a little more than 50 percent, unofficial totals show.