Incumbent Wheeler leading Monteleone in 50th Illinois House District race

Republican Rep. Keith Wheeler has won re-election with approximately 55.7 percent of the vote in the race for the 50th Illinois House District.

With 65 of 66 of precints reporting across Kane and Kendall counties as of 9:45, Wheeler, a three-term incumbent, is leading Democratic challenger Kate Monteleone, who has garnered approximately 42.9 percent of the vote.

"I love seeing the numbers so high across the board," Wheeler said in a phone interview from his watch party at local Yorkville eatery Mike & Denise's Pizzeria & Pub. "We feel good that we're being rewarded for our hard work and doing a good job for our constitutuents."

A seat held by Wheeler since 2015, the 50th District exends from Campton Hills to the north down through parts of Aurora, Batavia, Geneva, Montgomery, Oswego and Yorkville.

With Kendall County trending blue in recent years, Democrats had hoped Monteleone could run a competitive race and potentially flip the seat.

In 2018, Wheeler defeated Democratic challenger James Leslie with a similar margin of 55 percent.

Named a "Champion of Free Enterprise" by the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, Wheeler, an Oswego resident, is a businessman and founder of an IT consultant firm. While in the General Assembly, he has sponsored and helped pass legislation that removes the statue of limitations for criminal sexual assault.

Monteleone, his challenger, works as a nonprofit consultant and is executive director of the Neighborhood Food Pantries, a food pantry network based in DuPage County.

Going into the close of campaign Tuesday night, Wheeler vastly outraised Monteleone.

Since the beginning of his current term, Wheeler raised $382,456, funded heavily by the Illinois Republican Party, realtors, the construction industry and the Rauners, according to Illinois' Sunshine campaign finance database.

Between July and September, Monteleone raised $6,469, mainly from trade unions and relatives, per state campaign finance records. Her campaign has not yet filed its disclosures for October.

"You work hard to raise money in this business, and it takes money to run these campaigns," Wheeler said Tuesday night. "I wanted to make sure our message was heard and people knew that we were active and were trying to work across the aisle to get things done."

During the campaign, Wheeler and Monteleone both supported bringing a Metra station to Kendall County.

Yet the two candidates differed on issues like Governor Pritzker's fair tax, criminal justice reform and introducing a Medicaid public option to Illinois.

As for next year at the General Assembly in Springfield, Wheeler remarked he wanted to focus on pandemic-induced budget windfalls along with calls for ethics reforms sparked by the ongoing scandal enveloping Illinois Speaker of the House Michael Madigan.

"And as always, I'll be focusing on creating more Illinois jobs for Illinois families," Wheeler said.