Winner finally declared in tight Republican primary for 13th Congressional District
It took a couple of days but The Associated Press has declared a winner in the Republican primary for 13th Congressional District, which was gerrymandered to now include a swath of St. Clair and Madison counties.
Regan Deering won the primary by narrowly edging out Jesse Reising, according to the AP.
Since Tuesday night, the two candidates had been neck and neck in the vote count.
Deering had 14,764 votes, or 34.7 %, with an estimated 97.2% of the votes counted as of 5:59 p.m. Thursday when the AP called the race for Deering.
Reising, who conceded the race with a post on Facebook, had 14,093 votes, or 33.1%, as of Thursday night. Two other GOP candidates, Matt Hausman, with 10,084 votes, and Terry Martin, with 3,646 votes, trailed the two frontrunners.
Through Facebook posts, Deering thanked her supporters and said “We can’t survive more of the far-Left’s radical agenda.”
Deering will face Democratic nominee Nikki Budzinski in the Nov. 8 election.
Budzinski was declared the winner on Tuesday night in her race against David Palmer.
The 13th Congressional District was redrawn last year by Democrats and now includes parts of the metro-east that previously had been part of Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Bost’s 12th Congressional District. Belleville, East St. Louis and parts of Edwardsville and Collinsville are now in the 13th District, which cuts across central Illinois to include parts of Springfield, Decatur and Champaign-Urbana.
Deering, 46, of Decatur said in a Belleville News-Democrat candidate questionnaire she is a community advocate and philanthropist.
Budzinski, 45, of Springfield is a former senior adviser to Gov. J.B. Pritzker and served during his first year as governor. Her role included pitching Pritzker’s policies to Southern Illinois residents.
Neither Budzinski nor Deering have run for a public office before this race.
The 13th District includes parts of St. Clair, Madison, Champaign, Macon, Piatt and Sangamon counties, and all of Macoupin County. This seat was open since incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis had to run in the newly created 15th Congressional District on Tuesday. He lost the GOP primary race to U.S. Rep. Mary Miller on Tuesday.
The results from Tuesday’s primary are considered unofficial and will become final after they are certified by election officials later this month.
12th Congressional District primary results
Homer “Chip” Markel on Wednesday was declared the winner of the Democratic primary in the 12th Congressional District in the race to face incumbent U.S. Rep. Mike Bost in the November election, according to the AP.
Markel, had 10,974 votes, or 56.8%, to defeat Joshua Qualls, who had 8,341 votes, or 43.2%,, according to the AP’s report of an estimated 99% of the vote counted.
Markel, 61, of Carbondale, is retired from the Illinois Department of Corrections.
Bost, of Murphysboro, was unopposed in the Republican primary. He has served in Congress since January 2015.
All of or parts of 34 counties make up the 12th Congressional District: Alexander, Clark, Clay, Clinton, Coles, Crawford, Cumberland, Edwards, Effingham, Franklin, Gallatin, Hamilton, Hardin, Jackson, Jasper, Jefferson, Johnson, Lawrence, Marion, Massac, Monroe, Perry, Pope, Pulaski, Randolph, Richland, Saline, St. Clair, Union, Wabash, Washington, Wayne, White and Williamson.
