Cook County Commissioner Monica Gordon (left) will run in the November general election to replace Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough. Chief Deputy Clerk Cedric Giles (right) will server as interim clerk through the end of December. (Provided)

Leaders of the Cook County Democratic Party selected Cook County Commissioner Monica Gordon to run in the November general election to replace Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough, who died April 7.

Party leaders also tapped Chief Deputy Clerk Cedric Giles to serve as the interim clerk through the end of December. Giles served as Yarbrough’s top deputy and stepped in to run the office when Yarbrough was hospitalized approximately a week before her death.

Since Yarbrough died after the March 19 primary election, it fell to the county’s 50 Democratic committeepeople representing Chicago wards and the 30 Democratic committeepeople representing suburban townships to select the replacement for the first Black woman to serve as Cook County clerk.

Gordon has represented Cook County’s 5th District on the Cook County Board of Commissioners, which includes a wide swath of the southwest suburbs, including Orland Park and Tinley Park, since 2022.

Gordon was one of 17 people to ask the county’s Democratic Party to pick them to run to complete Yarbrough’s term, which ends in 2026. Gordon won the nod unanimously after just one round of voting.

She will likely face a Republican nominee in the November election, but will enjoy a significant advantage in heavily Democratic Cook County.

Responsible for running elections in suburban Cook County, the Office of the Cook County Clerk has an annual budget of $75 million and 350 employees. The office is also responsible for recording property sales, as well as births, deaths and marriages, in addition to keeping tabs on the official proceedings of the Cook County Board. The post pays approximately $119,000 annually.

Gordon won the nod after wrapping up the endorsement of major labor organizations, including SEIU Local 73, Operating Engineers Local 150, Operating Engineers Local 399 and LIUNA.

Other candidates for the party’s endorsement included Cook County Commissioners Donna Miller and Kevin Morrison, state Sen. Napoleon Harris (D-Dolton), Metropolitan Water Reclamation Commissioner Yumeka Brown and Evanston Clerk Stephanie Mendoza.

Harris faced intense critcism for voting against several bills designed to protect gender-affirming care and reproductive health care in Illinois.

The vote to pick Giles to serve as clerk through December and Gordon to replace Yarbrough was the first major decision made by the new leadership of the Cook County Democratic Party, which saw significant turnover as a result of the March primary.

Fourteen wards elected new Democratic Party representatives, and three wards ousted their leadership to elect more progressive representatives.

The closest race was in the Far Northwest Side’s 45th Ward, where Michael Rabbitt defeated Joe Cook with 54% of the vote. Cook, who had been the 41st Ward Democratic committeeperson, found his home redrawn into the 45th Ward after the remap based on the 2020 census.

Embattled Ald. Jim Gardiner (45th Ward) decided not to run for reelection to his party post after being stripped of his committee seats after party leaders determined he used “misogynistic, homophobic and obscene language” and verbally harassed former Ald. Tom Tunney (44th Ward), a city staff member and his own constituents.

In the race to be the Democratic committeeperson for the 12th Ward, which includes McKinley Park, state rep. Theresa Mah (D-Chicago) defeated former Ald. George Cardenas, who is now a member of the Cook County Board of Review.

In the 33rd Ward race for Democratic committeeperson, Ald. Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez ousted Iris Martinez, who also lost her bid to serve another term as Cook County Circuit Court clerk.

In addition, the selection of Yarbrough’s replacement was the first major decision made by Cook County Democratic leaders without input from former House Speaker Mike Madigan, who remained the 13th Ward Democratic committeeperson even after resigning from the Illinois House and as the head of the state Democratic Party. He did not seek reelection in March.

Ald. Marty Quinn, a close ally of the speaker who faces trial in October on nearly two dozen charges of corruption, is now the 13th Ward Democratic committeeperson.

Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]