Will County votes push Underwood further ahead of Oberweis in reelection bid

Democratic U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood's lead in the race for the 14th District seat grew again Wednesday.

With 2,910 additional votes counted in the Will County portion of the district, Underwood is ahead of Republican challenger Jim Oberweis 200,037 to 195,749, unofficial results show. Underwood lives in the Will County portion of Naperville.

With that 4,288-vote advantage, Underwood has 50.54% of the vote so far, while Oberweis has 49.46%.

The race remains too close to call. The Associated Press hasn't projected a victor.

Oberweis, a state senator and dairy owner from Sugar Grove, had the lead on Election Day. But as the counting of vote-by-mail ballots proceeded, the scales shifted to favor Underwood, who took the lead Saturday night and has stayed in front, her lead growing with each update.

The latest tally doesn't include all the votes cast in the race. Ballots postmarked by Election Day that arrive at election offices by Nov. 17 will be counted, as will provisional ballots.

Will County officials had said they were waiting until Nov. 17 to release votes from all mailed-in and provisional ballots, but that changed Wednesday.

Kendall County is waiting until Nov. 17 to update its count, while DeKalb and McHenry county officials are expected to do so Nov. 18.

Lake County will release final counts Nov. 17 but could update before then, County Clerk Robin O'Connor said.

DuPage and Kane county officials have regularly updated totals since Election Day.

Underwood leads in DuPage, Kane, Lake and Will counties. Oberweis is leading in DeKalb, Kendall and McHenry counties.

Underwood is a first-term lawmaker who won her seat in 2018 as part of the blue wave that swept the Democrats into a House majority. Although her political fate is still unclear, the Democrats have held every other suburban congressional post.