The Illinois Senate is losing one of its best in Democrat Bill Cunningham, who is retiring. The open seat, covering parts of Chicago’s Southwest Side and nearby suburbs including Alsip, Palos Heights and Palos Park, is being contested by former state Rep. Fran Hurley, 66, a Democrat, and Republican Christine McGovern, 56, a real estate broker who lost to Cunningham in 2022 and ran unsuccessfully for Hurley’s old House seat in 2024 after Hurley retired.
Voters in this region know Hurley well. She served in the Illinois House for a decade before leaving in 2023 to join the Illinois Labor Relations Board.
This board endorsed her in her last House race as a strong voice for moderates in Springfield. She voted against the SAFE-T Act initially due to the objections from the law enforcement community, which she has consistently supported; and indeed the law was substantially amended later to address some of those concerns.
Hurley tells us now that she supports Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke’s call to bar judges from allowing those accused of the worst violent crimes to be confined at home with their whereabouts tracked using electronic monitors. Flagging affordability and public safety as the two issues of most importance to this district, she says, “What matters most is making sure people can afford to live in the communities they call home and can feel safe while doing so.”
Fair enough.
McGovern is staunchly conservative and tells us, for example, that she would support rescinding the recent tollroad fee increases as part of last year’s transit rescue package. We don’t like how steep those toll increases are, either, but we don’t think it practical to repeal them without another viable plan.
Hurley will be a welcome moderating voice in the Senate and a worthy successor to Cunningham, who endorsed her.
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We endorse Fran Hurley.
Read all of the Tribune Editorial Board’s endorsements for the 2026 Illinois general election here.
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