Incumbent Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin admitted defeat Tuesday night to his challenger, Ald. John Laesch, in the Aurora mayoral election.
As of 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, Laesch had 52.32% of the vote while Irvin had 47.68% of the vote, according to unofficial voting results from DuPage, Kendall, Kane and Will counties, with all precincts reporting.
“We fought hard. We fought long. Unfortunately, we came up short,” Irvin said Tuesday night on stage at his campaign’s watch party at 1 E. Benton St. in downtown Aurora.
At his own campaign watch party, which was held at the Two Brothers Roundhouse in Aurora, Laesch said that “tonight, the candle of hope burns a little brighter in our city, in our state and across the United States of America.”
When asked earlier in the night for his reaction to his lead, Laesch said he has “probably known for the last two weeks that we were going to win.”
Tuesday’s consolidated election also included other local races, including several for seats on the Aurora City Council.
Laesch is a union carpenter and former Naval Intelligence analyst who previously lost the mayoral race against Irvin in 2021. Two years later he was elected to be one of two aldermen at-large on the Aurora City Council.
During his previous run for mayor and his time on the Aurora City Council, as well as during this campaign, Laesch has pushed against what he sees as “pay-to-play” happening in city government.
In an earlier interview with The Beacon-News, Laesch said there are two Auroras: One that works “incredibly well” for Irvin’s donors and developers, and then the rest of the city that has to pay for it all.
As mayor-elect, Laesch said he is going to push “aggressively” toward what he’s been talking about during this campaign: “a government and economy that works for everybody.”
That means ethical government and “shutting down the pay-to-play system in City Hall” and working with the other aldermen, he said, although he has “a lot of work to do to repair some of the relationships.”
It will be Laesch’s number one goal as mayor to respond to Aurora residents, including prioritizing things like complaints about the HelloFresh facility in town and a sound wall on Orchard Road, he said.
Laesch soon plans to do a city-wide tour to introduce himself to the city’s different communities and share his vision for the future of Aurora, he said, but also to listen to residents’ concerns so the city can be more responsive.
Irvin, a lawyer who has been both a prosecutor and private defense attorney, was born and raised in the city of Aurora. He made history in 2017 when he was elected as the city’s first Black mayor after serving on the Aurora City Council as an alderman at-large for 10 years.
As he ran for his third term this year, it has been Irvin’s accomplishments as mayor that have been the main focus of his campaign.
Irvin previously told The Beacon-News that his accomplishments, as well as his plans for the future of the city, can be summed up with the acronym SEE: Safety, Education and Economy.
During his concession speech on Tuesday night, Irvin said in his time as mayor the city has seen falling crime rates, improved education and more economic development than the past 80 years of mayors combined.
It has been his pride to be mayor of his hometown these last eight years, Irvin said, and he hopes residents can recognize what he has done for the city once he has gone — and that Laesch’s incoming administration can continue those great things.
Irvin told The Beacon-News after his speech that it has “been a good eight years” and that “we’ve done a lot,” but that if Aurora residents want a change, then “more power to them. Let’s see what that change is.”
Both Irvin and Laesch called out political attacks against them and their allies in their respective speeches Tuesday night.
“Aurora was beaten by divisive partisan politics. Nasty partisan politics. Hateful partisan politics,” Irvin said in his speech.
The Chicago Tribune previously reported that the state Democratic Party targeted Irvin, who unsuccessfully ran for governor as a Republican in 2022, leading up to Tuesday’s ostensibly nonpartisan mayoral election.
While the full extent of the state party’s involvement in local races may not be clear until quarterly campaign finance disclosures are filed later this month, available records show the Democrats spent more than $159,000 on behalf of Laesch, mostly on mailers attacking Irvin and linking him to President Donald Trump. The in-kind contributions to Laesch’s campaign account for nearly two-thirds of the roughly $246,000 in reported contributions from the state Democratic Party since the beginning of the year.
Laesch was also endorsed by a number of elected Democrats at the local, state and federal levels. When previously asked about the mailers, Laesch said there had been no coordination between him and the state Democratic Party on them.
During his speech admitting defeat, Irvin also apologized to “my family, my friends and my supporters” because “this hasn’t just been a difficult race for me. It’s been a difficult race for them as well.” They were “attacked,” “maligned,” “disregarded” and “disrespected,” he said.
Laesch said during his own speech that the political attacks against him have been going on for months, and his opponents even tried to get him and others removed from the ballot, but his supporters were always there to defend him.
Moving forward, Irvin hopes Aurora residents and politicians will put aside the “divisiveness” to continue working to make the city one of the best in the state and country, he said during his speech Tuesday night.
Chicago Tribune reporter Dan Petrella contributed.
rsmith@chicagotribune.com
