Election Day: Voters in Aurora, Evanston head to polls in mayoral elections​on April 1, 2025 at 9:42 pm

AURORA, Ill. (WLS) — Tuesday is election day in several suburbs. That includes a mayoral race in Aurora.

The Kane County Clerk said there are already more early votes cast than this time four years ago.

Fueling the motivation to vote for some appears to be the race for mayor in Aurora, the state’s second-largest city.

Incumbent Mayor Richard Irvin faces challenger, Aurora Alderman John Laesch.

The two were separated by just 500 votes during the primary election.

Laesch has already voted while Irvin will cast his ballot later on Tuesday morning.

Irvin, who is seeking his third term, has aligned himself with President Donald Trump, but in this local election, he touts efforts to reduce crime and boost economic development, including a new casino and hotel scheduled to open next year.

“Over the least seven years, we’ve done more economic development than in the last 70. I would just say that there are old buildings that sat empty for 50, 60, 70 years until I became mayor, and as soon as I became mayor, we worked hard on getting them filled,” Irvin said.

Challenger John Laesch is a former naval intelligence officer and union carpenter.

An alderman at large for Aurora who wants to see ethics lead city projects, he’s critical of recent incentives to big developers and has received much attention and support from the Democratic Party.

“A lot of working families are hurting right now struggling with inflation, and these are the kinds of things that benefit the wealthy, not the working class. So, in Aurora, we are going to have to focus on making single-family homes more affordable instead of subsidizing high-end that nobody in our city can afford,” Laesch said.

With over 50 races to be decided Tuesday in Kane County Clerk Jack Cunningham says more than 19,000 people have voted early so far and they’ve received more than 16,000 mail-in ballots.