Have you wondered if your neighbors truly vote the way their yard signs indicate? In Oak Park, it seems they do.
In the weeks leading up to the 2024 general election, Oak Park yards were littered with “Harris Walz” signs and others indicating support for the Democrats over Republican nominees Donald Trump and JD Vance.
An unofficial count released Wednesday by the Cook County Clerk’s Office shows that more than 90% of residents who voted in the Oak Park Township voted for Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
Nevertheless, Trump swept the national election with 312 electoral votes compared with Harris’ 226. Harris won Illinois’ 19 electoral votes, but reports show Trump performed better in the state than in 2020 and 2016.
But in Oak Park, unofficial results show 27,409 people voted for Harris compared to the 2,688 who did for Trump, and 254 for Robert Kennedy, an independent candidate. Kennedy suspended his campaign in August and asked supporters to back Trump instead.
U.S. Congressman Danny Davis said he’s not surprised that Oak Parkers have a tendency to vote for Democrats, and he’s pleased he and they voted alike.
“I expected the Oak Park residents to do as they always do: Vote the most progressive way that they think, thought, feel and felt,” Davis said.
But the 2024 election was different than others. It was a “wake-up call” for Illinois, typically characterized as a deep blue state, he said.
Davis said he attributes Trump receiving more votes in Illinois than expected to many things, including Trump’s aggressive campaign, Harris’ late entry, ideas about the economy and “waves of uncertainty” among Americans. Trump’s victory reflects division in the United States, he said.
In 2020, the results in Oak Park were similar in the general election. The Cook County Clerk’s Office reported that a similar percentage of residents voted for President Joe Biden and Harris. In that election, about 89% of voting residents cast their ballot for Biden, but turnout was slightly higher with 29,208 votes total. Only 9% of Oak Park voters showed up for Trump and Mike Pence.
When Trump first won during the 2016 election, turnout numbers were a little lower but Oak Park’s results were not surprising. That time, about 85.6% of Oak Parkers voted for Hillary Clinton and Timothy Kaine, a total of 26,015 votes. Only about 9.5% of residents cast a ballot for Trump and Pence then.
And in 2012, the vast majority of voting Oak Parkers still supported the Democratic candidates, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, over Republicans Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. In that election, about 82% of Oak Parkers cast their vote for Obama and about 15.6% voted for Romney.
The 2012 election marks the largest support for the Republican candidate in Oak Park in the past four presidential elections, and the only one of the four in which Trump was not the Republican candidate.
Davis said he thinks Romney may have represented appealing characteristics to Oak Park voters who viewed themselves as Republicans or were more right-leaning. But those same voters may not view Trump the same way.
Moving forward, Davis said, Democrats in America, including in Oak Park, have to reclaim leadership they’ve lost on meaningful issues. That includes demonstrating to working class citizens what Democrats believe in and what their priorities are, he said.
“We have to be true to those issues as we continue to make decisions and as we continue to try and convince voters that our message, our approach and our decision making is more in their interest than our opponents who would be Republicans in most elections,” he said.
Oak Park is often thought of as a progressive stronghold in suburban Cook County. Some issues debated might raise skepticism of that, but when it comes to presidential elections, Oak Parkers know what they want: A Democrat.
