Candidates have filed. Here’s who’s in for your local 2025 elections

Local policy decisions often impact you and your family more intimately than any others.

You deserve to know who is making those decisions and what they stand for.

It is with that in mind that The Record North Shore works to bring you effective and fair coverage of your local elections — from candidate announcements to independent interviews to post-election recaps to accountability reporting.

The Record‘s first step in that process, a searchable candidate workbook for residents, is out. The April 2025 Election Database gives a bird’s eye view of each election in our coverage area (Wilmette, Winnetka, Glencoe, Northfield, Kenilworth and Highland Park). Complete with candidates and current officials who are out of the running, the database can be searched by name, race, town and keyword.

The database will regularly be updated with the latest news and information. Bookmark THIS LINK to check in as we get close to April.

Illinois candidates had until Monday, Nov. 18, to submit applications to get on the April 2025 ballot. The filings provide the first concrete details on what the next local elections will look like, and while things could change (dropouts, filing challenges, etc.) before then, here are some early takeaways from The Record’s coverage area:

• Park boards remain local lightning rods. Six candidates (three incumbents) are vying for three seats on the Wilmette Park Board, and seven (one incumbent) for three on the Winnetka Park Board.

• A mixed bag for local school boards. The New Trier and Township 113 high school boards will feature uncontested races, while for elementary boards Avoca District 37 (6 candidates for 4 seats), North Shore District 112 (7 for 4) and Winnetka District 36 (4 for 3) voters will have decisions to make. Wilmette District 39, on the other hand, currently only has three candidates for four available seats.

• Wilmette’s village president, Senta Plunkett, is running uncontested for her second term, but a robust race for Wilmette trustee is forming with five candidates applying for three open seats.

• The caucus slate in Glencoe (Village Board, village president, Park Board, Library Board) looks like the only on-ballot option for voters.

• In Highland Park, polarizing issues impacted the City Council for much of 2024, and may have led to more participation. Four candidates are vying for three four-year council spots, and three will compete for one one-year spot.

• Incumbent village presidents in Wilmette, Glencoe and Kenilworth will run unopposed, a newcomer in Winnetka is too, but in Northfield the incumbent is not running and it will be a race between two trustees.

For the names of those and all the April 2025 local candidates, please visit The Record’s April 2025 Election Database.

The Record will continue its coverage of these races and more through the 2025 elections. Look for independent interviews with candidates and election-related news as it happens in the first quarter of 2025.

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