Schmidt holds onto 114th State House District. What does that mean for southwest Illinois?
The Republican candidate has retained the longtime Democratic seat in Illinois House District 114 in Tuesday's rematch between Kevin Schmidt, R-Millstadt, and LaToya Greenwood, D-East St. Louis, according to unofficial election results.
District 114 is in St. Clair County and includes East St. Louis, Cahokia Heights, Millstadt, Freeburg, New Athens, Mascoutah, Lebanon and O'Fallon.
Schmidt, a chiropractor from Millstadt, unseated Greenwood , the previous incumbent, in the November 2022 election with a lead of just over 2,000 votes.
Tuesday's results were similarly close, with Schmidt ahead by 1,845 votes.
Before Schmidt, Black Democrats from East St. Louis had held the seat for 47 consecutive years.
Schmidt said in an interview with the Belleville News-Democrat Wednesday morning he believes that he won before because voters wanted a change and that he won again because they liked what he did for them the last two years.
Greenwood had not conceded the 2024 race as of Wednesday morning, according to Schmidt. He said she also did not concede in 2022.
Greenwood's campaign declined to comment on the results Tuesday night. Greenwood did not immediately respond to an email and call to her campaign office on Wednesday.
District 114 looks different today
Greenwood held the District 114 seat for six years, defeating Republican challengers in the 2016, 2018 and 2020 elections each time by more than 6,000 votes.
In an interview on St. Louis' Fox News Radio affiliate 97.1 FM Talk last week, Schmidt said even people in his own party were not confident he could flip the seat from blue to red.
"Lots of people on both sides of the aisle didn't think I could do it," Schmidt said.
But the district looks different than it did in 2020, with fewer voters in largely Democratic areas and the addition of voters in voting precincts that lean Republican.
The predominantly Black and Democratic city of East St. Louis where Greenwood dominates elections has been losing population, including a nearly 32% decline from 2010 to 2020. And when lawmakers changed the House districts map during redistricting based on 2020 census results, they added conservative white voters to District 114.
Twenty-three out of 34 of the new precincts added to District 114 in 2022 after redistricting voted for Republican Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election. They are primarily located in Prairie Du Long Township, Sugar Loaf Township, New Athens, Millstadt, Fayetteville and parts of O'Fallon.
Though Greenwood voiced support for the redrawn map before the 2022 election, the NAACP and other groups filed a federal lawsuit to fight it. They argued it put the Black Democratic incumbent's seat in District 114 in jeopardy , but the court ultimately upheld the map.
Bob Sprague, chairman of the St. Clair County Democratic Central Committee, could not immediately be reached for comment about Tuesday's results.
Schmidt has said he thinks voters in District 114 support him not because he's a Republican but because he represents their interests.
"I'll continue to work hard in Springfield and give the people what they need," Schmidt said Wednesday. "I'm definitely gonna work on funding for infrastructure as far as the sewage/drainage problem — yesterday we all saw how bad it was in Cahokia Heights and East St. Louis — and fight tax increases."
The region was hit with two days of heavy rainfall on Monday and Tuesday with a total of nearly 8 inches, according to the National Weather Service St. Louis office. Several streets flooded, with water blocking driveways and getting into homes in both Cahokia Heights and East St. Louis on Tuesday morning.
Cahokia Heights has been working to overhaul failing sewage and stormwater infrastructure that for years have caused sewers to overflow during heavy rain, leaving residents with property damage and concerns about their health .
During his first term, Schmidt urged Gov. J.B. Pritzker to release money he promised to send Cahokia Heights right away for sewer repairs after the BND reported it was delayed by several months. Pritzker had said a $9.9 million state grant would be "delivered today" during an Aug. 3, 2022, news conference, but the money had still not reached the community at the beginning of 2023. It was eventually released to Cahokia Heights on March 13, 2023.
Schmidt said constituents across the 114th District have told him the cost of living, including high taxes, is their top concern. He pointed to his voting against tax increases in Illinois as another accomplishment from his term.
