Leader not ready to claim victory in tight 3-way Republican race in 10th Congressional District

March 21--Three Republicans running in the north suburban 10th Congressional District for a chance to take on incumbent U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider (D- Deerfield ) are still locked in a tight race.

The contenders are Jeremy Wynes, a foreign policy lobbyist from Highland Park ; Sapan Shah, a medical malpractice insurance broker from Libertyville and Douglas Bennett, a business consultant from Deerfield. None of the candidates have previously held elected office.

Late Tuesday, Bennett was leading with 35.5 percent, Wynes with 34.6 percent and Shah with 30 percent, with about 94 percent of precincts reporting unofficial vote totals. Early voting tallies and mail-in ballots were not yet counted in Lake County as of 11:30 p.m.

Bennett was not ready to claim victory with the slim margin.

"We are still cautiously optimistic, but we are going to hold off and wait for the early voting results to come in," said Bennett, who was far enough ahead in Lake County to more than offset Wynes' lead in the Cook County portion of the district.

"It is very close and we will find out very soon," Bennett said, who also was deferring comment out of respect for his opponents.

The district has flipped between a Democrat and a Republican since boundaries were redrawn following the last census. The district runs along the North Shore from roughly Glencoe to the Wisconsin border and takes in northwest suburbs roughly from Prospect Heights to Fox Lake.

Chicago Tribune staff

Join us Tuesday, March 20, for the Illinois primary election 2018. Get updates, tweets, photos and videos.

Join us Tuesday, March 20, for the Illinois primary election 2018. Get updates, tweets, photos and videos. (Chicago Tribune staff)

Before becoming a full-time candidate, Wynes, 38, served as Midwest coordinator for the Republican Jewish Coalition and was previously regional director for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, known as AIPAC.

Shah, 37, who is running as Dr. Shah for Congress, is currently senior vice president for Flagship Healthcare. He holds a medical degree, as well as a law degree, but says he never completed a medical residency and hasn't been licensed to practice.

Bennett is currently vice chairman of the West Deerfield Township Republican Organization.

A social conservative, Bennett is the only one of the three candidates to oppose abortion rights and same-sex marriage. He ran unsuccessfully for the Lake County Board in 2012.

Former U.S. Representative Mark Kirk , a Republican, held the 10th district seat for five terms before waging a successful bid for the U.S. Senate in 2010. That year, Republican Robert Dold was elected to succeed Kirk in the U.S. House.

After a remapping gave Democrats more of an edge, Schneider won the seat in 2012 -- only to lose it to Dold in the 2014 election. Both times, the winner won with roughly 51 percent of the vote.

Schneider reclaimed the seat from Dold in 2016 with less than 53 percent of the vote in a year when Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton were at the top of the ballot.

After his latest defeat, Dold announced he would not be running in 2018.

Schneider, who has no Democratic challenger in the Tuesday primary, will be heading into the fall campaign with a financial advantage. As of Feb. 28, he had more than $1.9 million on hand in his campaign fund, according to filings with the Federal Elections Commission .

kberkowitz@pioneerlocal.com

___

(c)2018 Pioneer Press Newspapers (Suburban Chicago, Ill.)

Visit Pioneer Press Newspapers (Suburban Chicago, Ill.) at www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.