CHICAGO (AP) – A longtime suburban Chicago mayor who aligned himself with President Donald Trump faced a tough re-election challenge Tuesday from a union organizer who was a Bernie Sanders delegate at the Democratic National Convention.
Roger Claar, 71, has been Bolingbrook’s mayor for more than three decades, but county board member Jackie Traynere has presented him with the fiercest political fight of his time in public office as voters across Illinois cast ballots in municipal elections.
Claar hosted a fundraiser for Trump in September, which angered some voters in the suburb of about 75,000 people. As a result, support for Traynere poured in from top Democrats nationwide, including from U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois and a group spun out of Sanders’ campaign.
The municipal contest could be an early test of whether local candidates who supported Trump in last year’s blistering presidential election face backlash at the polls.
Traynere said Trump’s visit to the community roughly 30 miles from Chicago “opened a door of opportunity that we wouldn’t have had.”