Pat Hynes will be Cook County's next assessor, replacing Fritz Kaegi after defeating Libertarian Nico Tsatsoulis in the Nov. 3 general election, according to Chicago Sun-Times results sourced from the Associated Press.

The outcome directly affects property owners across the North Shore. The assessor's office sets the value of each of the county's 1.8 million parcels, a calculation that helps determine what homeowners in Wilmette, Winnetka, Glencoe, Kenilworth and Northfield pay in property taxes each year.

The AP declared Hynes the winner around 9 p.m. Nov. 3, the Chicago Tribune reported. With about 43% of estimated votes counted at the time of the call, Hynes held 84.9% of the vote. No Republican appeared on the ballot.

Hynes, a former functionary in the assessor's office, ousted Kaegi in the March Democratic primary by roughly 26,000 votes, 52% to 48%, the Tribune reported in October. He started as a field inspector in the office in 1998 and rose through the ranks before leaving in 2020. He later won election as Lyons Township assessor.

What Hynes has pledged

Hynes campaigned on making assessments more predictable after back-to-back years of record increases under Kaegi. His signature proposal: an office that would estimate a proposed project's future assessment and likely tax bill, giving developers more certainty before they build.

He also pledged to ease tensions with the Board of Review, which often reversed Kaegi's valuations on appeal. Hynes suggested he would stop sending staff to the board to fight appeals in person, a strategy Kaegi used aggressively, the Tribune reported.

Speaking to supporters at an Orland Park pizzeria on election night, Hynes said "property tax relief will not happen overnight, but we have a plan and we will work tirelessly for the taxpayers," the Tribune reported.

Who backed Hynes

Trade unions that rely on construction jobs contributed more than $1 million to Hynes since he launched his campaign, according to state campaign finance records cited by the Tribune. A mix of wealthy Chicagoans and business groups gave more than $500,000. Property tax attorneys and their families or firms gave more than $130,000 combined.

Farzin Parang, executive director of the Building Owners and Managers Association of Chicago, which gave Hynes' campaign $50,000, told the Tribune that the county's property tax system "has crossed that line into becoming a barrier to economic growth."

Kaegi, the outgoing assessor, poured roughly $2.75 million into his race since the start of 2025, according to state records cited by the Tribune.

What comes next

The new assessor takes office as the south suburban reassessment wraps up, then faces the most complex cycle: the city of Chicago. Hynes said he intends to keep Kaegi's data team and "quite a few" senior officials rather than clean house, the Tribune reported.

He also promised a better system to handle "certificates of error," a bill correction that typically comes with a refund. A backlog built up during upgrades to the county's property tax system. Kaegi's office paused processing them between March and October 2025 and has been working through the backlog since, the Tribune reported.

Results as of the AP call reflected partial returns and were not yet certified.