Park Ridge and Niles voters will decide Nov. 3 whether to retain Cook County Circuit Court Judge Gerardo Tristan Jr. The retention vote asks a single question: should Tristan remain on the bench?
Tristan has served as a Circuit Court judge since 2019, according to BallotReady profile data.
Candidate information
- Office: Illinois Circuit Court Judge, Cook County Circuit
- Race: Retain Tristan? (nonpartisan retention)
- Election date: Nov. 3, 2026
- Education: Bachelor's degree from Brown University (1992); law degree from DePaul University (2002)
Experience and public service
Before joining the bench, Tristan served as an assistant state's attorney at the Cook County State's Attorney's Office from 2003 to 2019, BallotReady records show. He earlier worked as a prosecutor at the Chicago Board of Education from 2000 to 2003 and as a proposal manager at Motorola from 1994 to 2000.
Bar association ratings
Chicago Bar Association, Chicago Council of Lawyers, and Illinois State Bar Association ranked Tristan "Qualified" or higher for the 14th Subcircuit, Bertucci vacancy in the 2020 general election, according to a WTTW News compilation published Oct. 1, 2020. No 2026 rating data was available at the time of publication.
This profile uses information from BallotReady and publicly available bar association ratings compiled by WTTW News. No candidate questionnaire responses were available for this race.
