Jon Luers, a Republican, is running for Cook County Commission District 9 in the Nov. 3, 2026, general election. He is also on the ballot with Ammie Kessem, a Republican, and Maggie Trevor, a Democrat.
Asked why he is seeking the seat, Luers said in our candidate questionnaire that he wants "to be a voice for reason, efficiency, and responsibility to taxpayers on a Cook County Board that has doubled its budget in the last 10 years and continued to grow taxes, while major employers have left the County …"
Candidate information
Party: "I'm a lifelong Republican," Luers said in our questionnaire.
Home: Luers said he and his wife, Robin, "a retired nurse," live "in the northwest corner of Chicago, near Norridge and Schiller Woods."
Family in politics or government: "No," Luers said.
Education: "I attended Northwestern University in Evanston and received a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering and a Master's degree in Computer Science," Luers said in our questionnaire.
Best advice he ever received: "Don't trust anyone. Human nature doesn't change," Luers said.
Experience and public service
Luers said he is a retired software engineer. He said in our questionnaire that he "started my career over 40 years ago at AT&T Teletype Corporation in Skokie, and I spent the last 25 years or so with a small local company on development and support of an interactive graphical tool for analyzing databases."
He serves as deputy Republican committeeperson for the 38th Ward in Chicago, according to his questionnaire response. He ran for Illinois State Senate District 10 in the March 19, 2024, Republican primary, according to BallotReady.
The Republicans of Wheeling Township endorsed Luers for the District 9 seat.
On the issues
What sets him apart from other candidates: Luers said in our questionnaire, "Rather than being just another loyal Democrat functionary to consolidate the party's stranglehold on northeastern Illinois, I'm a Republican who still believes in the American ideal of limited government that represents all the citizens, using common sense, time-tested morality, and ingenuity to make government work for all the citizens, not just the officeholders, public employees, and their dependent vendors and beneficiaries."
County services for suburban residents: Asked what he would do to ensure District 9 gets its fair share of county attention, Luers said, "I would reduce the property tax levy and sales tax rate for the county and push other county taxing bodies to do likewise. This would drive salary reductions for elected officials and employees." He added that he would "audit Cook County Health and CountyCare, which has a ballooning share of the budget that is focused on the inner city of Chicago. The Forest Preserves should focus more on making green spaces useable by all citizens."
Professional skills he would bring to office: Luers said, "In my software engineering career I used analytical attention to detail and written communications to solve problems and deal with colleagues and customers." He added, "I believe a public office is a temporary assignment of the public's trust, and not a career."
Luers' responses come from a Surround Sound News candidate questionnaire completed Sept. 30. Candidate claims about budgets, tax trends and county spending have not been independently verified.
