Pat Hynes will be Cook County's next assessor after a dominant victory on Tuesday, Nov. 3.

The Associated Press declared Hynes the winner around 9 p.m., according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The Sun-Times results page, sourcing the AP, was last updated at 9:19 p.m.

The Democrat defeated Libertarian Nico Tsatsoulis, securing 86 percent of the vote to Tsatsoulis' 14 percent, Block Club Chicago reported. The Chicago Tribune reported the AP called the race with about 43 percent of estimated votes counted, at which point Hynes led with 84.9 percent.

The result matters directly to Park Ridge and Niles homeowners. The assessor calculates the value of every property in Cook County, a key input that helps determine what each taxpayer pays, according to the Tribune.

Who is Pat Hynes?

Hynes has served as Lyons Township assessor since 2021, according to BallotReady records. He previously worked as a senior residential field inspector in the Cook County Assessor's Office from 2004 to 2021. Block Club reported he spent more than 20 years working in that office before leaving.

He beat incumbent Assessor Fritz Kaegi in the spring Democratic primary, running on a platform to make the county's property tax system more equitable and transparent, Block Club reported.

Tsatsoulis is a real estate professional who previously ran for assessor in 2022 and the Cook County Board of Review in 2024, according to Block Club.

What Hynes has pledged

Hynes promised to make assessments more predictable after back-to-back years of record increases under Kaegi, the Tribune reported. He campaigned on creating an office that could tell builders the likely assessment of a property based on neighborhood, size and classification.

He also said the Board of Review would see less "animosity" than under Kaegi, according to the Tribune.

Hynes opposed moving to an annual reassessment model, citing volatility in assessments as the real issue rather than the frequency of reassessments, according to a Civic Federation forum.

Why assessments spiked

After taking office in late 2018, Kaegi shifted assessments to account for what the Tribune described as systemic undervaluing of commercial buildings and overvaluation of low-income properties. He then instituted a "COVID adjustment" reducing residential values during the pandemic. When that adjustment wore off, the housing market had boomed while the commercial market was still scarred by vacancy.

The combination contributed to sharp assessment increases for many homeowners, the Tribune reported. Big business interests and trade labor unions lined up behind Hynes during the primary. Kaegi poured about $2.75 million into his own race since the start of 2025, according to state records cited by the Tribune.

Family connection

Hynes' uncle, former Assessor Thomas Hynes, ran the office from 1979 to 1997, the Tribune reported. The elder Hynes lobbied for the office's first incentives, including the homeowner property tax break, and computerized the office's residential property records.

The Sun-Times results page does not include final certified vote totals. Partial figures reported by Block Club and the Tribune reflect election-night counts.