A Lincoln-Era Winning Streak Comes to an End

By Ed Epstein

Washington, D.C.

November 7, 2026

A Republican Party winning streak in McHenry County, Ill., outside Chicago, that began when Abraham Lincoln played a key role in creating the party in the state finally ended in Tuesday's elections.

Republican William Henry Bissell, elected Illinois governor in 1856. He began a long GOP winning streak in McHenry County, Illinois. Photo from the National Governors Association.

Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, running for a third four-year term, easily carried the county northwest of Chicago on Tuesday. The last time a non-Republican gubernatorial nominee had carried the county was in 1852--174 years ago--before the Republican Party was born. Democrat Joel Matteson was elected that year.

In 1856, the Illinois Republican Party was born in May of that year when anti-Nebraska and anti-slavery activists met in Bloomington, Ill. There were former Whigs, like Lincoln; Democrats who opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854; and anti-slavery elements. On May 29, the convention was addressed by Lincoln, who delivered a fiery anti-slavery speech that became known as the "Lost Speech" because no stenographic account of it was made.

Some Lincoln fans said that the speech was so gripping that news reporters in the audience, who usually wrote down every word, were so mesmerized that they put down their pens to listen. Others say that the words of Lincoln, who had his eye on running for the U.S. Senate under the party's banner, were so incendiary that his allies had them suppressed.

The speech was reconstructed over the years. In his talk, Lincoln excoriated the "slave power," said that the idea of secession was folly, and said slavery should not be allowed to expand its territory.

In any event, the speech helped the diverse elements at the convention coalesce to form the new party that came to dominate Illinois politics for decades. The party's gubernatorial nominee, William Henry Bissell, was elected to a four-term in 1856. He died in office in March 1860, before Lincoln won the Republican presidential nomination at the new party's convention in Chicago.

In McHenry, which has about 310,000 residents, voters on Tuesday also narrowed the Republican majority on the county board of supervisors and elected two Democrats to countywide office. There are more registered Republicans than Democrats in the county.

Overall, Illinois has become a reliably Democratic state.