Lombard resident Deb Conroy won a second four-year term as DuPage County Board chair on Tuesday, Nov. 3, defeating Burr Ridge Mayor Gary Grasso by a wide margin.

Unofficial results as of 9:40 p.m. election night showed Conroy with 183,884 votes to Grasso's 106,276, according to Patch. Grasso, a Republican, conceded that night, telling Patch he had left a voice message congratulating Conroy on her "clear win."

"We Republicans have to regroup and honestly face the political reality in our country," Grasso said. "I want to sincerely thank those in our local Republican party who worked so hard for so many months and kept the faith."

Grasso said he looks forward to continuing to serve as Burr Ridge's mayor.

The result extends Conroy's historic tenure. Four years ago, the Democrat became the first woman and first Democrat to hold the DuPage County Board chairmanship, according to Patch. Before entering county government, Conroy served as a state representative for a decade, according to the Daily Herald.

Conroy's win came amid a broader Democratic wave across DuPage County. Democrats expanded their County Board majority from 12-6 to 17-1, swept every county race and elected a new sheriff, Shaw Local reported.

"I've been writing about the blue wave in DuPage since 2018, and even I didn't see such an obliteration," Melissa Mouritsen, a political science professor at College of DuPage, told Shaw Local.

DuPage County was a Republican stronghold until recent years, according to Patch. Grasso, who served on the County Board from 2012 to 2018, faced what Patch described as a Democratic wave in the county and elsewhere.

The race featured clashes over county spending. Grasso pointed to a proposed $710.7 million budget for fiscal year 2027, nearly $127 million more than the spending plan approved before Conroy took office, according to the Daily Herald's pre-election endorsement. He also criticized a County Board vote that raised the chair's annual salary from $136,959 to $185,000.

In her Daily Herald candidate questionnaire, Conroy said the county held property tax rates flat during her tenure while earning a third AAA bond rating upgrade. She also pointed to the Crisis Recovery Center, a mental health and addiction treatment facility that opened in Wheaton in September 2025, as a signature achievement.

No election-night statement from Conroy appeared in available reporting.

Election results remain unofficial until certified by election authorities.