Editor’s note: This story was updated April 11 with final election results.

With scant competition and extraordinarily low turnout, the Cook County Democratic Party’s chosen candidates dominated the judicial races in the March 19 primary election.

The party’s picks all won — most of them by substantial margins — after yet another historically uncompetitive primary in which all of the party’s slated candidates were already serving as judges. In most of deep blue Cook County, winning the Democratic Primary virtually assures victory in the general election in November.

Voters’ excitement was muted, with turnout that looked early on to be the lowest for a presidential primary in at least 80 years.

The party’s choice for Illinois Supreme Court, Justice Joy Cunningham, declared victory on election night over challenger Appellate Court Judge Jesse Reyes following a campaign centered on questions of racial and ethnic diversity on the court.

In the contested appellate court races, slated candidates Celia Gamrath, now a Cook County judge, and Cynthia Y. Cobbs, an appointed appeals judge, won over challengers Leonard Murray and Carolyn J. Gallagher, both Cook County circuit judges.

In the contested countywide races for circuit judge, party picks Pablo F. deCastro, Neil Cohen, Edward Joseph Underhill and Debjani “Deb” Desai triumphed as well.

Voters also weighed in on judicial subcircuit races held in geographically drawn districts. The Democratic Party doesn’t formally endorse candidates in those contests, though party officials often make their own picks. Two candidates with high-profile controversies in their pasts and multiple negative bar association ratings — Risa Renee Lanier and John Poulos — lost to candidates who got better reviews from the lawyers’ groups.

Winners in contested subcircuit races:

Many of the winners will assume their posts early, as the Illinois Supreme Court announced in April that 12 of the primary winners would be appointed to the positions they seek. The court had previously appointed eight other candidates who were unopposed in the primary to the bench.

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Dan Hinkel reports on courts and the legal system. He joined Injustice Watch in 2023 after two decades covering criminal justice and other issues for the Chicago Tribune, the Illinois Answers Project, the Times of Northwest Indiana, and the Janesville Gazette. He also covered Kyle Rittenhouse’s 2021 criminal trial as a freelancer for the New York Times. He is a native of Janesville, Wis., who graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and he lives on Chicago’s Northwest Side.