Start here for the most complete information about every 2026 Cook County judicial race

This post is going to change multiple times in the next several days. Right now, the headline seriously overstates the merits of this post: Currently, this is mostly just a list of the judicial vacancies on this year's Cook County ballot. But as I put up posts on each contested race, I'll add links to those posts from the list below. Also, this post will get bumped up on the front page of FWIW a number of times... but not now.

This will be the interactive, voter-friendly part of FWIW. What follows is a list of every Cook County judicial vacancy on the March primary ballot.

The vacancies are listed on Democratic and Republican ballots alike.

However, the only candidates for any of these judicial vacancies on this year's ballot are in the Democratic primary. No candidates filed to run in the Republican Primary.

The following is not a partisan statement; it is merely a statement of fact: In the March 17 primary, in order to have any say in who serves in our local courts, one has to take a Democratic ballot.

Voters in the Democratic Primary may be additionally surprised to note how many judicial vacancies are uncontested.

Please note that all of the persons running in uncontested races are as good as elected already.

Of course, not all races are uncontested. These are the ones voters should be looking for. All the contested races in the list below will be live links. When you click on any of these, you 'll be taken to a post that will show all the candidates in that race, in ballot order, with all ratings and other information about each candidate that I've been able to assemble. Where a candidate has provided FWIW with a statement "in their own words", a link to that statement will be available from that post as well.

There will be a link at the bottom of each of these Organizing the Data posts, so voters can examine each contested race in detail, one candidate at a time, and come right back here.

The linked posts will be updated as new information becomes available, right up until the polls close on the Feast of St. Patrick. Once we get a significant number of contested races linked, this post will be regularly bumped up to the top of FWIW.

And now the list:

Countywide Vacancies

Appellate Court (Hoffman) - Uncontested

Circuit Court (Burke) - Uncontested
Circuit Court (Cobbs)
Circuit Court (Coghlan)
Circuit Court (Hooks) - Uncontested
Circuit Court (Karkula) - Uncontested

Subcircuit Vacancies

1st Subcircuit (Balanoff)
1st Subcircuit (Walker)

3rd Subcircuit (Murphy) - Uncontested
3rd Subcircuit (Sherlock)

5th Subcircuit (Ross) - Uncontested

8th Subcircuit (Gamrath)
8th Subcircuit (Mikva)

11th Subcircuit (Meyerson)
11th Subcircuit (Roberts) - Uncontested

13th Subcircuit (Curry, Jr.) - Uncontested
13th Subcircuit (M. Kelley) - Uncontested
13th Subcircuit (T. Kelley) - Uncontested
13th Subcircuit (O'Malley) - Uncontested

16th Subcircuit (Baird) - Uncontested
16th Subcircuit (Mendoza) - Uncontested

17th Subcircuit (Brooks)
17th Subcircuit (Carroll)

18th Subcircuit (Andreou) - Uncontested
18th Subcircuit (Chrones) - Uncontested

19th Subcircuit (Fairman) - Uncontested
19th Subcircuit (Kane)

20th Subcircuit (Haracz) - Uncontested
20th Subcircuit (Miller)