Newsletter sampler: Will Kendall County turn blue for just the second time next Tuesday?

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Welcome to the Record Newspapers/Oswego Ledger Kendall County local government newsletter. Each Thursday, Editor John Etheredge provides exclusive content and commentary on topics and issues involving Kendall County area governmental agencies and the communities they serve.

Kendall County voters made history in 2008 when a majority of them cast their ballots for the Democratic presidential ticket of Barack Obama and Joe Biden. That year, the Democratic ticket prevailed in the county by a plurality of just 2,854 votes over the Republican ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin. Though it was a narrow victory for the Obama-Biden ticket in the county, it was a significant outcome since it marked the first time in the county's history that a Democratic presidential ticket had carried the county.

Until 2008, the only time a Republican presidential ticket had failed to win in Kendall County was in 1912, when Republican Party defector and former President Teddy Roosevelt's captured the most votes running on the Bull Moose Party ticket.

Dating all the way back to Lincoln, Kendall County had been rock solid in the Republican camp until 2008. While voters across the country elected Democrat Franklin Roosevelt four times in the 1930s and 1940s, a majority of Kendall County voters went for FDR's opponents every time. Republican Thomas Dewey didn't defeat Democrat Harry Truman in the national presidential race, but he did here in Kendall County in 1948. County voters also backed Richard Nixon over Democrat John F. Kennedy in 1960 and Republican Barry Goldwater who lost in a landslide to Lyndon Johnson in 1964. Nixon was also the one for a majority of Kendall voters in 1968 and 1972.

In the 2012 election, county voters preferred the Republican presidential ticket of MItt Romney and Paul Ryan over the Obama-Biden ticket by 1,857 votes, and in the 2016 election the Republican presidential of Donald J. Trump and Mike Pence edged out the Democratic ticket of Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine by a margin of just 760 votes.

Where are the Democratic votes in the county coming from? A precinct-level look at the county's 2016 election results shows the Clinton/Kaine ticket carried much of populous Oswego Township and a large portion of Bristol Township east of Route 47, both areas that have experienced significant population growth over the past two decades. The Democratic ticket did especially well in the precincts that include portions of Montgomery's Lakewood subdivision and the northeast portion of the unincorporated Boulder Hill subdivision. Also falling into the Democratic column four years ago were precincts in the City of Joliet portion of Kendall County off Caton Farm Road and in the older portion of the city of Plano.

Meanwhile, the Republican Trump-Pence ticket prevailed in the county's central and far southern townships which remain predominantly rural and less populous. The Republicans also won all of the precincts in Yorkville and several in Oswego located north of the village's downtown area and extending east along Route 34 to Douglas Road.

Given the Trump-Pence ticket's narrow victory margin in the county four years ago, the county should definitely be in "in play" again for the Democrats next Tuesday.