Illinois House District 51 election results

Northwest suburban state Rep. Nabeela Syed, D-Inverness, locked up a second term on Tuesday, swiping away a challenge from Republican Tosi Ufodike and cementing a seat in Democrats’ Illinois House supermajority.

The Associated Press called the race for Syed as she held 55% of the vote over 45% for Ufodike, with 91% of expected votes counted.

“I feel so grateful my community entrusted me with another term,” Syed said from her campaign headquarters in Palatine. “It’s a true honor and privilege to represent the area I was born and raised in.”

Ufodike couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

Syed, a former digital strategist for a civic engagement nonprofit, is the youngest woman in the chamber and one of its first two Muslim members.

She won her first term in 2022 by almost seven percentage points in the 51st District that also includes Vernon Hills, Lake Zurich and Hoffman Estates — an area that previously was favorable to Republicans until Democrats redrew legislative maps after the 2020 U.S. Census.

Campaign funds controlled by Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch sent more than $200,000 Syed’s way to hold onto the seat, with major support also coming from organized labor.

Ufodike, an Ela Township trustee who runs a preschool academy in Hawthorn Woods, raised more than $70,000, with the state GOP pitching in about $6,800. She billed herself as a fiscal conservative.

The progressive incumbent touted legislation she shepherded last year that bans price gouging by pharmaceutical companies on generic drugs.