Fritz Kaegi

Fritz Kaegi

Democratic Party

Candidate, Cook County Assessor

Cook County Assessor

Tenure

2019 - Present

Term ends

2026

Years in position

7

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Report an officeholder change

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 8, 2022

Next election

March 17, 2026

Education

High school

Kenwood High School

Bachelor's

Haverford College

Graduate

Stanford University

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Personal website

Personal Facebook

Personal LinkedIn

Fritz Kaegi (Democratic Party) is the Cook County Assessor in Illinois. He assumed office in 2019. His current term ends on December 7, 2026.

Kaegi (Democratic Party) is running for re-election for Cook County Assessor in Illinois. He declared candidacy for the Democratic primary scheduled on March 17, 2026.^[source]

Kaegi completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2026. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Frederick Kaegi was born in Chicago, Illinois, and lives in Oak Park, Illinois. He graduated from Kenwood High School. He earned an undergraduate degree from Haverford College and an M.B.A. from Stanford University. Kaegi’s career experience includes working as a financial manager at Columbia Wanger Asset Management.

Elections

2026

See also: Municipal elections in Cook County, Illinois (2026)

General election

The primary will occur on March 17, 2026. The general election will occur on November 3, 2026. General election candidates will be added here following the primary.

Democratic primary

Democratic primary for Cook County Assessor

Incumbent Fritz Kaegi (D) and Pat Hynes (D) are running in the Democratic primary for Cook County Assessor on March 17, 2026.

		Candidate
		Fritz Kaegi
		Pat Hynes

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Libertarian Party primary

Libertarian primary for Cook County Assessor

Nico Tsatsoulis (L) is running in the Libertarian Party primary for Cook County Assessor on March 17, 2026.

		Candidate
		Nico Tsatsoulis

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	There are no incumbents in this race.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Endorsements

Kaegi received the following endorsements. To view a full list of Kaegi's endorsements as published by their campaign, click here. To send us additional endorsements, click here.

• U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D)
• U.S. Rep. Danny K. Davis (D)
• Dick Durbin (D) -
• Bill Foster (D) -
• Jesus Garcia (D) -
• Jonathan Jackson (D) -
• Robin Kelly (D) -
• U.S. Rep Delia Ramirez (D)
• Jan Schakowsky (D) -
• Brad Schneider (D) -
• Mark Walker (D) -
• Fred Crespo (D) -
• William Davis (D) -
• Robyn Gabel (D) -
• Theresa Mah (D) -
• 40th Ward Democrats
• Northside Democracy for America

2022

See also: Municipal elections in Cook County, Illinois (2022)

General election

General election for Cook County Assessor

Incumbent Fritz Kaegi defeated Nico Tsatsoulis and Clifton Graham Jr. in the general election for Cook County Assessor on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Fritz Kaegi (D)	82.3	1,063,188
		Nico Tsatsoulis (L)	17.7	228,425
	Submit photo	Clifton Graham Jr. (D) (Write-in)	0.0	65

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source 1 Source 2 Source 3	Total votes: 1,291,678
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Cook County Assessor

Incumbent Fritz Kaegi defeated Kari Steele in the Democratic primary for Cook County Assessor on June 28, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Fritz Kaegi	53.8	258,848
	Submit photo	Kari Steele	46.2	222,371

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 481,219
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Libertarian primary election

Libertarian primary for Cook County Assessor

Nico Tsatsoulis advanced from the Libertarian primary for Cook County Assessor on June 28, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Nico Tsatsoulis	100.0	1,931

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 1,931
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

2018

See also: Municipal elections in Cook County, Illinois (2018)

General election

General election for Cook County Assessor

Fritz Kaegi defeated Joseph Paglia in the general election for Cook County Assessor on November 6, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Fritz Kaegi (D)	76.2	1,272,651
	Submit photo	Joseph Paglia (R)	23.8	397,741

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 1,670,392
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Cook County Assessor

Fritz Kaegi defeated incumbent Joseph Berrios and Andrea Raila in the Democratic primary for Cook County Assessor on March 20, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Fritz Kaegi	45.6	327,769
	Submit photo	Joseph Berrios	33.9	243,425
		Andrea Raila	20.5	147,224

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified.	Total votes: 718,418
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Campaign themes

2026

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Fritz Kaegi completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2026. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Kaegi's responses.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

A lifelong Democrat and reformer, Fritz Kaegi ran for Assessor in 2018 to make the property tax system work for working people instead of the wealthy and well-connected. He cleaned up decades of pay-to-play corruption, reduced racial disparities in assessments, made mansions pay their fair share, expanded tax relief for seniors and veterans, and turned the Assessor’s office into a national model for transparency. Fritz is fighting lower costs for homeowners by making big corporations pay their fair share and by expanding property tax relief for the families who need it most. He’s championing reforms that would stop big commercial properties like Trump Tower and AI data centers from getting tax breaks they don’t deserve and for legislation in Springfield that would protect homeowners from property tax spikes.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Making corporations pay their fair share by reforming commercial property assessments so homeowners don’t get stuck paying more than they should. Right now, corporations hire politically connected property tax lawyers to help them win excessive tax cuts from the Board of Review. These cuts to commercial properties (e.g. hotels, data centers, mixed-use) shifted $500 million onto homeowners, driving up the average tax bill by $700, with many paying more.
• Protecting homeowners from property tax spikes with “Circuit Breaker” legislation that delivers tax relief to families who need it most. Fritz is championing legislation (SB1978/HB 3808) in Springfield that would protect homeowners if taxes spike over 25%, giving them immediate property tax relief.
• Bringing more property tax relief to seniors by expanding the Senior Freeze exemption and making it automatically renew for those who qualify. This would allow more seniors to get the benefits they’re entitled to without having to come into the office

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I’m passionate about housing and the property tax system because I watched too many of my friends lose their homes during the Great Recession. What stuck with me wasn’t just the loss but how many of them didn’t even understand why it happened to them.

That experience drives my work now. It got me to look into the housing and property tax systems in Cook County and I realized the whole system was run on pay-to-play corruption. I ran for Assessor to fix that, and now I’m fighting for more property tax relief and to make corporations pay their fair share so families can stay in their homes.

What organizations or individuals have endorsed your campaign?

U.S. Senator

U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth
U.S. Senator Dick Durbin

U.S. Congressional Representatives
Rep. Danny Davis
Rep. Bill Foster
Rep. Jesús "Chuy" García
Rep. Jonathan Jackson
Rep. Robin Kelly
Rep. Delia Ramirez
Rep. Brad Schneider

Organizations
Equality Illinois
Indivisible Lincoln Square
Northside Democracy for America
40th Ward Democrats
45th Ward Democrats
Citizen Action/Illinois
IVI-IPO
Northfield Dems
Wheeling Dems

Labor
Cook County College Teachers Union IFT AFT Local 1600
AFSCME Council 31
Local 881 UFCW

And many more. Please visit https://fritzforassessor.com/endorsements for an updated list.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

2022

Fritz Kaegi did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.

See also

2026 Elections

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