The last time a Democrat was elected to the Warren County board, Ronald Reagan was President of the United States and a gallon of gas cost a dollar of bill and a couple of dimes.
In the more than four decades since then, only a handful of Democrats have even tried.
This year, political signs posted in tree-lined neighborhoods mostly on the north side of Monmouth tell a story that isn’t often told. There is a contested county board race in the general election — one that looks to be competitive, according to a local political expert.
The yellow and black signs bear the name of Republican Court Hopkins, a father of four who just started his first full-time teaching job and is looking to hold on to the District 2 seat he was appointed to a couple years ago due to a vacancy on the board.
The red, white, and blue signs belong to Democrat Jeff Rankin, a local historian and retired writer and editor who hopes to improve communication in county government and is running to give voters a choice.
Hopkins and Rankin are vying to serve the remaining two years of the term, and the seat will be up for election again in 2028.
About the candidates
Hopkins is from Pekin originally and served in the Marine Corps after high school. After that, he made his way to a job at Smithfield Foods in Monmouth where he met his wife and put down roots.
Hopkins first ran for public office in his 20s, when he sought a seat on the Monmouth city council in 2021 but lost to the incumbent. He said that run was prompted by wanting to see improvements in the community.
“Well, instead of me complaining, which is fine because that's our constitutional right, I'll just get involved,” Hopkins said.
Hopkins also worked for BNSF Railway, where he was active in a railroad union, before going back to school during the pandemic and earning a degree in English and creative writing. He worked as a substitute teacher in the Monmouth-Roseville school district before being offered a full-time teaching job this school year.
“I found what I want to do and it's been so enjoyable. I've met so many great people. It’s just been a blessing,” Hopkins said.
Rankin grew up in Monmouth and left briefly to attend St. Lawrence University, where he earned a degree in English. When he came back to town, he first worked as a reporter for Monmouth’s once-daily newspaper, then in marketing for a local bank before moving to the mainstay of his career — communications at local colleges.
He worked as director of communications at Sandburg for nine years before moving to Monmouth College. Beginning in 1993, Rankin worked as director of communications and as an editor and historian at Monmouth College.
“I have a background in journalism, finance with the banking, and also education, which I think provides a fairly rounded experience,” said Rankin, who retired in 2023.
Outside of being a proponent of renewable energy, Rankin does not see the role of a county board member as particularly partisan. He said he’s running to put his experience and knowledge of the community to use and he sees infrastructure as a top priority.
“I've had very positive feedback even from Republicans who've said thank you for running. Thank you for giving us a choice,” Rankin said. “I think they appreciate my work as far as preserving the history of the county and talking about the just really diverse history that we've experienced here.”
Hopkins does not see the work of the county board as partisan, either, but said he considers himself a fiscal conservative.
“We don't just spend, spend, spend. Sometimes it might sound like it, but it's not,” Hopkins said.
Both candidates believe the public should know more about the county board’s actions and priorities.
“City council meetings are live-streamed,” Rankin said. “I would like to see if we can figure out a way for that to happen with the county board also, or at least provide a fairly quick turnaround as far as a newsletter or something to let people who are interested know exactly what happened at a particular board meeting or what issues will be addressed at an upcoming meeting.”
In his time on the board so far, Hopkins successfully lobbied to move the monthly full-board meetings from mid-morning to early evening in the hopes more community members would attend.
“I know there's second shift but the majority of people work a first shift. So I said, I'm going to do whatever I can to make that happen. Hey board members, this is why we should do it. This is why we should have citizens show up,” Hopkins said. “It eventually passed and we got it. So that was my biggest thing I wanted done.”
More about the candidates’ backgrounds and platforms is available on their campaign websites:
About the seat — and that stronghold
The Warren County board has 16 seats. That includes four elected members in each of four districts — two districts that cover the city of Monmouth and two the county’s remaining rural areas and communities.
The last time a Democrat was elected to any seat on the board was in 1984, when Raymond Elliott of Roseville won another term in District 3 after first being elected in 1972.
“I've talked to some Republicans on the board and they were kind of surprised. They kind of assumed that Raymond Elliott was a Republican,” Rankin said.
Elliott ran again in 1988 and lost. A few other Democrats ran for county board in the early 1990s. Then it slowed to just three Democrats in over 20 years — Butch Johnson in 2004, Robert Schisler in 2018, and Jeff Rankin in 2026.
As a local historian and lifelong resident, Rankin has a long view of the county’s conservative bent.
“Going back to the early days of Monmouth, back to the 1858 election with Lincoln and Douglas, it’s just been a stronghold of Republicanism,” he said. “Being a rural community, a lot of the voters are conservative. They're farmers, they have been for generations. Even though maybe the Republican Party has changed over the years, it's tradition, it's family, it's what they've always been.”
Republican Court Hopkins, who’s lived in Warren County for a decade now, said that’s how he sees his community today.
“If I'm fiscally conservative and that's part of the Republican platform, well, then most of my neighbors are probably also. Not saying everybody. But most of us think that way or are that way,” Hopkins said. “It's no different than if you go to one of the bigger cities, predominantly they're Democratic. That's just how it is. It's the layout, the lay of the land.”
When the District 2 vacancy on the Warren County board came up in 2024, board chair Mike Pearson reached out to the chairs of both local political parties to see if anyone was interested in serving.
Rankin expressed interest and started attending committee meetings before a review of state statute revealed a Republican would have to be appointed to the seat.
“So that did not work out. I thought at the time, well, maybe I will wait till the next election and actually try to run because I found it interesting. I found the committee meetings interesting,” Rankin said. “And I also thought, well, let's give people in the community a choice.”
Hopkins was appointed to the seat. He says one of his priorities has been “showing up” for elected officials and county employees.
“I challenge anybody to go into that courthouse and just talk to the elected officials. And if you ask them which board members they know, I guarantee they're all gonna say me,” Hopkins said. “I am in that courthouse almost every week, if possible, just as to the people that work for us. Hey, what can I do better for you? What do you need?”
Bellwethers and shoe leather
The Republican stronghold in Warren County government runs even deeper for countywide elected officials. Outside of Democrat Larry Spears, who was elected state’s attorney in 1968, no Democrat has served in countywide office in at least the last century and a half.
Robin Johnson, a political consultant who grew up in the area and teaches political science at Monmouth College, can only recall a couple other Democrats who ran for countywide office, both dating back to the 70s.
“Partly it's just been known as a Republican county and perhaps intimidating for [Democratic] candidates to try to undertake a race,” Johnson said.
The Republican stronghold in county government doesn’t tell the whole story of red and blue in Warren County, according to Johnson. He said Warren County was a bellwether for the presidency for decades, beginning in 1976.
“Warren County voted for [Bill] Clinton twice and Obama twice, but the Trump era has changed all that,” said Robin Johnson.
Warren County was not a bellwether in 2020, when the majority of local voters chose Donald Trump but Joe Biden won the popular and electoral vote nationally.
Since Trump first ran for president, Warren County has trended redder in presidential elections. In 2016, 55% voted for Trump. In 2020, 59% did and in 2024, 61% did.
“While the county is Republican, the city of Monmouth has voted Democratic, barely, in some of these elections if you pull the precinct data out,” Johnson said.
Getting more granular, Johnson said the city precincts in District 2 have gone for Democratic candidates in key races during the Trump era. He said they went for Democrats Hillary Clinton and Biden in 2016 and 2020, and they went for JB Pritzker in 2018 when the Democrat ousted Republican Governor Bruce Rauner. He said the 2018 gubernatorial race might be the operative one to look at in terms of turnout and down-ballot impact, because it was the most recent off-year election with a Republican in the White House.
Those factors make Johnson think the District 2 race will be competitive, especially with what he considers a strong Democratic candidate.
“I think it’s going to be close and that'll be good,” Johnson said. “It'll be good for everybody to have an exchange of ideas and see who wins.”
There are around 2,840 registered voters in District 2. In the March primary, when Hopkins and Rankin ran unopposed, just 18% of those voters cast ballots for either candidate — with 345 votes for Hopkins and 175 for Rankin. Countywide in the primary, 26% of voters cast ballots in an election where the county was essentially choosing its next sheriff.
In addition to voter turnout, the District 2 race could be decided by name recognition, canvassing and door-knocking, and whether voters have ballot fatigue by the time they get to the local races. Johnson said it could also come down to the candidates’ ability to get voters to cross party lines.
“We're in such an era of hyper-partisanship where everybody votes their party pretty much, but there are still swing voters out there that will cross over on both sides,” Johnson said.
Johnson agrees that county boards are not inherently partisan. But he said competitive, contested races are good for communities and for government.
“I think that's something that maybe our state leaders need to understand with their use of gerrymandering, where so many districts across the state don't have any opposition,” Johnson said. “That's not healthy for a democracy.”
The revitalization of a local party
Johnson said local Democrats putting forward a strong candidate is a sign of the local party’s revitalization and growth.
One of the people involved with that revitalization is Steve Buban. When he moved to Monmouth in 1977 to teach sociology at Monmouth College, the local Democratic party had a chairperson and a pulse.
Buban did a short stint with the local Democrats early on before fully turning his focus to teaching.
When he came back to it after retiring in 2016, that pulse had weakened to a state of near dormancy.
“It was pretty, pretty dead,” Buban said.
He and a few others started meeting again, initially to organize local support for then-Democratic U.S. Rep Cheri Bustos.
Buban is now the chair of the Warren County Democrats. These days, he says a couple dozen people typically attend meetings and more than 100 subscribe to its newsletter.
Now, they have a Democrat running a local competitive race.
“Part of it is that the Democrats haven’t tried hard enough to get involved,” Buban said of the county’s Republican stronghold. “ I think they kind of gave up some time ago. It’s been a while since we’ve had a good candidate. Jeff is a very good candidate, so it could really change things.”
Brenda Morrison, chair of the Warren County Republicans, did not respond to requests to discuss the District 2 race and the party’s stronghold in county government for this story.
Buban said he would not see a Democrat being elected to the Warren County board as a major changing of the tide. But he said it would be a great step forward and it could lead to more local Democrats running.
“It might wake people up, including people that lean Democratic. I still get people surprised that we have a Democratic party in this county. We have a lot of people that are Democrats and that are all in,” Buban said. “It’ll sort of point out to people that, oh, Democrats do have a voice here.”
If this is the year that a Democrat is elected to Warren County government, it won’t be the end of public service for Republican Court Hopkins. He said he’ll take some time to nurse his wounds and discuss his next plan of action with his family and friends.
In Hopkins’ opinion, it would be a bellwether of sorts if a Democrat won a county race in Warren County.
“If a Republican won in Chicago, hey, all right, we're getting somewhere here. So I do think it changes the landscape, huge,” Hopkins said.
While it’s a rare, contested, and competitive race for District 2, it’s not really a contentious or mud-slinging one.
Of Rankin, Hopkins says, “I wish him nothing but the best. He’s a really nice guy. I would love to sit down and talk to him about history. I love history.”
And when one of Hopkins’ campaign signs was vandalized, Rankin spoke out against such behavior.
The local historian who is looking to be the first Democrat in county government since the 1980s says it would be somewhat satisfying to make history in this way.
Rankin can recall some Democrats who ran for county board in the 1970s.
“These were some people I really respected and thought would be a really nice addition to Monmouth. They unfortunately didn’t win,” Rankin said. “If I were to do that, I would say yes, finally, Democrats have been successful in achieving this. But again, I don’t want to make it sound like I’m doing it solely as a Democrat. I’m doing it more as a citizen.”
Early voting begins Sept. 24 and the election is on Nov. 3.
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