Amy Johnson appears poised to serve as Kane County’s next sheriff, according to unofficial election results.
With all precincts reporting, unofficial results from the Kane County Clerk’s Office Tuesday night show Johnson, a Democrat, receiving a little over 62% of the votes and her Republican opponent Rob Russell getting just under 38%.
As of Tuesday night, almost 168,000 ballots had been cast — a little more than 57% of the county’s roughly 292,000 registered voters, according to numbers from the clerk’s office.
In recent months, as the election neared, leadership within the Kane County Sheriff’s Office has been the source of some attention.
Tuesday’s election comes just days after the retirement of sheriff Ron Hain, who last month announced his intention to step down to “focus on his health and to ensure continuity of leadership.” Last year, Hain indicated that he would not be running in 2026, casting his support behind Amy Johnson, his undersheriff.
But Hain had been missing from the public eye for about six months prior to his retirement announcement, prompting questions about the office’s operations and who was in charge.
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In light of Hain’s retirement, Johnson, who had been serving as his undersheriff, was slated to step into the role of acting sheriff as of Nov. 1. A special Kane County Board meeting is scheduled for Wednesday to declare a vacancy in the office.
Now, unofficial election results seem to indicate that Johnson will be serving in the office’s top seat for the next four years.
Johnson was born and raised in Kane County, and has served her entire career in the Kane County Sheriff’s Office. She’s worked as an evidence custodian, and then as a deputy, and has served in a variety of roles, like as a detective, crime scene evidence technician and field training officer.
In 2022, she was appointed undersheriff by Hain, becoming the first woman to hold the post in the county.
Johnson’s opponent Russell, meanwhile, served as the Kane County coroner from 2012 to 2024, when he lost reelection to Democratic challenger Monica Silva.