Southwest suburban Republican politics has been shaken by a shocking twist in the race for Cook County Commissioner for District 17.
Incumbent Commissioner Sean Morrison on Oct. 29 issued a news release rebuking fellow Republican Elizabeth “Liz” Doody Gorman, who is running to replace him on the County Board.
Morrison, who holds the County Board’s only remaining red seat, was appointed to the position after Gorman resigned in 2015.
“I do not endorse Liz Gorman. I do not support her candidacy for Cook County Commissioner,” Morrison said in the release.
“I intended to stay out of this race,” he added. “However, a social media post I made in February of 2018 was recently circulated in a manner suggesting I currently endorse or support Liz Gorman for Cook County Commissioner, I believe in an attempt to deceive Republican voters once again.”
Gorman has come under fire for claiming endorsements disavowed by Republican leaders before, including during her recent race for Orland Township Republican Committeeman, which she lost to Kenneth Duffy.
Morrison said that in the March 17, 2026, primary, Gorman created a political committee called the “Republican Organization of Orland Township,” playing off the name of the official, Cook County Republican Party-sanctioned “Orland Township Republican Organization.”
Duffy claimed Gorman attempted to confuse Republican voters with misleading sample ballots, and he garnered 54.1% of the vote to defeat her.
Dan Patlak, the former commissioner of the 1st District of the Cook County Board of Review, echoed Morrison’s concerns, saying, “I agree wholeheartedly with this statement from Commissioner Sean Morrison.”
Morrison’s denouncement of Liz Gorman’s tactics and tenure on the Cook County Board comes on the heels of a letter to the editor recently submitted to Southwest Regional Publishing by former Republican Cook County Commissioner Herb Schumann, who represented the district from 1994 to 2002 before losing a primary challenge from Gorman.
In his letter, Schumann details his issues with Gorman’s attempt to regain her old seat.
“Why do voters keep rejecting Liz Gorman? Maybe because her $13 million bankruptcy case stained her image as the successful businessperson she claimed to be… Maybe because her ‘go-to’ campaign practice is to smear her opponent in a desperate attempt to seize a moral high ground.”
Just like Schumann, Morrison made a specific call to voters to refuse to vote for Gorman on Nov. 3.
With the election just days away, it is not known how these high-profile attacks will affect the 17th District race.