[2] Elections were held for the offices of Assessor, Clerk, Sheriff, State's Attorney, Superintendent of Education Service Region, Treasurer, President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, all 17 seats of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, both seats of the Cook County Board of Appeals, 3 seats on the Water Reclamation District Board, and judgeships on the Circuit Court of Cook County.

The more successful of Kusper's two challengers was Jeanne Quinn, who four years earlier had become the first Democrat to be elected to the Cook County Board of Commissioners from suburban Cook County in half a century.

[6] Former Illinois state representative Diana Nelson won the Republican primary.

[1][7] Richard Elrod Democratic James E. O'Grady Republican In the 1986 Cook County Sheriff election, incumbent fourth-term sheriff Richard Elrod, a Democrat, was defeated by Republican James E. O'Grady.

O'Grady became the first Republican elected to a countywide executive office in Cook County since Bernard Carey was elected to his final term as Cook County State's Attorney in 1976.

Republican nominee Bernard Carey was replaced on the ballot by Robert P. Gooley, as Carey opted to instead run for Illinois Attorney General, replacing James T. Ryan as the Republican nominee for that election.

One incumbent Democrat, Pat Quinn, did not seek reelection, instead running for Illinois Treasurer.

[1] Partisan elections were held for judgeships on the Circuit Court of Cook County, due to vacancies.