Santoyo running for Kane County sheriff, says focus is on mental health, police cooperation and cultural immersion
Luis 'Lou' Santoyo, an Elburn village trustee, recently announced his bid for Kane County sheriff in 2026.
So far in the race, Santoyo, a Republican, is running as are two Democratic candidates, current county Undersheriff Amy Johnson and former Kane County Sheriff's Office employee Salvador Rodriguez.
Santoyo, who was born in Mexico and grew up in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago, said an experience as a child seeing a man shot informed his decision to pursue law enforcement as a career.
'i kind of made a promise to myself somewhere along the line … I want to be in a position where I can actually stand in the gap for other people who can't defend themselves,' Santoyo told The Beacon-News on Thursday.
He started his career working in the Cook County Jail, he said, then worked as a police officer and detective in the Cook County Sheriff's Department. Afterwards, he worked part-time in the Elburn Police Department, while also teaching middle school and later high school students, he said.
According to his website, he investigated crimes like child exploitation and gang violence as a detective and worked as a forensic artist, hostage negotiator and dignitary protection specialist. He has also worked with immigrant and underserved communities, he said. In 2023, he was elected an Elburn village trustee.
Santoyo, who said he previously voted for incumbent Kane County Sheriff Ron Hain, said he'd considered running for sheriff for some time, but with Hain stepping down saw an opening to run for the job in 2026. He filed his statement of organization with the Illinois State Board of Elections on April 16.
Santoyo, who — unlike the two other candidates in the race so far — has no direct experience working in the Kane County Sheriff's Office, said he hopes to 'shake up the paradigm a little bit' in the office. He noted, for example, concerns about how the sheriff's office and local municipalities' police departments work together, noting the high-profile public dispute between the sheriff's office and Aurora Police Department over the 2023 officer-involved shooting of James Moriarty. Santoyo said he plans to foster more communication and collaboration if he's elected sheriff.
Another one of his policy ideas, he said, is to partner with mental health experts and institutions to support police training and activities — for example, having a mental health expert present at interviews or interrogations, in advance of a case going to court.
Should he be elected, he said he'd also foster stronger relationships with educational institutions in the county, and focus on what he calls 'cultural immersion.'
Santoyo said he believes there's a relationship between a 'misunderstanding of cultures' and racial profiling, and suggested the sheriff's office could create educational opportunities for officers on the demographics and beliefs of residents of the county.
'I'm really focusing more on the word 'serve' rather than 'protect,'' Santoyo said Thursday, referring to the popular motto adopted by many police departments. 'Because we already know how to protect, and we're good at it.'
As for the race itself, Santoyo, who describes himself as a 'moderate Republican,' said he sees the role of sheriff as a nonpartisan one and wants to serve the community 'even-handedly.' He said he'd prioritize compliance with both state and federal law when it comes to immigration enforcement.
'I can't in good faith come and say that I'm a far-right guy and shut the door to people's needs who are on the other side,' Santoyo said on Thursday. 'They can call me a RINO (Republican in name only). They can call me whatever.'
The mid-term elections, which include the Kane County sheriff seat, will take place on Nov. 3, 2026, with the primary next April.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
30 minutes ago
- Yahoo
NC: Foolishly speeding toward a fiscal cliff
The seal of North Carolina in the Senate chamber features a cornucopia as a symbol of abundance. But 15 years of budget cutting have left the state far from prosperous. (Photo: Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline) If you get a chance, check out a recent essay authored by retired Legislative Fiscal Analyst Richard Bostic. It was posted by Raleigh's News & Observer. In it, Bostic, who spent 31 years advising state legislative leaders, issues a loud and clear warning about the fiscal cliff toward which our state is speeding. His simple and straightforward message: it's imperative that GOP lawmakers rethink their massive, planned cuts to corporate and personal income taxes. And his reasoning is equally straightforward. Several core public structures and services – schools, state employee pay and retiree benefits, infrastructure – are already inadequate even as our population is growing and aging. Now add the looming threats of climate change, federal funding cuts and an economic downturn and the picture grows even more ominous. The bottom line: As Bostic observes, delaying or repealing planned tax cuts isn't just about balancing a spreadsheet — it's about protecting our schools, our infrastructure and our people. State lawmakers should heed this insightful warning. For NC Newsline, I'm Rob Schofield.
Yahoo
30 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Yvette Clarke endorses Adrienne Adams for New York City mayor
NEW YORK — Rep. Yvette Clarke is endorsing Adrienne Adams as her top choice for New York City mayor, lending the City Council speaker a much-needed boost as she seeks traction in the final weeks of the campaign, POLITICO reports exclusively. Clarke and her powerbroker mother Una Clarke are influential among Caribbean New Yorkers. They're also closely allied with New York Attorney General Letitia James, who recruited and endorsed Adams in a contentious primary that Andrew Cuomo is dominating. Adams is a late entry into the race. She qualified only last week for public matching funds. And she's been polling behind Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani, the surging Democratic socialist who's closing the gap with the former governor. 'Working families in Brooklyn and across this city deserve a mayor who puts people first — someone who leads with both strength and compassion, and who has the experience to make government work for everyone,' Clarke said in a statement. 'Speaker Adrienne Adams is ready on day one to partner with me and my colleagues in protecting New Yorkers from the harmful policies coming out of the White House.' Clarke, who chairs the Congressional Black Caucus, said she will make Adams her No. 1 pick in the ranked choice primary June 24. Rep. Nydia Velázquez, another Brooklyn Democrat, also endorsed Adams but additionally backed Mamdani and progressive city Comptroller Brad Lander in April as a part of her slate. The incumbent mayor, Eric Adams, is forgoing the Democratic primary and will run in the general election as an independent candidate. Clarke's nod comes as her political club, the Progressive Democrats Political Association, plans to endorse an unranked slate of candidates that includes Cuomo, though many members wanted to make Adrienne Adams their top choice, three people familiar with the decision told POLITICO. The Brooklyn club, founded by Una Clarke, considered backing Adams first, followed by Lander, Cuomo, club member Zellnor Myrie and Mamdani — in that order. But amid deliberations about whether to rank the candidates and pressure from Cuomo's allies within the club, members instead plan to release a five-candidate slate that shows no preferential order, according to two people familiar with the process who were granted anonymity to speak freely. Clarke's endorsement is one of the last from New York congressional delegation members in the primary. She endorsed Maya Wiley in the 2021 primary for mayor. The chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Rep. Adriano Espaillat of Manhattan and the Bronx, endorsed Cuomo last month. And the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus chair, Rep. Grace Meng of Queens, has yet to make her pick in the crowded primary. The prized congressional endorsement among the primary's progressives is Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has yet to announce her choices.
Yahoo
30 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Cuomo — and attacks against ex-gov — takes center stage in rowdy NYC Democratic mayoral debate
Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo was at the center of a pile-on during a rowdy mayoral debate Wednesday night — as flailing Democratic candidates seized their first chance to attack the primary's frontrunner in a public forum. Cuomo literally stood mid-stage between the other eight candidates, who repeatedly pelted the thrice-elected Democrat — with COVID nursing home deaths and his checkered record leading the Empire State hijacking much of the NBC-Politico debate. 'The people who don't feel safe are young women, mothers and grandmothers around Andrew Cuomo,' shot the Rev. Michael Blake, a former Obama administration official, who scathingly evoked the sexual harassment accusations that led to the former governor's resignation. 'That's the greatest threat to public safety in New York City.' An often-heated Cuomo responded to the attacks, as well as pointed questions by debate moderators, with barbs of his own and conspicuous dodges for the chaotic more than two hours. He directed fire of his own at the candidates closest to him in the polls: Democratic socialist Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani and City Comptroller Brad Lander. Cuomo, 67, cast Mamdani's plan to offer $10 billion of freebies for hardworking New Yorkers as not rooted in 'reality.' He also argued that Mamdani, a 33-year-old who was elected to the state Legislature in 2021, lacked the experience to stand up to a hostile President Trump, if elected mayor. 'Donald Trump would go through Mr. Mamdani like a hot knife through butter,' Cuomo said. 'He has been in government for 27 minutes' Mamdani, who is rising to within single digits of Cuomo in the polls, hammered the longtime politician as not being on the side of working-class New Yorkers. The Democratic Socialists of America lawmaker skewered Cuomo's super PAC, Fix The City, for cashing in on a $1 million donation from the popular app DoorDash — for which the former governor's top-ranking aide Melissa DeRosa's father works as a lobbyist. He landed some big haymakers against Cuomo, but also peppered his answers with little jabs. When asked his biggest regret, Mamdani was harsh — and stayed on point with attacking Cuomo. 'As a Democrat, one of my regrets is having trusted the leaders within our own party leaders like Andrew Cuomo, because what we've seen is that kind of leadership has delivered us to this point where we are under attack by an affordability crisis on the inside and a Trump administration,' he said. Cuomo at one point quipped that Trump 'gets sued 10 times before he gets out of bed in the morning.' 'Kind of like you,' Mamdani shot back. Lander, for his part, subtly swiped Cuomo in nearly every answer — calling him as corrupt as Trump. Cuomo went scorched earth at Lander, who is polling at third place. He accused Lander of corruptly approving $500,000 in contracts associated with his wife — a charge the comptroller called a lie. Cuomo managed to attack all of his opponents in one fell swoop by calling out their past support for the 'Defund the Police' movement. 'We wouldn't need more police if we didn't defund them in the first place,' Cuomo said. But when it came time to answer for his own record, Cuomo seemingly couldn't find the words. Asked about the controversial state bail reforms that he signed into law in 2019, Cuomo chose to use his 30 seconds to attack Lander — prompting the moderators to warn him he was running out of time to answer. He also got heated — and raised his voice — as he insisted nursing home deaths were not undercounted in New York during the COVID-19 pandemic, though they were. 'It's very, it's very clear that's the Trump line, the MAGA line,' claimed Cuomo, who is facing a Department of Justice probe for allegedly lying to Congress about his handling of COVID nursing home deaths. The crowded dais provided little oxygen to the struggling candidates, who for months now have struggled to topple Cuomo atop the polls or match the momentum of the socialist Mamdani. Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and state Sen. Zellnor Myrie were two of the few able to cut through the often chaotic barrage of attacks on the ex-governor, with Big Apple politicos saying the pair came across as authentic politicians with concrete agendas. Hedge fund manager and longshot candidate Whitney Tilson went after Mamdani several times, dredging up a past X post that called the NYPD 'wicked & corrupt.' Political consultant and lobbyist Yvette Buckner said voters will likely be left wanting to hear more. 'There were some missed opportunities on the top issues of public safety and affordability and the question of the 'biggest regret' for candidates, which is something New Yorkers would want to hear more about, especially from the front runner,' she added. But Blake, a former state Assembly member, proved to be the breakout star of what will be his first and final debate, repeatedly hitting Cuomo — including over a racially tinged comment from decades ago. Democratic operative Ken Frydman, though, dashed Blake's hopes, saying, 'Cuomo will get more of the black vote than he will.' 'No one knows who he is.' — Additional reporting by Carl Campanile
