 From 1988 to 2012, the county consistently backed Democratic Party presidential candidates, but none fared better than Illinois resident Barack Obama's 56.9% in 2008.However, he failed to win a majority of the county's votes four years later despite winning it overall in his 2012 reelection bid.This foreshadowed what was to come in the 2016 election, as the county swung 21.8 points Republican to back Donald Trump over Illinois-born Hillary Clinton by a margin of 19.9%.