Fritz Kaegi

Fredrick "Fritz" Kaegi is an American politician who has served as Cook County assessor since 2018.

A first-time candidate for public office, Kaegi ran for Cook County assessor in 2018. He largely self-financed his campaign. Kaegi's ran as a reformer under the slogan, "No favoritism, just fairness". In the Democratic primary, he defeated embattled incumbent Joseph Berrios. Kaegi originally had appeared to have successfully challenged the ballot petitions of Andrea Raila, kicking her out of the race, thus making the primary a one-on-one race between Kaegi and Berrrios. However, Raila was still appeared on ballots, as they had already been printed, but no votes were cast for her would be counted. However, after a lawsuit, judges made it so that Raila would be allowed to run, making it a three-person race again. Berrios was the powerful chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party. During the primary election, Kaegi received the endorsements of the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, Daily Herald, as well as politicians such as Danny Davis, Bill Foster, Robin Kelly, Mike Quigley, Bobby Rush, and Jan Schakowsky. The Chicago Tribune described his victory against Berrios as a "rare topping of the machine". After defeating Berrios to be the Democratic nominee, Kaegi won the general election against Republican Joseph Paglia.

Kaegi was born in November 1971 in Chicago. He grew up in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago.