LaHood defeated Rob Mellon, the Democrat, 69 percent to 31 percent, according to The Associated Press' vote tally.
LaHood's victory was widely expected. He'd been the front-runner in the race since Schock — a young GOP star in the House whose extravagant spending caught the attention of reporters after The Washington Post revealed he'd remodeled his congressional office in the style of "Downton Abbey" — resigned in March, following weeks of increasingly bruising revelations.
Schock announced he'd step down less than 12 hours after POLITICO raised questions about his vehicle mileage reimbursements. The congressman had billed the federal government and his campaign for more than 170,000 miles of travel in his Chevrolet Tahoe, but the SUV had only about 80,000 miles on it when he sold it last year, according to document obtained by POLITICO under Illinois' open records law.
