If you are now in the 11th Congressional District, Bill Foster (D, Naperville) will be your representative (assuming his re-election in 2022)
Adam Kinzinger (R, Channahon) is retiring in the current 16 the District. Darin LaHood (R, Dunlap in Peoria County) may be running for the new 16th.
Congressman Bill Foster is a scientist and businessman representing the 11th Congressional District of Illinois, a position he’s held since 2013. He also represented the 14th Congressional District of Illinois from 2008 to 2011. He is the only PhD physicist in Congress.
Bill serves on the House Financial Services Committee where he advocates for consumer protections and an economy that works for everyone. In response to the Great Recession, he helped create several important reforms in the financial services and housing markets, including the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Bill serves as chairman of the Financial Services Committee’s Task Force on Artificial Intelligence.
He also serves on the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee where he has fought for evidence-based policies and forward-thinking approaches to some of our country’s most pressing issues, including climate change and energy innovation. He is a champion for sustained federal funding for scientific research.
Bill serves as the chairman of the Science Committee's Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee, which is empowered to investigate and oversee federal scientific research.
In the wake of the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, Bill was named to the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus. The Select Subcommittee is charged with examining the federal government’s response to the COVID-19 crisis, including the use of taxpayer funds to mitigate the public health and economic consequences of the pandemic.
Bill's business career began at age 19 when he and his younger brother co-founded Electronic Theatre Controls, Inc., a company that now manufactures over half of the theater lighting equipment in the United States.
Before he became a Member of Congress, Bill worked as a high-energy physicist and particle accelerator designer at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab). He was a member of the team that discovered the top quark, the heaviest known form of matter. He also led the teams that designed and built several scientific facilities and detectors still in use today, including the Antiproton Recycler Ring, the latest of Fermilab's giant particle accelerators.
Bill lives in Naperville with his wife Aesook, who is also a physicist. Bill has two grown children, Billy and Christine. Bill's father was a civil rights lawyer who wrote much of the enforcement language behind the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Congressman Darin LaHood, born and raised in Peoria, serves the constituents of the 18th District of Illinois. Sworn into the US House of Representatives on September 17, 2015, LaHood quickly transitioned into office after his special election win on September 10. He won re-election to serve his third full-term in Congress on November 3, 2020, defeating his opponent with 70-percent of the vote.
The 18th District spans 19 counties across central and west-central Illinois, ranging from McLean County (Bloomington-Normal) to Adams County (Quincy). LaHood serves close to 710,000 constituents.
Prior to his election to Congress, LaHood served four years in the Illinois State Senate, beginning in 2011. LaHood spent more than nine years as a State and Federal Prosecutor. From 2001-2006, he worked for the U.S. Department of Justice as an Assistant United States Attorney in Las Vegas, Nevada. LaHood has also served as an Assistant State's Attorney in Cook County and Tazewell County. From 2006 up until his election to the House of Representatives, he practiced with the Peoria law firm of Miller, Hall & Triggs.
LaHood's record throughout his public service has resonated a strong, conservative record, promoting economic development and fiscal responsibility. LaHood has been an outspoken advocate for creating a better business climate in Illinois to boost the state and national economy, to create jobs for Illinoisans.
LaHood currently serves on the House Ways and Means Committee after being selected by his colleagues in January of 2018. The Ways and Means Committee is the House’s oldest committee and has jurisdiction over all taxation, trade and tariffs, and other revenue-raising measures. He serves on the Ways and Means Subcommittees on Tax Policy and Oversight.
In March of 2021, LaHood was appointed by House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy to serve on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. The committee oversees the nation’s intelligence agencies including components of the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Justice, State, Treasury and Energy. LaHood serves on the Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation (C3) and the Intelligence Modernization and Readiness (INMAR) Subcommittees.
LaHood also serves on the House Democracy Partnership. He currently co-chairs the US-China working group, the U.S.-Brazil Caucus, the Digital Trade Caucus, the U.S.-Lebanon Friendship Caucus, the Congressional Bus Caucus, and the Congressional Soccer Caucus.
Recognizing the need for reform, LaHood has fought to increase transparency and promote ethical behavior. He looks to build a strong, pro-growth economy, while fighting to reduce a record deficit that threatens the future of our children and grandchildren.
LaHood, a third generation Peorian, graduated from Spalding High School. He earned a B.A. from Loras College and holds a J.D. from The John Marshall Law School. In 2013, he was selected as an Edgar Fellow, a program run by former Governor Jim Edgar, which highlights future Illinois leaders. In 2008, LaHood was recognized in Peoria as a 40 Leaders Under Forty award winner. An avid runner, he has completed five marathons.
Congressman LaHood and his wife Kristen currently reside in Dunlap and are the proud parents of three sons, McKay, Lucas, and Teddy.
