Primary Election Approaching – Students Urged To Get Involved

By Shelby Emich, Tyler Gall, Sophia Larimore, and Micah Weidner

Illinois Central College students interviewed local Republican candidates for the 2024 Illinois primary election coming up on March 19 for their Basic News Editing Class.

Tomorrow Republicans will vote in primary elections in Peoria and Tazewell Counties in districts surrounding the ICC campus. In those two counties, on the Democratic side, there are no competitive state primaries listed on sample ballots reviewed online. However, several Republican races are up for grabs.

ICC students interviewed local candidates running for state senate political seats. 

37th State Senate District

The three candidates running for the 37th Illinois Senate district include Li Arellano, Chris Bishop, and Tim Yager.

Li Arellano stated he decided to run for senate after seeing corruption in the town of Dixon. He was mayor for eight years, and he says that it will help him if elected to be a senator. 

He states that, because of his experience of being mayor for two terms, he has experience working with other elected officials, working with fellow activists, and has experience implementing and updating policies. He said his top policy is to “Get into a debt repayment plan, and get us out of debt so my children aren’t inheriting the financial mess that I’m in the process of inheriting.”

Fellow Republican candidate Chris Bishop is in his second term on the city council of Dixon, Illinois. He states why he was inspired to run, saying, “This is just an opportunity for me to give back a little bit to my community that’s given a ton to me. So I just saw it as a chance to help out.”

On his website, it states “BRINGING COMMON SENSE BACK TO SPRINGFIELD”. When asked about this, Bishop responded saying, “I have found in life, if you keep things simple, generally it’s a lot easier to get done, and for folks to understand why it’s happening.”

Attempts to make contact with candidate Tim Yager were unsuccessful.

53rd State Senate District

Chris Balkema is a Republican candidate running for state senate in the 53rd Illinois Senate district. He is a previous Caterpillar employee and most recently, a chairperson on the Grundy County Board. In his campaign, he is hoping to reduce the taxes in Springfield as he did in Grundy County. 

“That is my goal overall, to help the cost of inflation, reduce cost for folks, and do that through efficiency and through better government,” he says.

He says his goal is not to take away services from people, but to reduce the costs so that it is not such a high cost of living for people. He started out running for the school board because of high property taxes. He says he wanted to be able to provide good schooling through the public schools but also not have such high taxes. That then led him to run for Grundy County because of its broader range and ability to affect more people. 

Balkema wanted to do more for the state, he says. “I realized that I needed to get to the state to have a bigger impact and more positive impact across the state instead of just one county.” 

Also running is Mike Kirkton. He discussed his decision to run for Illinois State Senate. Drawing from his 25 years of military service and experience in Livingston County Board, Kirkton emphasizes his commitment to serving his electors’ needs. 

“It’s not what Mike Kirkland wants to accomplish in Springfield. It’s what I want to accomplish for the constituents within the district,” Kirkton stated. 

He highlighted concerns such as rising fuel prices and illegal immigration’s impact on taxpayers, stressing his focus on addressing issues that directly affect Central Illinois. Kirkton says he aims to bring his leadership and values to Springfield. 

Additional Republican candidates Jesse Faber and Susan Wynn Bence were unable to return a phone call for a potential interview.

105th State Representative District

Republican candidates Donald Ray Rients and Dennis Tipsword Jr. are competing in the 105th, but attempts to contact them were unsuccessful.

At the end of an interview with Arellano, he stated, “Every election cycle, we have the opportunity in America to pick a new direction and new leaders and where we wanna go. If we’re proud of democracy and our republic, we gotta get involved.”