Jeff Keicher

Republican state Rep. Jeff Keicher has announced he’ll seek re-election to the 70th Illinois House District, vowing to work across the aisle while still opposing Democratic policies he believes hurt average Illinoisans.

Keicher vows to work with both Republicans and Democrats to lower taxes, foster job growth, enhance women’s health and push for nuclear energy investment.

“I’m a Republican in Illinois, so naturally, I’m an optimist,” Keicher said in a statement. “I believe in my core that Illinois can be a growing powerhouse again – if we just get government out of the way.”

“Illinois government is taking too much and providing too little in return,” he said. “I’m proud to have passed bipartisan reforms that protect people and grow opportunity here in Illinois. But I’m not done yet – there’s more to fix, and I’m ready to keep fighting for our future.”

A Northern Illinois University graduate and insurance agent who was born in Aurora, Keicher is a lifelong resident of the district. He lives in Sycamore with his wife, Karen, and their three children.

Keicher has assumed a leadership role in the GOP House caucus the past several years. In January, House Minority Leader Tony McCombie reappointed Keicher to serve as House Republican Conference chairperson.

The conference chairperson is responsible for presiding over Republican caucus meetings and facilitating the exchange of ideas on legislative policy proposals and strategies for advancing them through the legislative process.

“Representative Keicher is a valued voice in our caucus, and I am excited to reappoint him to my team to continue the fight for commonsense policies Illinois families deserve,” said McCombie, R-Savanna.

At the time of his reappointment, Keicher said that among his priorities were “advancing long-overdue policy changes to create jobs, strengthen schools, support our agriculture industry and enact meaningful and lasting property tax relief.”

Since the 2020 redistricting, Keicher’s district includes parts of DeKalb, Kane, and McHenry counties. After running unopposed in 2022, he won re-election in 2024 in a 19.6-point landslide, a nearly 12,000-vote margin.

In 2020, he defeated his Democratic opponent by 15.4 points in the old 70th House District. His closest race was his first in 2018, when he beat Democrat Paul Stoddard by 3.4 percentage points.

The 70th House District remains solidly Republican, if less so the past few years. While 70th District voters favored incumbent Gov. Bruce Rauner by a 13.8-percent margin in 2018, that margin fell to 4.65 percent for Republican Darren Bailey in 2022. However, the district voted for every GOP statewide candidate three years ago by margins of between 4.65 percent and 10.1 percent, and its vote for Donald Trump increased from 3.3 percent in 2020 to 6.8 percent in 2024.

Besides his own campaign fund, Keicher is chairman of Reagan Prairie Political Action Committee created last year to support Republican candidates for public office. The PAC’s largest donor outside of Keicher is the Illinois Political Action Committee for Education, which contributed $63,500 in October. As of June 30, Keicher’s PAC had $86,067 on hand.

Reflecting his comfortable electoral position, in the recently concluded second fiscal quarter, Keicher’s campaign fund transferred out more cash – $18,000, mostly to the House Republican Organization – than he took in, $12,000. As of June 30, he had $119,000 on hand in his campaign fund.

Keicher is one of a number of GOP lawmakers who say they do not accept taxpayer-funded pension or health care; he’s called for people to be “more selfless” in public service.

“Government doesn’t have its own money — what it spends, it takes from Illinois families and Illinois businesses. Illinois government is taking too much and providing too little in return,” he said in his re-election statement. “We need to stop chasing away families and job creators with excessive taxation and regulation and get back to common sense.”