Amy Elik

In the 22-year period ending in January, Illinois Democrats will have controlled both legislative chambers the entire time, and the Governor’s Mansion for all but four of those years.  

The only question has been whether they enjoyed a supermajority, or a mere majority. So, when a candidate comes along who can add to the GOP’s seat count, currently at 78 Democrats to 39 Republicans, the party gets behind that person. 

In 2020, Amy Elik became one of those candidates, breaking a 25-year Democratic hold on the 111th District, which includes most of Madison County. 

Elik, 52, beat incumbent Monica Bristow, a conservative Democrat, by nearly 9 percentage points. She went on to be named Illinois Chamber of Commerce Freshman Legislator of the Year, and Associated Builders and Contractors Legislator of the Year for the House. She defended her seat in 2022 with a 13-point margin of victory over former East Alton Mayor Joe Silkwood. 

Elik quickly developed a reputation as a fiscal watchdog, and serves as the House Republican deputy budgeteer. She boasts of sponsoring legislation to protect children from predators and promoting high-quality education and has sponsored legislation to tighten ethics laws and take pensions from corrupt politicians. 

She also talks of “extreme Democrats” who “continue to try to force their agenda on us.”  

“Families throughout the Metro East are struggling to afford mortgages, gas, groceries, and childcare,” she said. “In Springfield, I am fighting to lower taxes and make Illinois a safer and more affordable place to live.” 

Granite City resident Nick Raftopoulos is a member of AFSCME Local 799, part of the largest public

Nick Raftopoulos

sector union representing employees in county and local units of government. 

Raftopoulos has been deputy clerk of the Madison County Circuit Court since 2018. He has served as president of the Metro East Rotary Club from 2020-21. He has also been an elected trustee for Southwestern Illinois College since 2019 and is currently the board chairman. 

A union guy who says he will “always support unions,” Raftopoulos stresses the need for fairness and equity, and vows to “fight for better wages and jobs.”  

“Instead of seeing tax breaks for the Walmarts of the world, we should offer tax incentives to encourage and help people start their own business,” he said. “We need a representative that will represent everyone in the district regardless of political party, class, race, gender, & sexual orientation.” 

Raftopoulos, who is holding meet-and-greets around the district, didn’t file a campaign committee with the state until late February. As of mid-April, he had only approximately $8,000 on hand. 

Elik had more than $68,000 on hand as of April 1, and that was after transferring $21,500 out to House Republican Organization in the first quarter of 2024.  

In her 2022 campaign, Elik received $200,000 in individual contributions and transfers in from political committees, plus more than $160,000 from the aspirationally named Republican House Majority, for staffing, polling, printing and mailings. 

But Elik’s success has clearly not been just a function of money. The Democrats have even greater funding fire power. In 2022, the Democratic Party of Illinois and Democrats for the Illinois House together poured more than $225,000 into Joe Silkwood’s losing campaign, and organized labor and other political candidates gave an additional $200,000.  

Whether or not Democratic leaders opt to expend similar sums for Raftopoulos in his bid to unseat Elik in November remains to be seen.