On Nov. 5, the 12th District of Illinois will elect its next delegate for the U.S. House of Representatives. The district houses 34 counties in southern Illinois, including Jackson County. It has been represented in Congress by Republican Mike Bost since 2015, but he now has a new opponent to face: Democrat Brian Roberts.
According to the official website of the House of Representatives, the candidate elected to the position will serve a two-year term in congress, where they will “introduce bills and resolutions, offer amendments and serve on committees.” The qualifications for the position include being at least 25 years old, a U.S. citizen for at least seven years and a resident of the state being represented.
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Roberts was born in Iowa, but he came to Southern Illinois University for law school in 1994. He said he fell in love with the town and has stayed there ever since. He is an attorney and owner of a law firm that serves Carbondale.
He said he is running for Congress because he does not believe the votes Bost has cast during his term are representative of the citizens of southern Illinois.
“I think that the responsibility of our representative is to represent everybody and not let their own personal views cloud their decision-making,” he said. “And I think that our current representative does that; he takes his personal views and/or the views of his party and votes along those lines, even in situations where it’s a detriment to the people of southern Illinois.”
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Illinois has become a primarily democratic state throughout the past few decades, according to an article by U.S. News. Illinois has 17 congressional districts, which have been measured in terms of performance at presidential elections and compared to the nation as a whole by the Cook Partisan Voting Index (Cook PVI). According to the released 2023 scores, over 80% of the districts performed higher democratically in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. The 12th District, however, was the highest performing Republican district, with a score of R+24, meaning the district performed an average of 24 points more Republican than the nation did.
Bost, who is a native of Murphysboro, said that while not everyone in the district will agree with him, he believes he represents the majority of it.
“I do believe that the views of my district lean towards Republican and…I’m in constant communication with my district,” he said.
Among a monthly newsletter and tele-town halls, Bost said his staff holds office hours to stay in touch with the members of the district.
“Even in the smallest counties, we have held office hours…to make sure we’re not only finding out where people are at and what they’re thinking, but also to provide them the constituent service they need, which is exactly what the representative is supposed to do,” he said.
Roberts’ campaign stems from a desire to “represent and advocate for the people of southern Illinois,” he said. He said he has always been interested in politics and how legislation affects everyday lives, but when the issue of providing affordable health care skyrocketed with the pandemic, he started becoming more involved.
Now running for congressman, Roberts said his main focuses are as follows: securing private and public investment into southern Illinois; finding a solution to gun violence; and creating sponsored visa programs.
“I know immigration is a hot-button issue for a lot of people, but I think there’s also solutions to that,” he said. “There’s guest workers, visas and things like that, programs that could be expanded so that we can have legal immigration, because we do need some of that legal immigration. You talk to the winery people and people that own orchards, and you know, they need people to fill those jobs, and they tell me they can’t fill those jobs without the immigrants. So you could have sponsored visa programs that would allow people to come in to fill those jobs.”
Regarding gun violence in America, Roberts said that he feels as though the country is not trying to find a solution.
“I don’t know what the solution to gun violence is, but there’s data out there,” he said. “There are people that study that data out there. There are mental health professionals out there that look at people that do mass shootings, and so there’s information out there that we could use, or potentially use to try to make things better, and not perfect. But right now, we’re not utilizing what I can see anyway. We’re not listening to those people. We’re not paying attention to those people.”
Roberts noted that he is not opposed to guns, however.
“I’m a gun owner. I’m a FOID (Firearms Owners Identification) card holder. I’m a concealed-carry holder,” he said. “So I’m not anti-gun, but there’s violence and carnage in our country and thoughts and prayers or whatever obviously aren’t working.”
He said that he believes it is important for the representative to be open-minded when deciding on what to vote for.
“I think I have an objective mindset, and I think I have the patience and diligence to listen and learn, to try to get good outcomes for people,” he said.
Bost said that his priorities include improving the economy; ensuring the U.S. borders are secure; and strengthening ties with allies.
“I want to see this nation continue to be great, swing back into a place where it is our enemies fear us, our allies trust us, that we’re respected in the world as the strength and superpower that we are, that our economy is booming and that we hand it off better to our children and grandchildren,” he said.
Bost served in the Illinois House of Representatives prior to serving for Congress, and he said he originally had doubts about running for Congress because the district used to be a Democratic area. He said he was encouraged to run in 2012, but did not feel it was the right timing. He later decided to run in 2014, because he was “not happy” with the job then-Democratic Rep. William Enyart was doing.
“It was a case where, look, I’m concerned about this nation,” he said. “And a lot of these people that run for these jobs do it because they want time on social media, they want time on 24-hour news networks, and they want to be show horses. If you look at my job as what I do, I’m not a show horse, I’m a work horse.”
Reflecting on the past four years in Congress, he said he feels as though the outbreaks of war that have occurred is “a sign of weak administration.”
Last week, protestors gathered at the Carbondale Civic Center to host a rally called “No Votes for Genocide.” Participants promoted voting for third-party candidates and protested voting for candidates former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris due to their support of Israel in its conflict with Palestine.
Bost said he is supportive of Israel, and that he doesn’t think any actions can be taken at the local level regarding the conflict.
“If you’re not happy with Israel, then I’m probably not your guy,” he said. “I’m a big supporter of Israel. I have friends over there. I am a very big supporter. I believe my district is as well. A majority of my district is. There are a whole lot of people that don’t protest in the street, but are very vocal about how we need to support our greatest ally, and our greatest ally is Israel. And how you can tell someone after they’ve been punched in the face to cease fire – remember what happened to them in the brutal, heinous attack?”
Bost was referring to Oct. 7, 2023, when the militant group Hamas, which governs Gaza, launched a surprise attack on Israel. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the attack killed more than 1,300 Israelis and injured 3,300, with hundreds of hostages also being taken. The next day, the Israeli cabinet declared war against Hamas, and the defense minister of the Israel Defense Forces later ordered for a “complete siege” of Gaza.
“That was nothing but a terrorist attack,” Bost said. “The percentage, that would have been 10 9/11s.”
The Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States killed 3,000 people and injured more than 6,000, according to the U.S. Department of State. Since Oct. 7, 2023, over 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war in Gaza; 92,401 people have been injured; and over 85% of Gaza’s population has been displaced from their homes, according to AP News.
“And to tell a nation that they can’t defend themselves – and they’re doing a good job of defending themselves – and for people to give comment that they know nothing about?” Bost said. “They can have their opinion. We have freedom of speech, but it is almost – no, it is totally terrible – to watch what has occurred.”
Roberts offered a different perspective.
“I know that Israel has been an ally of the United States for a long time, and I think that we have to continue to support Israel,” he said. “But, you know, sometimes…you can still support your friends, but you can also tell them when they’re wrong.
“I think what’s happening now is not right and not fair. And I think the only way that we’re ever going to find peace in the Middle East is to come up with, what they call, a two-state solution…That’s what I would support. And again, I think that the majority of people in southern Illinois would support that as well, because we need the Middle East violence to end. It’s a huge drain on us as a nation.”
Another topic that is currently being debated in southern Illinois is the proposal to transfer Shawnee National Forest into Shawnee National Park. Roberts said he was not aware of this issue, and Bost said he strongly opposes it.
“I am adamantly, adamantly opposed,” he said. “If it becomes a National Park and not a National Forest, I don’t want to have to tell my constituents ‘you can’t hunt there.’ I don’t want to have to tell my constituents ‘you can’t go there.’ Only (in) certain areas can you go. You wouldn’t be able to ride horses in it, the list goes on and on.”
According to the National Forest Foundation, National Parks focus on preserving the existing state, whereas National Forests manage wildlife, fishing, recreation and a variety of other uses.
“If it’s a park, there becomes all these different rules about ‘you can’t cut this, you can’t clear that.’ And so people speaking about this, most of them do not understand what they’re asking for…The people that are out there that are enjoying the forest would not have the opportunity if it was made into a National Park,” he said.
When asked what they believe is the biggest issue in southern Illinois, both candidates mentioned the economy.
“I think the most important issue is to invest in our people, to invest in our infrastructure, to invest in our economy,” Roberts said. “When those things are fixed, that fixes a lot of other problems. A lot of gun violence is related to crime. A lot of crime is related to poverty. So…we fix the economy, then we make those issues better.”
Bost focused on the issue at a national level, stating that we need to sell gas to our allies overseas.
“When that gives us an economy that starts growing again, removing over-burdensome regulation on almost every industry out there and encouraging economic growth the way…we were running hot prior to COVID, we need to get back to that so that we grow our GDP (gross domestic product), which will allow the true way that we can get ourselves out of the national debt,” he said.
Both candidates also mentioned working to get the Farm Bill passed and promoting Scott Air Force Base.
The U.S. government contains a system of checks and balances, meaning each branch has its own powers to prevent one from becoming too powerful. Roberts said he plans to maintain this by standing up to protect the constitution and providing bipartisan support to certain bills.
“I think if Trump gets elected, it’s even more important that I win the election, because I truly believe that democracy is at stake in this election,” he said, pointing to Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob attacked the United States Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 election results, in which current President Joe Biden defeated then-President Trump.
“(Bost) voted against certifying the election results, even though Joe Biden clearly won the state of Illinois, and…that’s what his constituents wanted. That’s what the people in southern Illinois wanted. They voted for Joe Biden. He should have cast his vote for Joe Biden in order to certify the election,” Roberts said.
Bost said he voted not to certify two states’ 2020 results because the rules for the election process were not set by the states legislatures.
“A couple states (had) the governors change the date of when the election would be without the approval of the state legislature and/or change the way in which the votes would
be taken in, and the other one did it with a board, but not the state legislature,” he said. “So that violated the Constitution right there…The other states got their state legislatures together and actually set their election in place the way it’s supposed to be ran so that there wasn’t any question.”
The Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit brought by Texas that claimed Pennsylvania and three other states violated the constitution when non-legislative actors changed election procedures, finding that Texas had no standing to bring the case, according to the Texas Tribune.
In a follow-up email, a spokesperson provided the Daily Egyptian with a previous statement from Bost: “Two states in particular, Pennsylvania and Arizona, faced objections in the House and Senate to their electoral vote allocations, prompting floor votes in both chambers. I voted to object to the electoral votes of both states because, in my belief, they failed to meet that constitutional standard.”
If reelected, Bost said he will continue to maintain checks and balances by completing the same actions he is currently taking.
“I do have oversight over the VA (Department of Veterans Affairs) and with that, we (are) constantly making sure that they’re doing the job they’re supposed to do, and still have worked fairly well with them on occasion that we can’t,” he said. “That doesn’t mean I’m going to turn a blind eye to things that’s happening, but there are things you can work together on…But I will also be the first to stand up, and I fought both Republican and Democrat over the years on certain issues.”
Election Day is Nov. 5, 2024. For information regarding in-person voting opportunities or absentee ballot applications, visit jacksoncounty-il.gov.
News editor Carly Gist can be reached at [email protected]. To stay up to date on all your southern Illinois news, be sure to follow The Daily Egyptian on Facebook and on X @dailyegyptian.
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