Representative Randy Hultgren

Randall Mark “Randy” Hultgren (born March 1, 1966) is an American politician and attorney who served as the U.S. representative for Illinois’s 14th congressional district from January 3, 2011, to January 3, 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he served four terms in Congress during a period of significant national political change, representing a district that included Chicago’s outer western suburbs and, after redistricting, much of McHenry County. Over the course of his public career, he also served on the DuPage County Board, in the Illinois House of Representatives, and in the Illinois Senate.

Hultgren was born in Park Ridge, Illinois, the youngest of three children of Vernon H. Hultgren and JoAnne R. Hultgren. He lived in Park Ridge from 1966 until 1977. In September 1976, Paul W. Hanerhoff, owner of the Hanerhoff Funeral Home in downtown Wheaton, Illinois, died; in May 1977, Hanerhoff’s widow sold the business to Hultgren’s father. The family moved that year from Park Ridge to Wheaton and lived for eight years in an apartment above the funeral home, which operated as the Hanerhoff-Hultgren Funeral Home until 1987, when it became the Hultgren Funeral Home. Hultgren was raised in a religious household—his grandfather was a Baptist pastor—and he attended Wheaton Academy in West Chicago, Illinois, graduating in 1984.

Following high school, Hultgren became the third generation of his family to attend Bethel College & Seminary (now Bethel University) in Arden Hills, Minnesota. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude in political science and speech communication in 1988. Shortly after graduation, he moved to Washington, D.C., where from 1988 to 1990 he worked for Republican U.S. Representative Dennis Hastert of Illinois’s 14th congressional district, rising from intern to office manager. Returning to Wheaton in 1990, he purchased a small house and became active in local Republican politics, winning election as Republican precinct committeeman for Milton Township Precinct 20. He simultaneously pursued legal studies at the Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago-Kent College of Law in Chicago, earning a J.D. in 1993. In 1991 he married Christy L. Nungesser after her graduation from Bethel College. In August 1992 he had his original small house demolished and arranged for a 125-year-old historic Wheaton house he had purchased for $1 to be moved one block west onto his lot and placed on a new foundation.

Hultgren’s elective career began at the county level. In October 1993 he announced his candidacy for the DuPage County Board, seeking the District 4 seat being vacated by Gwen Henry in her bid for DuPage County Board chairman. In the March 1994 Republican primary, the 27-year-old first-time candidate narrowly defeated Wheaton City Councilman Grant Eckhoff by 252 votes—less than a 1 percent margin out of nearly 22,000 ballots cast—benefiting from support among Republicans who had previously backed Peter Roskam in his 1992 state House campaign. In the November 1994 general election, Hultgren and incumbent Republican Pat Carr of Wheaton easily defeated their two Democratic opponents. From December 1994 to December 1998, Hultgren served a four-year term on the then all-Republican 24-member DuPage County Board, whose members also served concurrently as DuPage County Forest Preserve Commissioners.

In 1998, when Republican State Representative Peter Roskam retired from Illinois’s 40th House District to run for Congress, Hultgren ran to succeed him and was elected unopposed. He won reelection to a second term, again unopposed, in 2000. After the decennial redistricting, he sought election in the newly drawn 95th House District and defeated Democratic candidate Dirk Enger by a margin of 61 percent to 37 percent. During his tenure in the Illinois House of Representatives, he served on the Death Penalty Committee and the Education Committee, participating in debates over criminal justice and state education policy.

In 2006, Roskam again vacated a seat—this time the 48th District in the Illinois Senate—to run for Congress. Hultgren sought the open Senate seat and won the Republican primary with 60 percent of the vote against Naperville City Councilman Dick Furstenau. He faced no Democratic opponent in the general election and was elected to the Illinois Senate, where he represented the 48th District from 2007 to 2011. The district included parts of DuPage, Kane, and Will counties and encompassed all or part of Aurora, Batavia, Geneva, Naperville, North Aurora, Warrenville, West Chicago, Wheaton, and Winfield. Hultgren was reelected to a second Senate term unopposed in 2008. In the Senate he served on several key committees, including the Senate Committee on Labor (where he was minority spokesperson), the Senate Committee on Commerce and Economic Development, the Senate Committee on Environment and Energy, the Senate Committee on Housing and Community Affairs, the Senate Committee on Judiciary Civil Law, and the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, giving him a broad portfolio in labor, economic, environmental, housing, and regulatory matters.

On September 28, 2009, Hultgren announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination in Illinois’s 14th congressional district, a seat then held by Democrat Bill Foster. He won the Republican primary on February 2, 2010, and in the November 2010 general election defeated Foster with 51 percent of the vote to Foster’s 45 percent. Hultgren took office in the U.S. House of Representatives on January 3, 2011, representing a hybrid suburban-rural district that extended from the outer western suburbs of Chicago through Dixon to Cambridge in western Illinois. Following the 2010 Census, Illinois lost a congressional seat, and the Democratic-controlled Illinois General Assembly redrew the congressional map. Hultgren’s 14th District lost its far western territory and became more compact, centered on Chicago’s outer western suburbs and absorbing most of McHenry County, the only Chicago collar county that President Barack Obama did not carry in 2012. The redrawn district also incorporated areas from the former 8th District, represented by freshman Republican Joe Walsh, including Walsh’s home and much of McHenry County. Although Walsh initially considered challenging Hultgren in the 2012 Republican primary for the more favorable 14th District, he ultimately chose to run in the reconfigured 8th District instead.

Hultgren was reelected to Congress three times. In 2012 he defeated Democratic nominee Dennis Anderson with 59 percent of the vote. In 2014 he again faced Anderson and increased his margin, winning 65 percent of the vote. In 2016 he defeated Democratic challenger Jim Walz with 59 percent. Throughout his four terms, he participated in the legislative process as a Republican member of the House, representing the interests of his constituents during debates over federal spending, economic policy, and social issues. His service in Congress coincided with the later years of the Obama administration and the beginning of the Trump administration, a period marked by partisan polarization and significant policy disputes over health care, financial regulation, and foreign affairs.

In addition to his committee assignments in the House, Hultgren played an active role in U.S. human rights and foreign policy oversight. From 2015 to 2019 he served on the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (the Helsinki Commission), where he worked “to promote human rights, stability, and security in the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA) region,” placing “special priority in protecting religious liberties, preventing human rights violations, combating human trafficking, and preventing Russian aggression into neighboring countries.” He also served as a Commissioner on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, working “to raise awareness about political prisoners who are being deprived of civil and political rights by their own government.” In February 2017 he was appointed co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, which “promotes international human rights through hearings, briefings and other awareness-building activities, and by providing expertise on key issues,” further underscoring his engagement with international human rights issues during his congressional tenure.

In 2018, Hultgren sought a fifth term in the U.S. House. He was unopposed in the Republican primary. On March 20, 2018, Lauren Underwood won the Democratic primary with 57.35 percent of the vote, defeating Matt Brolley, Jim Walz, Victor Swanson, John Hosta, George Weber, and Daniel Roldan-Johnson. In the November general election, Underwood defeated Hultgren with 52 percent of the vote to his 48 percent, ending his congressional service on January 3, 2019. After leaving Congress, Hultgren remained known for his long record in Illinois and national politics, his legal background, and his focus on issues of religious liberty and human rights in U.S. foreign policy.