This Republican candidate for the 13th District says southwestern Illinois is ‘fed up’
Jesse Reising says he knew Illinois’ 13th Congressional District wasn’t drawn for him when he decided to run.
“But a lot of people are fed up,” and ready to vote GOP in the Nov. 8 midterm election, said the 32-year-old attorney from Decatur.
State Democrats re-drew the district to be party-friendly by including East St. Louis, Belleville, Springfield, Decatur and Champaign-Urbana and excluding more rural portions of central and southwestern Illinois.
It won’t be the first time Reising is the underdog. He knows how quickly fortunes can turn.
As valedictorian of his graduating class at Decatur’s Eisenhower High School and with a football scholarship in hand for Yale University, the future lined up neatly ahead of him. Reising (pronounced “rising”) would study economics and political science, and then go directly into the U.S. Marine Corps after college.
But as a senior in his final game, the guy known on campus as “that kid who’s going into the Marines” suffered a severe neck injury when he collided with another player. It left his right arm paralyzed until two major surgeries to reconnect severed nerves restored some motion and feeling.
The injury extinguished the young man’s plans and perspective, but not his “why to live,” Reising said, quoting the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. He would have to find another way to serve his country.
If he couldn’t be a Marine, he would serve as a civilian, Reising said. After graduating from Yale, he worked in Afghanistan for a military contractor, the engineering and construction company Fluor. He returned to the U.S. to attend law school at Harvard University to become a federal prosecutor. Reising said he felt representing the United States was the best way he could “support and defend the Constitution.”
“Symbolically, for me to be able to say, ‘Hey, I’ve taken back control of my life. I’m not letting this injury dictate my circumstances,’ that seemed to be the most profound way for me to be able to do that,” Reising said.
When a judicial clerkship ended following his three years as a prosecutor, he joined the international law firm Kirkland and Ellis in Chicago. Prominent legal leaders have worked at the firm, including U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Reising left to run for Congress, returning to Decatur where he owns a home.
Reising’s upbringing in Decatur, the town generations of his family have called home since 1831, defined the policies he hopes to advance in Congress.
“It all goes back to Decatur,” he said.
While Reising never suffered from poverty or a broken home — his father is a retired software developer from agriculture giant ADM and his mother a retired nurse — he saw the pain a dwindling manufacturing economy brought to friends and schoolmates.
“In that sort of environment where people have to rely on each other in the most meaningful ways possible, safety, livelihood, you form incredible bonds with each other,” Reising said. “It’s sort of this antidote to this modern society of individualism we all have.”
Reising’s views align with GOP campaign talking points on schools, police and the role of public health. He wants all COVID-19 restrictions lifted. He worries about calls to “defund the police.” Though he supports being “honest about our country’s history,” he opposes children learning “all school curriculum through the lens of systemic racism.”
“What are you conveying to a 7-year-old about their possibilities for prospects in life? Are you teaching them that there are systemic barriers that are already going to be impossible for them to overcome so they effectively start believing that, you know, why even try?”
Reising didn’t know of any schools in the 13th District teaching children they can’t overcome barriers because of racism, but he said “ideologies permeate everything that gets talked about.”
Black metro-east residents say racism is still very real and it affects schools too. Last year, a group of alumni from Edwardsville High School pushed the district to hire a diversity, equity and inclusion director who could address racist incidents and coordinate events celebrating diversity. In East St. Louis, teachers start the school day for younger students with affirmations such as, “I am beautiful,” and “I am smart.”
If he were elected, Reising said he would fight for a “parents’ bill of rights that will allow parents to know what their children are learning and empower them to make the best decisions for their children’s education.”
“I went to schools that were about equal numbers of white and Black people and I talked with many of my friends about these issues, and I think they largely agree that we shouldn’t be viewing everything through the lens of race,” Reising said.
If he were elected, Reising would oppose any efforts to redirect law enforcement dollars. Crime is “largely a tone issue,” he said. If law enforcement were better supported, police would feel more valued.
“The brave men and women in uniform in our country largely feel vilified right now and the tone starts at the top,” Reising said. “We need to stand up against these harmful and destructive messages that are being conveyed like defund the police.”
Illinois passed criminal justice reform in 2021 that continues to face criticism. Advocates say the law had nothing to do with a national movement to use law enforcement funding for social services, but Republicans continue to argue it makes “Illinois a less safe place to live.”
Reising promised to vote against spending on new social service programs included in the Biden administration’s Build Back Better proposal.
“We need to keep American’s hard-earned dollars in their pockets,” Reising said.
The candidate sees room for bipartisanship on veterans issues. While he was working in Afghanistan, Reising founded the Warrior-Scholar Project, a nonprofit that provides “academic boot camps” to prepare service members for a transition to college.
“I’m a lifelong conservative Republican, but I’m someone who’s been out in the world getting things done and as it relates to veterans in particular,” Reising said. “That’s one area where I would hope that I could agree with my colleagues.”
As of mid-February, two other Republican candidates were running in the June 28 primary: Regan Deering, an educator and small business owner from Decatur, and Matt Hausman, former director of the Champaign nonprofit Feeding Our Kids. Democratic candidates included Nikki Budzinski, a political adviser and labor activist from Peoria; David Palmer, a retirement adviser from Champaign; and Ellis Everett Taylor, a minimum wage worker from Decatur.
Reising considers the fifth century Roman ruler Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus his most influential political inspiration for his “humility in service.” According to legend, an elderly Cincinnatus left his farm when asked to assume the dictatorship and rescue Rome’s army from the attacking Aequi people. After securing victory, Cincinnatus promptly resigned and went back to his farm.
“He had the right mix of humility but also wanting to serve when called,” Reising said. “He’s always someone who I think of when making decisions like (running for Congress).”
Reising hasn’t held an elected office before, but said his experience has prepared him for the House. He said he wants to fight Democratic Gov J.B. Pritzker’s policies and the legacy of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, the longest-serving state House leader in American history.
“The Illinois Mike Madigan, J.B. Pritzker machine has just drawn this district to favor one of their own,” Reising said. “I knew I had to stand up to our shared values here in southern and central Illinois.”
This story was originally published February 18, 2022 at 7:00 AM.
