Jacksonville alderman to take on Davidsmeyer in fall election
Democrat Brandon Adams, a Jacksonville alderman, is on the Nov. 3 ballot to take on state Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer, R-Jacksonville, for the 100th House District seat.
Democratic county chairs selected Adams for the race this week.
“I look at this campaign as fulfilling my duty in democracy,” said Adams, 45. “No election should have an incumbent go unchallenged.”
Davidsmeyer, 40, has been in the House since late 2012. He overcame a primary challenge in 2018, but faced no Democrat in that year’s general election. No Democrat filed to run in the primary this year, but state law allows major parties to fill ballot vacancies after the primary. Adams also had to submit petition signatures to secure his place as a general election candidate.
“Healthcare is what brought me into politics,” Adams said in the letter to Democratic officials. “Americans deserve healthcare and treatment. I fight so others don’t suffer from what I went through.”
Adams, a Jacksonville native, contracted West Nile virus after being bitten by a mosquito while fishing following an out-of-state welding job in 2013, and was in a medically induced coma for two months.
He said he didn’t have insurance and had medical bills of about $400,000. His intensive care bill of more than $300,000 was ultimately paid by a combination of Medicaid and having some costs forgiven.
He receives Social Security disability and $300 per month for his job as alderman. He also has trained to be a welding inspector.
“Expanding investments in skilled apprenticeships and technical training for more Americans to get these great careers is vital,” he said.
Adams had done professional welding as a union steelworker in central Indiana after graduating from Midwest Technical Institute in 2000. He was a traveling welder, working in various parts of the country, through 2013.
He was elected alderman in 2019, and also is a Democratic precinct committeeman. On the council, spearheading an initiative to allow on-site recreational cannabis consumption was his most successful achievement, he said. He’s also advocated for better internet service and a higher minimum wage for the city.
As a state representative, he said, he would push to get more people insured, strengthen unions, provide grants to promote use of renewable energy and promote home ownership.
“This office deserves a person who will improve government, not shrink it,” he said.
Davidsmeyer, vice president IRC Inc., a Jacksonville road building firm, said he has backed investments for rural areas, including improved internet access.
“We as a state are lagging the nation in economic growth, and the reasons are the exact policies that he’s discussing,” Davidsmeyer said of Adams.
He said Adams is “probably your guy” for those who favor “one-party rule and very little balance,” which is the way Davidsmeyer sees things running now in Illinois under Democratic control.
Davidsmeyer remains a co-sponsor of a House resolution filed last year that would urge Congress to declare Chicago its own state.
Davidsmeyer said Friday that though he doesn’t think the change will ever happen, his point is to “interject a realistic point of view” about the differences between Chicago and the rest of the state. He said rural areas of the state have a difficult time competing with rural areas in other states under “Chicago politics and policies” such as high worker compensation costs.
“I think it should be discussed more,” Adams said of the idea of Chicago becoming a separate state.
Asked if he would back House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, for another term as speaker, Adams said, “I have not looked into his record enough to have an opinion, but I do support the people in the Democratic Party.”
The 100th extends into parts of western Sangamon County.
Contact Bernard Schoenburg: Bernard.schoenburg@sj-r.com, 788-1540, twitter.com/bschoenburg