Jason Plummer

Plummer represents the 54th District, which is located on the Illinois side of Greater St. Louis and includes all or portions of Bond, Clinton, Effingham, Fayette, Madison, Marion, Washington, and St. Clair counties.

Robert Jason Plummer (born June 4, 1982) is an American businessman and politician serving as a Republican member of the Illinois Senate and serves as Assistant Leader in the Illinois Republican Senate Caucus.

During the 2008 Republican Party presidential primaries, Plummer ran to be a delegate to the 2008 Republican National Convention from Illinois's 19th congressional district for the presidential campaign of former Governor Mitt Romney.

He was the 2010 Republican nominee for Lieutenant Governor, which he narrowly lost.

As of November 26, 2022, Jason Plummer is a member of the Illinois Republican State Central Committee representing Republicans residing in Illinois's 15th congressional district.

Plummer's family resided in Staunton, Illinois at his birth and moved to Glen Carbon, Illinois.

Plummer lived in Glen Carbon and Edwardsville, Illinois, where he graduated from Edwardsville High School, before attending and graduating from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with a B.S. in finance.

At the University of Illinois, Plummer was active in several organizations including the Army ROTC Fighting Illini Battalion.

After college, he interned at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC.

He commissioned as an Intelligence Officer in the United States Navy Reserves after college.

At age 25, Plummer was elected Chairman of the Madison County Republican Party, the minority party in a historic stronghold for the Democratic Party of Illinois.

The youngest party chairman in Illinois at the time, he was elected on a platform of combating local corruption and rebuilding the local GOP in one of the largest counties in the state by population.

Since Plummer's election, the Madison County Republican Party has made significant gains, winning numerous county-wide offices and taking majority control of the county board for the first time in history.

Plummer was the Republican nominee for Lieutenant Governor of Illinois in 2010.

Plummer won the primary and was paired with the winner of the Republican gubernatorial primary, State Senator Bill Brady, for the general election.

The Brady/Plummer ticket narrowly lost to incumbent Illinois Governor Pat Quinn in the 2010 gubernatorial election.

Plummer was the campaign's voice on economic issues in an election heavily centered on the economy and government corruption issues.

Plummer was one of the youngest senators ever appointed to leadership and is the only senator from Southern Illinois serving in Senate leadership during the 102nd Illinois General Assembly.

During the 102nd Illinois General Assembly (2021-2023), Plummer serves on the following committees: Executive Appointments (Minority Spokesperson); Financial Institutions (Minority Spokesperson); Behavioral and Mental Health; Commerce; Environment and Conservation; Health; Labor; Subcommittee on Children & Family; Sub.

on Managed Care Organizations; Redistricting; Redistricting- South Cook County; Redistricting- Southern Illinois (Sub-Minority Spokesperson); Redistricting- Southwestern IL (Sub-Minority Spokesperson).

Plummer was first elected to the Illinois Senate in 2018.

He defeated three others in the primary election, garnering over 57% of the total vote in the four-way race.

In the general election he carried all eight counties of the district and defeated his opponent with over 70% of the vote, becoming the first Republican State Senator from Madison County in five decades.

In January 2021, Plummer was named Assistant Republican Leader on the Illinois Senate Republican Leadership Team for the 102nd Illinois General Assembly.

During the 101st Illinois General Assembly (2019-2021), Plummer served on the following committees: Appropriations I, Appropriations II, Committee of the Whole, Environment and Conservation, Executive Appointments, Financial Institutions, and Public Health.

In January 2021, Plummer was an outspoken critic of Illinois House Bill 3653, appearing on Chicago TV and in print to try to defeat the bill he claimed would endanger Illinois families and communities.

Though opposed by Plummer, numerous other legislators, the law enforcement community, and other groups, the controversial bill passed the Illinois Senate and the Illinois House, garnering the minimum number of votes needed to pass.

In December 2019, Plummer clashed with then Republican Caucus Leader, and Plummer's former 2010 running mate, Senator Bill Brady, over ethics issues.

In the fall of 2019, the Illinois House and Senate established a new ethics committee to study and recommend tougher ethical laws that might prevent abuses of power, corruption, or inside dealing within the legislature.

Plummer, who originally sought a position on the committee, received an appointment that he then declined to accept.

Communications traded between Brady and Plummer eventually came out that showed Plummer refused the appointment because he claimed Brady offered him the appointment to the commission on the condition that Plummer would not file legislation to ban lawmakers' ability to profit on gambling, a bill supported by other senators but that would have impacted Brady personally.

According to media reports that later came out, Plummer had been openly pressuring Brady to pursue more stringent ethical reforms in private Senate Republican meetings, but the Minority Leader instead opted to embrace "low-hanging fruit” offered by Democrats. Plummer, a first term senator at the time, received favorable commentary from other legislators and the media for his actions and subsequently filed a package of bills on topics relating to legislators' involvement in gambling and recreational marijuana investments, pay-to-play and lobbying activities, campaign spending activities, and other ethics-related topics.

On the issue of taxes, Plummer supports lowering the state income tax.

In April 2020, Plummer called on the federal government to not "bail out" Illinois, calling it the "most corrupt" state in the country while highlighting investigations and convictions of lawmakers in the state.

“Don't let it happen.

Federal dollars should not prop up Illinois’ failed system,” he added.

His comments came after it became public that the Illinois Senate Democrat Caucus had sent a letter to Washington, DC lawmakers requesting over $41 Billion in federal funds for Illinois.

“The message from Illinois’ elected leaders is crystal clear: no humility, no regrets, no acknowledgment of failures, and no strings attached.

American Taxpayers — bail us out!” Plummer wrote in an op-ed, adding “Why should the fiscally prudent people of Wyoming, Missouri or elsewhere be responsible for the failed policies of Illinois?”.

His op-ed appeared in national media and Plummer discussed the issue on Fox News Channel.