Randy Hultgren

The 48th Senate District includes parts of DuPage, Kane, and Will counties and all or part of Aurora, Batavia, Geneva, Naperville, North Aurora, Warrenville, West Chicago, Wheaton, and Winfield.

Randall Mark Hultgren (born March 1, 1966) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for IL's 14th congressional district from 2011 to 2019.

He is a member of the Republican Party.

Randall Mark "Randy" Hultgren, the youngest of three children of Vernon H. Hultgren and JoAnne R. Hultgren, lived in Park Ridge, Illinois from 1966 to 1977.

In September 1976 Paul W. Hanerhoff, the owner of Hanerhoff Funeral Home in downtown Wheaton, Illinois since 1943, died.

In May 1977 Dorothy B. Hanerhoff sold the funeral home to Hultgren's father, and it was called the Hanerhoff-Hultgren Funeral Home until 1987, when it became the Hultgren Funeral Home.

The Hultgrens moved from Park Ridge to Wheaton in 1977 and lived upstairs from the funeral home for eight years.

Hultgren attended Wheaton Academy in West Chicago, Illinois, graduating in 1984.

Hultgren, whose grandfather was a Baptist pastor, then became the third generation of his family to attend Bethel College & Seminary in Arden Hills, Minnesota, where he earned a B.A. magna cum laude in political science and speech communication in 1988.

He next moved to Washington, D.C. to work as an aide to Republican U.S. Representative Dennis Hastert (IL-14) from 1988 to 1990, where he rose from intern to office manager.

Hultgren then returned to his hometown where in 1990 he purchased a small house and was elected Republican precinct committeeman for Milton Township Precinct 20 in Wheaton, and began attending the Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago-Kent College of Law in Chicago.

In 1991 he married Christy L. Nungesser after she graduated from Bethel College.

In August 1992 Hultgren had his small house demolished and had a historic 125-year-old Wheaton house he purchased for $1 moved one block west to his lot and had a new foundation poured under it.

In 1993 he earned a J.D. from IIT Chicago-Kent.

In October 1993 he announced he would run in the March 1994 Republican primary for the DuPage County Board District 4 seat being vacated by Gwen Henry in her bid to be DuPage County Board Chairman.

In the March 1994 Republican primary, the then 27-year-old first-time candidate Hultgren narrowly edged Wheaton City Councilman Grant Eckhoff by only 252 votes, a margin of less than 1 percent, out of almost 22,000 Republican ballots cast in DuPage County Board District 4.

Hultgren received a great deal of support from those who had backed Peter Roskam of Wheaton in Roskam's first campaign for Illinois House District 40 two years earlier.

In the November 1994 general election Hultgren and incumbent Republican DuPage County District 4 board member Pat Carr of Wheaton easily defeated their two Democratic opponents.

Hultgren served one 4-year term as one of the then all-Republican 24-member DuPage County Board from December 1994 to December 1998.

DuPage County Board members at that time also served as DuPage County Forest Commissioners.

After redistricting, Hultgren decided to run in the newly redrawn 95th House District and defeated Democrat Dirk Enger 61%–37%.

Hultgren was on the Death Penalty Committee and the Education Committee.

In 1998 incumbent Republican State Representative Peter Roskam of Illinois's 40th House District decided to retire in order to run for Congress.

Hultgren ran and won unopposed.

He won reelection to a second term unopposed in 2000.

In 2006 incumbent State Senator Peter Roskam of Illinois's 48th Senate District decided to retire to run for Congress again.

Hultgren ran and won the Republican primary 60%–40% over Naperville City Councilman Dick Furstenau.

He won the general election unopposed.

Hultgren represented the 48th district Senate seat in the Illinois General Assembly from 2007 to 2011.

In 2008 he won reelection to a second term unopposed.

On September 28, 2009, Hultgren announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination in IL's 14th congressional district and won the party's nomination in the February 2nd primary election.

Hultgren defeated Democratic incumbent Bill Foster 51%–45%.

During his first term, Hultgren represented a hybrid suburban-rural district that stretched from the outer western suburbs of Chicago through Dixon all the way to Cambridge on the other side of the state.

As a result of the decennial reapportionment following the 2010 Census, Illinois lost one seat in the US House of Representatives.

The new district map (now with only 18 districts, and drawn by the Democratic-controlled Illinois General Assembly) saw Hultgren's district lose its vast western portion, becoming much more compact and centered around Chicago's outer western suburbs.

Notably, it absorbed most of McHenry County, the only collar county Barack Obama did not win in 2012.

The redrawn 14th included areas previously part of the neighboring 8th district, represented by fellow freshman Republican Joe Walsh.

The new map drew Walsh's home, along with much of the McHenry County portion of the old 8th, into the 14th.

At the same time the 8th was made significantly more Democratic, prompting Walsh to consider challenging Hultgren in the primary for the much friendlier 14th.

In his 2018 reelection campaign, Hultgren was defeated by Democratic nominee Lauren Underwood.