Exit Interview: After 24 Years, Shimkus "At Peace"
Congressman John Shimkus (R-Collinsville) is retiring from Congress after 24-years in the House.
When John Shimkus first went to Washington, D.C., Bill Clinton was still President, nobody had any idea what an iPhone would be, and Michael Jordan still had a couple of NBA Championships to win. Much has changed about society and politics since Shimkus joined Congress, and as he spends his final weeks in the Capitol, Shimkus is reflecting about his time in office.
“I’m at peace,” said Shimkus, speaking to The Illinoize from Washington, DC in the final weeks of his congressional career. “It’s time for me to exit, at least this portion, of my public life. [I’ve had] a good, slow ramp down that’s allowed me to get things in order.”
Shimkus first ran for Congress in 1994, losing to Democrat Dick Durbin. When Durbin was elected to the Senate in 1996, Shimkus succeeded in replacing Durbin in the Metro East-based district.
As time has gone on, Shimkus’ southern Illinois districts have grown larger, and more conservative. While that has made his General Election campaigns easier, it has opened him up to criticism within his own party.
“The hard part is when people expect perfection. They expect that 100%, even my most conservative supporters and friends. They really are not nice when you don’t reach that standard,” he said. “Government exists and survives based on compromise. People have to accept that in a representative government it’s not my way or the highway.”
Shimkus says he received blowback when he made public criticisms of President Donald Trump.
“The harder part is not being angered by your enemies. The hard part is having your friends angry with you,” Shimkus said.
The person elected to replace Shimkus, Republican Mary Miller, has aligned herself with the far-right House Freedom Caucus. Shimkus says her votes will likely make conservatives in the district happy.
(Disclosure: I worked for a candidate opposing Miller in the 2020 primary.)
Shimkus has been criticized often from both sides of the aisle for breaking a self-imposed term limit pledge. He said he was influenced to break it because of arm-twisting from then-President George W. Bush.
“The only regret I have is the term limits pledge. That has haunted me forever. In all honesty, I feel pretty bad about it. I did have the President ask me to do that. That’s when we started the discussion of how I was going to do it.”
The district Shimkus has represented since 2013 has grown larger in area, to nearly 15,000 square miles, consisting of all or parts of 33 counties stretching from near St. Louis to Metropolis on the southern tip of Illinois north to Danville.
“I did my best to cover it, but it’s too big,” he said. “A member of the House is supposed to be the closest at the federal level to the people. Those folks in rural America and in my district, they expect to see you. I think the hardest part for me was, being in DC all this time, and then going home, and having to spend the night on the road as I traveled around the district. Then you really start thinking ‘I’m back in Illinois, but I’m really not at home.’ I think that was part of my calculation of when it was time to retire.”
It is the most Republican district in the state, and Shimkus knows Democrats drew a map to make the district as large as possible to make other seats more winnable for Democrats.
But after 24 years of flights from St. Louis to Washington, fundraising, parades, missed family events, and stress. Shimkus says he’s ready to hang it up.
He’s preparing to teach classes beginning in January at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville.
But he’ll always be thankful for the opportunity.
“I think it’s a great job. I think it’s the best job in America.”