Rep. Kelly Burke on Cancer, Leaving the House, and Priorities
Rep. Kelly Burke (D-Evergreen Park) announced Friday she won’t seek re-election in 2024.
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Rep. Kelly Burke’s (D-Evergreen Park) announcement Friday she wouldn’t seek re-election next year seemed to come out of nowhere, but it was actually the culmination of a year-long journey that led her to re-evaluate the priorities in her life.
Burke, who has served in the House since 2011, had a routine screening around Christmas last year and doctors found a marker for colon cancer.
“It was very early,” she said. “I was incredibly lucky.”
She had surgery to remove the tumor in February and began a regiment of chemotherapy in April, around the end of the spring legislative session, that went until June.
She said it took most of the summer to get back to full strength, but ongoing checks every three months have been clear.
“It was very scary,” Burke said. “I just took it a day at a time and got through each day.”
Burke, who is also the Mayor of Evergreen Park, did her best to keep up all of her engagements and continue to serve constituents.
“It was mostly fatigue, but I used the weekends to really rest up,” she said, but says she feels “great” now.
The diagnosis and battle, Burke said, led to her decision not to seek re-election to the House.
“Once it happens, you’re just focused on the next step to make sure you’re doing the right things and making sure you’re staying as healthy as you can,” she said. “It wasn’t until I had time to recover from the effects of the chemotherapy that I really started to think whether staying as State Representative and running for re-election was something I should do.”
Burke chairs the powerful House Revenue and Finance committee and calls her job in the House one she “absolutely loves.”
“You just start to look and see it’s been great, I’ve accomplished some good things, but it’s time to move on,” she said.
In fact, Burke says the cancer battle was the “main factor” in her decision to step aside.
Burke is endorsing local attorney Rick Ryan as her replacement. Ryan ran for State Senate in 2000, losing to then-Republican Senator Patrick O’Malley. Burke’s district is not expected to be in play for Republicans in 2024. President Biden won it by 16 points in 2020.