In the Field: Three Conservatives in Policy Harmony in Race for Senate
(L-R): Former Dixon Mayor Li Arellano, Dixon City Council member Chris Bishop, and Henry County Board member Tim Yager are battling for the heavily Republican 37th Senate District seat.
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When Republican primary voters choose a new State senator in the sprawling 37th District March 19, they’ll be choosing between three candidates who nearly mirror the policy positions of their opponents.
Three candidates are competing to replace Sen. Win Stoller (R-East Peoria), who is not seeking re-election. Stoller’s former Peoria-based district was greatly expanded in the 2021 redistricting to stretch more than 80 miles north to south and 65 miles west to east.
The 37th Senate District (in yellow).
Tim Yager, a 54-year-old farmer and former wireless company executive from Geneseo is also a member of the Henry County Board.
Speaking to The Illinoize Thursday while campaigning in Sterling in Whiteside County, Yager said he has too many friends and family who have moved out of Illinois, including a daughter and three of his grandchildren, and wants to keep them in Illinois.
“I can sit on the sideline and whine and complain or I can go to Springfield and try to make a difference,” Yager said. “I’m not runnin’ for a better job. I’m not runnin’ for some great aspiration. This state’s a mess and we need someone to go down to Springfield with no agenda who can fix the state.”
Arellano, a 43-year-old small business owner and Sergeant in the Army Reserves, who served three tours in in the Middle East, also served as Mayor of Dixon from 2015-2023.
At a local coffee shop across the street from Dixon High School Thursday, the kind of local economic development Arellano says he stressed while Mayor, he eliminated much of the city’s debt and wants to do the same in state government.
“If I could do one thing, it would be convincing both sides to get a debt repayment plan that’s serious and aggressive,” he said. “When that happens, there will be money to invest in [state] government and roads and schools and economic development.”
Chris Bishop is an understated 38-year-old grain merchandiser and former civics teacher and wrestling coach, equates a campaign with his time on the mat.
“I don’t mind a good scrap,” he said. “That’s what we’ve got going on. You need to respect the people you’re dealing with in the situation you’re in, but we need somebody who can stand up for the values we believe in, especially in the rural part of the state.”
There has been no public polling in the race thus far and none of the candidates are paying for polls. Many local Republicans believe Yager and Arellano are the frontrunners in the lead up to the March 19 primary.
When discussing policy, though, there is hardly any difference between the three candidates.
As former President Donald Trump pushes toward the GOP nomination even after losing Illinois by more than a million votes twice, all three kept his sometimes boorish comments and criminal issues at length. But all praised Trump for his economic policies.
“You’ve gotta focus on policy and what the economy was doing while he [was president,” Bishop said. “Some of the rhetoric I can definitely do without and some of the behavior is over the top. Honestly, if he corrected that, I think everybody would be all over it.”
Dixon City Council member Chris Bishop.
For me, it boils down to to the things he accomplished,” Yager said. “When you look at the alternative, there is no good alternative. When you look at the things Trump did while he was president, I thought he was successful and I thought he moved the country forward in a lot of different areas.”
Arellano called the district “Trump country.”
“When Trump is focused on the economy and the border, I think he’s undefeatable,” Arellano said. “While there are plenty of people upset with what he chooses to say and how he chooses to say it, they look at it and say they don’t want the country torn apart by President Biden and his inflationary policies and open borders that are wrecking our nation.”
With two city officials and a county board member in the race, all three weighted in on Governor JB Pritzker’s proposal to eliminate the state grocery tax, which would eliminate $300-400 million from the budgets of local governments.
Arellano called Pritzker a “hypocrite.”
“The Governor is trying to take a lot of political glory for spending other governments’ money,” Arellano said. “He’s proposing a tax cut that takes all of these little municipalities and makes them figure out how to fix a budget hole while taking credit as this benevolent giver of tax breaks, which is nonsense. Somebody else has to figure out how to pay for it.”
Former Dixon Mayor Li Arellano.
“This is a political stunt,” Bishop said. “Municipalities like Dixon are going to reel from [repealing the tax.] A lot of things a city pays for is funded by those taxes coming in. Now we’ll have to make it up somewhere else. It’s just smoke and mirrors from the Governor.”
Yager says Democrats are trying to cover up policies that caused grocery prices to rise.
“I think most people see through this as election season propaganda by the Governor,” Yager said. “This issue rests squarely on the feet of the Democrats and their policies post-COVID and the stimulus that caused inflation. Now they’re trying to save face and lower the taxes. I’m always for lower taxes, but it needs to be done the right way and not for political gain.”
Henry County Board member Tim Yager.
Yager blames Pritzker for taxing businesses and penalizing cities to fill a billion dollar budget hole.
All three candidates say immigration and the state’s migrant crisis is a top issue for voters they keep hearing.
Arellano, whose grandfather was a Mexican immigrant, calls the crisis a “very personal” issue. He wants the sate to repeal the so-called TRUST Act, which limits contact local police can have with immigration authorities
Arellano says he supports asylum seekers entering the country, but says the Biden administration has been too lenient admitting initial applicants into the country.
But, he defended Republican voters who, across the country, have ramped up anti-immigrant sentiment.
“Voters around here are a little more nuanced on these issues,” Arellano said. “When you sit there and pick their brain, they’re quick to specify they don’t have a problem with legal immigration. They have a problem with illegal immigration.”
Yager says the federal government should be limiting the amount of asylum seekers admitted to the country to ease the humanitarian crisis being faced by cities like Chicago.
“That’s the problem with letting them across the border in the first place, is now you’ve just got this humanitarian crisis spread all over the country,” he said. “It is far too easy to get to the border and claim asylum and enter this country.”
Yager blamed the state’s status as a “sanctuary” for illegal immigrants, even though sanctuary policies don’t impact asylum seekers in the country legally.
Bishop said the state needs to limit migrants into the state until the federal government gets a grasp on the issue.
“I don’t think spending our tax dollars that way is what Illinois needs to do, especially with the financial situation that we’re in,” Bishop said. “Do I want to see human beings suffer? Absolutely not. But, we can’t continue to let [them] pour in because this is a situation we can’t solve. We need to stop the influx immediately.”
All three oppose the assault weapon ban enacted by the General Assembly in 2023.
Bishop blames mental health for issues for mass shootings like Highland Park and Aurora.
“Those [mass shootings] were perpetrated by individuals that I believe have mental health issues. If someone has mental health issues and you know they have access to weapons, that is something that needs to be brought up,” he said. “What we’ve done is take law abiding citizens who have owned weapons for a long time and been responsible with them are now [they are] losing their rights because of folks who didn’t follow the law. It’s not the responsible gun owners causing issues.”
Yager agreed on some limits to limits on gun ownership.
“I think there are certain types of individuals that shouldn’t be allowed to own guns,” Yager said. “When you look at the gun violence out there, there aren’t many carried out with legal firearms by legal firearms owners. They’re infringing my rights and doing nothing to get the illegal guns out of people’s hands.”
But Arellano opposes limits on any gun rights.
“Democrats have lost all trustworthiness in the eyes of conservatives over how they approach gun rights,” Arellano said. “If we’re going to have a discussion about something like [limitations on ownership], we couldn’t have Pritzker at the table, who helped usher in and push forward the most liberal, anti-gun legislation in America. If a Governor and state have the right to ban some of the most common rifles in America without a constitutional amendment, then the constitution is broken.”
Bishop ended 2023 with around $20,000 in the bank and has loaned himself another $50,000. Yager finished 2023 with around $38,000 cash on hand. He has reported around $16,000 in large donations so far this year. Arellano ended last year with around $26,000 cash on hand and has reported $23,500 in large donations so far this year.
Yager is supported by Congressman Darin LaHood. Stoller supports Arellano. Rep. Brad Fritts (R-Amboy) announced an endorsement for Bishop on Friday.
No Democrat appears on the primary ballot and the district is considered safe for the GOP. President Trump won the district by 17 points in both 2016 and 2020. GOP gubernatorial nominee Darren Bailey won the district by 21 points in 2022.
