Cheri Bustos

Cheryl Lea Bustos ( BOOST-ohss; née Callahan; born October 17, 1961) is an American lobbyist. Formerly a journalist, healthcare executive, and politician, she served as the U.S. representative from Illinois's 17th congressional district from 2013 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the first woman elected to Congress from her district in the northwestern part of the state, anchored by the Illinois side of the Quad Cities and partially including Peoria and Rockford. In 2019, Bustos became chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC).

Elected to the East Moline City Council in 2007, Bustos defeated Republican Party incumbent Bobby Schilling in the 2012 election and a 2014 rematch. In 2021, Bustos and Senator Dick Durbin were the only Democrats in Illinois's congressional delegation who are not from the Chicago area. On April 30, 2021, she announced that she would retire at the end of the 117th U.S. Congress.

In January 2023, the Washington, D.C. based organization Mercury Public Affairs announced that Bustos had joined the firm as a consultant.

Bustos was born in Springfield, Illinois, one of three children of Gene and Ann Callahan. Her grandfather Joseph R. Callahan was a hog farmer and a state legislator. "We had governors over to our house. We had lieutenant governors", Bustos has said.

Her father worked for The State Journal-Register, then served as assistant press secretary to Governor Samuel Shapiro, press secretary to Lieutenant Governor Paul Simon, and chief of staff to U.S. Senator Alan Dixon. As a teen she babysat Dick Durbin's children. Her mother worked as a teacher.

Bustos graduated from Springfield High School in 1979. She attended Illinois College, then transferred to the University of Maryland, College Park, from which she received a bachelor's degree in political science in 1983. From 1983 to 1984, Bustos interned with the Illinois Senate Democrats. She went on to receive a master's degree in journalism from the University of Illinois Springfield in 1985.

In 1985, Bustos moved to the Quad Cities to work as a night-shift police reporter for the Quad-City Times. She worked there for 17 years, first as a reporter and then as an editor.

From 2001 to 2007, Bustos worked as senior director of corporate communications for Trinity Regional Health Systems. From 2008 to 2011, she worked as vice president of corporate communications for Iowa Health System; in her last full year, she received overall compensation of $306,295.

In 2007, Bustos ran for the East Moline City Council from that city's 4th Ward. She won the Democratic primary with 45% of the vote, and won the general election unopposed. In 2011, she was reelected unopposed.

Before being elected in 2007, Bustos served on East Moline's Citizen Advisory Committee and the East Moline Plan Commission. In 2009, she received an Athena Business Women's Award.

In February 2010, Bustos secured state and federal money to purchase a $40,000 electronic welcome sign that was placed at the border of East Moline.

In August 2010, Bustos voted for water and sewer rate hikes. In January 2011, she expressed interest in charging residents who do not recycle extra fees to lower the city's landfill costs. In April 2011, Bustos voted for a budget that raised property taxes 4.9% and raised garbage collection fees, saying, "these decisions have been made thoughtfully and thoroughly and during the course of 17 open and public budget sessions." She also supported water and sewage increases.

Bustos was criticized for voting for a $624,000 project to improve 10th Street in East Moline, which runs adjacent to her house; the Schilling campaign dubbed it the "Bustos Parkway". Schilling's claim was called "reckless, irresponsible fiction" by the editorial board of the Quad-City Times.

Bustos was endorsed by about two dozen unions active in the 17th congressional district, including the Illinois AFL–CIO, AFSCME and the United Auto Workers. During the primary, she was endorsed by Dick Durbin. Durbin asked State Senator Dave Koehler and Freeport Mayor George Gaulrapp to drop out of the race to clear the way for Bustos, a close family friend of his. Gaulrapp reported that during a meeting with Durbin about withdrawing, Durbin said that Bustos had babysat for his family and was a close friend. Bustos won the Democratic primary on March 20, 2012, defeating Gaulrapp and businessman Greg Aguilar 54% to 26% to 20%. In a July 2012 article, Bustos wrote that she was running for Congress in order to create good-paying jobs for middle-class Americans, including many "whose jobs are being shipped to China."

In the general election, Bustos was one of 39 candidates considered to be the most viable challengers against Republican incumbents to benefit from the "Red to Blue" program offered by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. She was endorsed by the Quad-City Times. In November, she defeated incumbent Republican Bobby Schilling 53% to 47%. She received a significant boost from redistricting, which replaced Quincy, Decatur and the district's portion of Springfield with the more Democratic portions of Peoria and Rockford. She is the first Democrat to represent a significant portion of Peoria since 1927, and only the second Democrat since the 1850s to represent a significant portion of Rockford.

After entering the House, Bustos made national headlines by "interviewing colleagues and posting the short videos on her personal Snapchat account."

Bustos was challenged by Schilling for reelection in 2014.

In a 2012 interview with the Chicago Tribune editorial board, Bustos expressed support for legislation that would cut congressional pay by 10%. When asked by a member of the board if she would voluntarily give up 10% of her pay should the legislation fail, she said she would. During the 2014 campaign, she said, "When I was in Chicago, I said something that I shouldn't have said, but I never said it on the campaign trail. I never made it as a promise to the people in the 17th congressional district." The Tribune endorsed Schilling.

Shortly after taking office, Bustos joined the bipartisan No Labels group. In the first session of the 115th United States Congress, she was ranked the 28th most bipartisan member of the House by the Bipartisan Index, a metric published by The Lugar Center and Georgetown's McCourt School of Public Policy to assess congressional bipartisanship.

In 2013, Bustos's first sponsored legislation was to create a congressional government waste reduction board.

Bustos has said she wants to create a "manufacturing triangle" connecting Peoria, the Quad Cities, and Rockford and anchored by Caterpillar, John Deere, and the aerospace industry, respectively. She supports putting in place job-training programs at area community colleges to better prepare workers for skilled jobs in manufacturing.

Bustos opposed a full extension of the Bush tax cuts. She does not support lowering salaries or pensions for federal government employees.

During a debate, Bustos opposed the three trade agreements approved by Congress in 2011 for being "NAFTA-style" and said they would result in job losses for Illinois.

In January 2023, the Washington, D.C.-based public affairs and lobbying firm Mercury Public Affairs announced that Bustos had joined the firm as a consultant. In March 2023, it was announced that Bustos would co-teach a campaign methods course at Monmouth College in the fall semester of 2023.

Bustos met and married Gerry Bustos, a Quad Cities local, not long after moving to the Quad Cities. He was the Rock Island County Sheriff until 2022 and was a former commander of the Quad City Bomb Squad. They have three sons and two grandchildren. Bustos is Catholic.