Deborah L. Halvorson
Representative, 2009–2011, Democrat from Illinois
Collection of U. S. House of Representatives, Photography Collection
A one-time single mother and cosmetics salesperson, Debbie Halvorson became the first female Illinois state senate majority leader before winning election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2008. She advocated for health care reform, alternative energy development, and veterans’ benefits during her term. “Growing up as a female, being born in ’58, so growing up in the ‘70s, women were not thought of as senators,” Halvorson once said of her political career. “You figured that was a guy’s job.”1
Deborah L. DeFrancesco was born in Chicago Heights, Illinois, on March 1, 1958, to Richard and Joyce DeFrancesco. After graduating from Bloom High School in 1976, DeFrancesco married Gordon Halvorson, raised two children, and started a small business selling cosmetics. Debbie Halvorson also has two stepchildren with her second husband, Jim Bush, and four grandchildren. Halvorson was elected clerk of Crete, Illinois, a small town roughly 40 miles south of Chicago after 14 years in cosmetic sales. From that post, Illinois state senator Emil Jones recruited Halvorson to run for the state senate. “I looked at him like he was crazy,” Halvorson said of Jones’s offer. “He asked me to see him the next day. I just never showed up.”2 Jones, who was the Democratic Party leader in the state senate, eventually succeeded in convincing Halvorson to run, and she defeated longtime incumbent Republican Aldo DeAngelis with 56 percent of the vote in the 1996 general election.3 Halvorson returned to school after her election to the state senate. She earned an associate’s degree from Prairie State College in 1998, her bachelor’s from Governors State University in 2001, and a master’s from the same university two years later.4
In the state senate, Halvorson sponsored legislation to lower the cost of prescription drugs for seniors as well as prevent abuse in nursing homes.5 She also made several international trips to promote businesses in her district. And galvanized by her and her family’s experiences with cancer, Halvorson advocated for mandatory vaccinations against the virus that can cause cervical cancer for all girls between the ages of 11 and 12.6 In 2005, following the death of Vince Demuzio, Halvorson was elected majority leader of the Illinois state senate, becoming the first woman to hold that office.7
National Democratic Party leaders recruited Halvorson—a lifelong resident of her congressional district that ran south of Chicago and westward near the Iowa border—to run for the seat in 2008, after incumbent Representative Jerry Weller announced his retirement. Halvorson was unopposed in the primary, and in the general election faced Republican Martin Ozinga, III, a concrete company executive who entered the race late after another candidate withdrew.8 While Halvorson and Ozinga found common ground on a range of issues, they disagreed over tax policy and abortion rights. Halvorson favored ending tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, while Ozinga favored extending tax cuts first implemented in 2001 for everyone.9 Halvorson defeated Ozinga with 58 percent of the vote in the November 4, 2008, general election.10
Elected to the 111th Congress (2009–2011), Halvorson, who described herself as a “fiscally conservative, socially conscious and moderate-to-conservative Democrat,” joined the centrist New Democrat Caucus and co-chaired its energy task force. She also served on the influential Democratic Steering and Policy Committee in addition to her assignments on the Agriculture, Small Business, and Veterans’ Affairs committees.11 Spurred by her own experiences, Halvorson supported President Barack Obama’s health care reform law: “I know what it is like to grow up without health insurance,” she said. “My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in her 40s and my parents were never able to obtain affordable health insurance again….The health insurance reform law will end discrimination due to pre-existing conditions, allow children to stay on their parent’s coverage up to the age of 26, and extend Medicare’s solvency until 2029.”12
Representing a district with six nuclear reactors—the most in the country—Halvorson supported alternative energy investment and cap-and-trade legislation.13 She sponsored a bill to give tax credits to producers of alternative energy sources and co-sponsored legislation that would aid nuclear energy research and development. “If we’re truly going to be energy independent, we need a comprehensive energy strategy that invests heavily in nuclear energy, and it’s been my mission in Congress to be an aggressive voice for more safe nuclear power,” Halvorson said.14
A member of a military family—her father and husband are veterans, and her stepson, Jay Bush, fought and was injured in Afghanistan as a member of the U.S. Army Special Forces—Halvorson was the only member of the Illinois congressional delegation to serve on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee during the 111th Congress. 15 She sponsored or co-sponsored many bills and amendments that provided benefits to those returning to civilian life from the armed services. The first bill Halvorson introduced in the House would have eliminated Veterans’ Administration health care co-payments for catastrophically disabled veterans.16
Halvorson sought re-election to the 112th Congress in 2010, but she faced tough competition from Adam Kinzinger, an Iraq War veteran who announced his candidacy shortly after Halvorson took office.17 In a race that drew national attention, Kinzinger and Halvorson sparred over a number of issues from Social Security to tax cuts.18 Kinzinger defeated Halvorson with more than 57 percent of the vote in the traditionally Republican district in the November 2, 2010, general election.19 After leaving Congress, Halvorson worked as an alternative energy consultant before unsuccessfully challenging Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr., in the March 2012 Democratic Party primary for Illinois’s second congressional district.20
Further Reading
"Halvorson, Deborah," Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, 1774-Present, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?ndex=H001044.Footnotes
- Dennis Conrad, “Rep.-elect Debbie Halvorson: From Cosmetics Sales to Congress,” 7 December 2008, Associated Press.
- Conrad, "Rep-elect Debbie Halvorson: From Cosmetic Sales to Congress."
- Steve Neal, “Halvorson’s Upset a Sign of Change,” 19 March 1997, Chicago Sun-Times: 43.
- Congressional Directory, 111th Congress (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 2009): 88.
- Almanac of American Politics, 2010 (Washington, D.C.: National Journal Inc., 2009): 520.
- Leslie Baldacci, “Lawmaker Champions Cancer Vaccine, Reveals Her story: Sen. Halvorson Says Inoculation Against HPV Ought to be Law,” 22 September 2006, Chicago Sun-Times: 48.
- Conrad, “Rep.-elect Debbie Halvorson: From Cosmetics Sales to Congress.”
- Erika Slife, “11th Congressional District Race Heats Up,” 2 September 2008, Chicago Tribune, http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2008-09-02/news/0809010311_1_congressional-race-democratic-congressional-campaign-committee-11th-congressional-district (accessed 24 April 2012).
- Erika Slife, “GOP Rookie Ozinga, Democratic Veteran Halvorson in Attack Mode Over 11th District Seat,” 30 October 2008, Chicago Tribune, http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2008-10-30/news/0810290520_1_halvorson-11th-district-seat-gop (accessed 24 April 2012).
- “Election Statistics, 1920 to Present,” http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/election.html.
- Conrad, “Rep.-elect Debbie Halvorson: From Cosmetics Sales to Congress”; Congressional Directory: 88.
- “U.S. House, Dist. 11: Debbie Halvorson,” Chicago Sun-Times, http://www.suntimes.com/news/elections/questionnaires/2749548,11CDHalvorson.article (accessed 24 April 2012).
- “Halvorson Builds Record as a Nuclear Issues Leader in Congress,”1 July 2010, States News Service; “About the American Clean Energy and Security Act,” Office of Debbie Halvorson, http://halvorson.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=139:about-the-american-clean-energy-and-security-act&catid=39:issues&Itemid=105 (accessed 2 November 2010; site discontinued).
- “Halvorson Builds Record as a Nuclear Issues Leader in Congress,” States News Service.
- “U.S. House, Dist. 11: Debbie Halvorson,” http://www.suntimes.com/news/elections/questionnaires/2749548,11CDHalvorson.article.
- “Halvorson Introduces First Bill to Benefit Disabled Veterans,” 9 March 2009, Office of Debbie Halvorson, http://halvorson.house.gov/2009/03/halvorson-introduces-first-bill-to-benefit-disabled-veterans.shtml (accessed 26 April 2012; site discontinued).
- Shira Toeplitz, “Illinois: First GOPer Lines Up to Take on Halvorson,” 20 January 2009, Roll Call, http://www.rollcall.com/issues/54_74/-31446-1.html (accessed 26 April 2012).
- Kristen Schorsch, “Kinzinger out to recapture 11th District seat for GOP,” 19 October 2010, Chicago Tribune, http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-10-19/news/ct-x-s-11th-cong-preview-1020-20101019_1_halvorson-adam-kinzinger-republican-jerry-weller (accessed 26 April 2012).
- “Election Statistics, 1920 to Present,” http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/election.html.
- Phil Kadner, “Halvorson to Challenge Jackson in 2nd,” 10 January 2012, Herald-News (Joliet, Illinois), http://heraldnews.suntimes.com/news/elections/7423387-418/halvorson-to-challenge-jackson-in-2nd.html (accessed 24 April 2012).