Republicans Compete in Primary for Must-Win Senate Seat
Republican candidates in the 33rd Senate District Jessica Breugelmans and Danielle Penman.
Republicans in the Illinois Senate are in a difficult spot.
The party is already in the super minority with 19 members and are being vastly outspent by Senate Democrats.
Republicans are also desperately trying to buck the suburban trend in recent years to keep suburban districts held by Sen. Darby Hills (R-Barrington Hills), Sen. Seth Lewis (R-Bartlett), and the open seat being vacated by Sen. Don DeWitte (R-St. Charles).
Democrats are expected to make major runs at the Hills seat, as the appointed Senator faces Rep. Nabeela Syed (D-Palatine) in a district Gov. Pritzker won by about 11 points in 2022.
But Democrats may have their best pickup opportunity picking off the 33rd District, an open seat stretching from Crystal Lake in the north to Elburn, Geneva, and St. Charles to the south.
Gov. JB Pritzker won the district by five points in 2022 and Kamala Harris won the district by about two points in 2024.
Republican primary voters will choose from two candidates in their attempt to preserve the seat. Former teacher and travel agent Jessica Breugelmans of Geneva, who is supported by the Senate GOP campaign apparatus, faces nurse Danielle Penman of St. Charles.
Penman is a first time candidate. Breugelmans previously lost a race for her local school board.
Both candidates say cost of living is a top priority, but have differing views on how to address making life cheaper for people who live in the state.
Breugelmans says reducing the cost of living starts with the state tightening its belt.
“It means imposing no new tax hikes. It’s insisting on responsible budgeting and fiscal responsibility,” she said. “We have the gas tax, which is automatic now, doesn’t have to be voted on anymore. We’ve got energy rate increases. We’ve got the new mass transit bailout that costs suburbanites. Maybe income taxes haven’t gone up, but they find other ways to tax you and they keep coming back for more and more in many different ways.”
Penman cites waste, fraud, and abuse, without citing specifics, that needs to be eliminated.
“What I think will help the state of Illinois run more efficiently is [that] we need a forensic audit of all programs and departments because there is waste, fraud and abuse,” she said. “I don’t care what anybody says. It exists. It exists. We’ve had no accountability for decades.”
The two also offered few specifics on reducing the property tax burden faced by suburban residents.
Penman cited the need for school choice as a way to reduce property taxes.
“I think we really need school choice. Parents should have a right to choose where their money is going and it gives competition to failing schools,” she said. “If you have an underperforming school year after year after year, that is not doing right by our students and the taxpayer dollars, then I think parents should be able to have those funds go toward a different school. I think that would help reduce costs, too, because public school is obviously primarily union teachers, bigger salaries, big pensions, and a lot of costs for health care benefits.”
Breugelmans said lawmakers should reduce financial burdens on school districts.
“We’ve got to attack some of the drivers of those high property taxes. [We should be] reducing duplicative layers of government and provide mandate relief to local governments and school districts. We’re constantly forcing unfunded mandates on them,” she said “We have to make state school funding more predictable so that those local districts aren’t forced to then overburden homeowners with higher and higher property taxes.”
Democrats are expected to throw everything, including the kitchen sink, at flipping the seat, and are reportedly high on their candidate, Michele Clark, who works in development for her local school district food pantry. Republicans have made it clear keeping the seat in their column is a top priority.
But with the GOP’s struggles in the suburbs and Donald Trump’s approval ratings potentially dragging Republican candidates down, how do the two Republicans feel they can buck the trend?
“I’m connecting with hard working men, women, and families on a level they can relate to,” Penman said. “There’s a lot of people that are fed up with what’s going on in Illinois. This is our home. We want people that are going to serve and respect the residents of Illinois, the taxpayers of Illinois, the hard working moms and dads and grandmas and grandpas of Illinois. I’m real. I’m not in this to spend a lifetime as a politician. I’m doing this to serve my community and make sure that Illinois improves for all of us.”
“It goes to building coalition among all Republicans, from conservative down to moderate and everything in between, because that’s what’s going to be necessary in order to keep this seat,” Breugelmans said. “We have to keep this seat because with Republicans being in the super minority, we have to have a seat at the table. We have to have other voices other than just a one party system.”
Breugelmans finished 2025 with around $40,000 cash on hand. She has reported around $40,000 in large contributions this year, most of it coming from DeWitte. Penman ended 2025 with around $14,000 on hand and added $15,000 so far this year from a local Bricklayers Union.
