State representative for Illinois’ 95th district Avery Bourne visited Blackburn College on March 1. A member of the Republican Party, she represents all of Montgomery County and parts of Christian, Macoupin and Madison counties. At 24, Bourne is the youngest legislator in Illinois, though, at only 20, Saira Blair of the West Virginia House of Delegates is the youngest in the U.S.
Bourne’s biggest concern for the state is passing a budget. She will not vote for partial budgets because she feels a comprehensive budget must be passed in order to improve Illinois. She also listed “jobs and education funding” as her two largest concerns in the 95th district.
Bourne believes the way to achieve her goals is through bipartisanship. She feels that Republicans and Democrats have more in common than most people think, citing a conversation with Representative Sonya Harper (Dem.) who serves the south side of Chicago. Harper’s main concerns also included jobs and education though the south side and rural Illinois are very different places.
Bourne also wants to modernize the way Illinois makes laws. She supports term limits because, “It’s arrogant to think someone else can’t do your job,” and wants to introduce more technology into the lawmaking process. She is very present on social media and frequently creates graphics for her Twitter because, “I think people read graphics.” Additionally, Bourne serves on a committee that met in Chicago on March 2. By current rules, she is required to attend in person, meaning she had to travel roughly 250 miles or four hours by car or train to attend, “but there’s no reason I can’t video conference.” She also feels the rule could negatively affect a single parent who might have a sick child on the day of a vote. She feels representatives should be able to vote by proxy or attend via a service such as Skype.