Cheryl Lea Bustos (/ˈbuːstoʊs/; née Callahan, October 17, 1961) is an American journalist, healthcare executive and politician serving as the U.S. Representative for Illinois’s 17th congressional district since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, she is the first woman elected to Congress from her district, located in the northwestern part of the state, anchored by the Illinois side of the Quad Cities and partially including Peoria and Rockford.[1] In 2019, Bustos assumed a leadership position among House Democrats as Chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC).[2]
Previously elected to the East Moline City Council in 2007, she defeated Republican incumbent Bobby Schilling in the 2012 election and a subsequent 2014 rematch.[3] Assigned to the House Committee on Agriculture and Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Bustos and Senator Dick Durbin are the only Democrats in the congressional delegation from Illinois who are not from the Chicago area as of the 2020 elections.
