Nikki Budzinski, Illinois

Nikki Budzinski is a Democratic U.S. Representative serving Illinois’ 13th Congressional District since 2023. Born in Peoria to a family of union members — her grandfather was a union painter and her grandmother a public school teacher — she graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and spent her career in the labor movement working for firefighters, grocery workers, and meatpackers at unions including the UFCW. She later served as a senior advisor to Governor Pritzker, where she led negotiations to raise the state minimum wage to $15, and as chief of staff at the White House Office of Management and Budget, where she helped establish the Made in America Office.