Halvorson, Debbie, 1958-

Deborah L. Halvorson (born March 1, 1958) is an American businesswoman, educator, and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, she served as the U.S. Representative for Illinois's 11th congressional district, serving from 2009 until 2011. Previously, she served in the Illinois Senate from 1997 through 2009.

Born Deborah L. DeFrancesco in Chicago Heights, Illinois, she was raised in Steger, Illinois. After graduating from Bloom High School in 1976, DeFrancesco married Gordon Halvorson and started a small business selling cosmetics. They later divorced, and Halvorson married Jim Bush. Halvorson was elected clerk of Crete, Illinois, a small town roughly 40 miles south of Chicago after 14 years in cosmetic sales. In the mid-1990s, Illinois state senator Emil Jones recruited Halvorson to run for the state senate. She defeated longtime incumbent Republican Aldo DeAngelis with 56 percent of the vote in the 1996 general election. In the state senate, Halvorson sponsored legislation to lower the cost of prescription drugs for seniors and prevent abuse in nursing homes. She also made several international trips to promote businesses in her district. 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.

National Democratic Party leaders recruited Halvorson to run for the U.S. House in 2008, after incumbent Representative Jerry Weller announced his retirement. While Halvorson and her Republican opponent, Martin Ozinga, found common ground on a range of issues, they disagreed over tax policy and abortion rights. With Illinois Senator Barack Obama at the top of the Democratic ticket, Halvorson easily defeated Ozinga. 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, which helps shape the party agenda in the House. As she had done in state government, Halvorson made health care a priority in the House and supported the Affordable Care Act, the Democratic reform package that overhauled the country’s health insurance industry. Representing a district with six nuclear reactors, Halvorson supported alternative energy investment and cap-and-trade legislation to limit emissions.

Halvorson sought re-election to the 112th Congress (2011–2013) in 2010 but faced tough competition from Republican Adam Kinzinger, an Iraq War veteran who announced his candidacy shortly after Halvorson took office. In a race that drew national attention, Kinzinger and Halvorson sparred over a number of issues from Social Security to tax cuts. Kinzinger defeated Halvorson with more than 57 percent of the vote in the November 2, 2010, general election. After leaving Congress, Halvorson worked as an alternative energy consultant before unsuccessfully challenging Representative Jesse L. Jackson Jr. in the March 2012 Democratic Party primary for Illinois’s 2nd Congressional District. After Jackson resigned in November 2012, Halvorson lost a special Democratic primary election to replace him in February 2013.