Halvorson, Debbie, 1958-

<p>Deborah L. Halvorson (born March 1, 1958) 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. She is a member of the Democratic Party. In September 2011, she filed to run in the newly redistricted 2nd congressional district but was defeated in the Democratic primary by the incumbent, Jesse Jackson, Jr.</p>

<p>Halvorson grew up in Steger, Illinois and graduated from Bloom High School. She and her husband Jim Bush live in Crete and have four children and four grandchildren. She worked 13 years as a cosmetics saleswoman for Mary Kay before entering public service. She has degrees from Robert Morris College, Prairie State College and Governors State University (Bachelor of Arts and Master's in Communication). She became a sales representative, Crete Township Clerk, and an educator at the Governors State University.</p>

<p>Halvorson first ran for the Illinois State Senate in November 1996, defeating incumbent Republican State Senator Aldo DeAngelis 56%–44% in Illinois' 40th Senate District. In 1998, she won re-election to a second term defeating State Representative Flora Ciarlo 66%–34%. In 2002, she won re-election to a third term unopposed. In 2006, she won re-election to a fourth term with 70% of the vote.</p>

<p>A former single mother and cosmetics salesperson, Deborah L. Halvorson became the first female majority leader of the Illinois state senate before winning election to the United States House of Representatives in 2008. On Capitol Hill, she supported health care reform, alternative energy development, and veterans’ benefits during her term. “Growing up as a female, being born in ’58, so growing up in the ’70s, women were not thought of as senators,” Halvorson once said of her pathbreaking Illinois political career. “My job is to level the playing field and bring government back to the people,” she continued. “I’ve never changed my mission statement of helping others.”</p>

<p>Deborah L. Halverson was born Deborah L. DeFrancesco in Chicago Heights, Illinois, on March 1, 1958, to Richard and Joyce DeFrancesco. After graduating from Bloom High School in 1976, DeFrancesco married Gordon Halvorson, raised two children, and started a small business selling cosmetics. They later divorced, and Halvorson has two stepchildren with her second husband, Jim Bush, and four grandchildren. 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. “I looked at him like he was crazy,” Halvorson said of Jones’s idea. “He asked me to see him the next day. I just never showed up.” Jones, who was the Democratic Party leader in the state senate, eventually succeeded in convincing Halvorson to run, and she defeated longtime incumbent Republican Aldo DeAngelis with 56 percent of the vote in the 1996 general election. 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.</p>

<p>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’s mother was a cancer survivor, and at the age of 44, Halvorson herself faced the threat of cervical cancer. In the state house, pointing to her own family’s experience, Halvorson advocated for mandatory vaccinations for all girls between the ages of 11 and 12 against the virus that can cause cervical cancer. In 2005, following the death of Vince Demuzio, Halvorson was elected majority leader of the Illinois state senate, becoming the first woman to hold that office.</p>