Endorsement: Foster for Congress from Illinois District 11

In an assessment near the end of his first term in Congress in 2010, when he served what was then the 14th congressional district, we praised Bill Foster for “his centrist leaning and his willingness to listen to all sides of a question.”

We still see the nine-term Naperville Democrat in much the same light, but a certain comparison between his first term and the 10th that he now is seeking particularly defines the reasons we continue to support him.

In that first term, Foster voted consistently against his party’s budgets because of what he saw as exorbitant deficit spending, and he crossed the aisle to vote with Republicans regarding cap-and-trade limits on carbon emissions. But one vote, his support for the Affordable Care Act, may have been pivotal in his failure to win reelection in 2010.

Now, after eight consecutive terms representing Illinois’ 11th District for Congress, Foster says in his Daily Herald 2026 campaign questionnaire, “I was proud to vote for the Affordable Care Act back in 2010, even though that vote cost me my reelection.”

In short, he is now as he was 16 years ago, a congressman who stands on his principles regardless of their potential political consequences. That is an important quality in Congress, regardless of party, and it draws us to Foster even more than his considerable merits as one of the body’s best-qualified scientific minds at a time when critical decisions must be made about, among other topics, health care, Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid and artificial intelligence, with which he has been intimately familiar since his programming work with Fermilab in the 1990s.

He is challenged by Republican Jeff Walter, a former village board member and mayor of Elburn who can stake a reasonable claim on political integrity himself. For, while he acknowledges his support for many policies of the Trump administration, he is clear in separating his views from the president’s regarding tariffs, the responsibilities of Congress and the Department of Education.

Those differences aside, however, we are troubled by the image of another Trump ally in the House, especially one who would be making the sizable jump in consequence from political operative and small-town mayor to Congress.

Foster is a thoughtful, well-rounded and experienced candidate whose insights and integrity are needed in his party and in Congress as a whole. We are pleased to endorse him for another term in the 11th District.