Darby Hills: 2026 candidate for Illinois Senate District 26
Bio
Office sought: Senate District 26
Party: Republican
City: Barrington Hills
Age: 50
Previous offices held: Village Trustee, Barrington Hills
Q&A
What do you consider the three most pressing issues facing the state in the next four years, and how should they be addressed?
Affordability, protecting children and vulnerable residents, and a budget that tells the truth.
Affordability: Families pay more for everything the state touches. Property taxes keep climbing, and Springfield taxed cell phone bills, buried a sales tax hike in the transit bill and added charges to electric bills. I voted no on all of it and yes on the senior assessment freeze and property tax relief. I co-sponsored a gas tax cut, backed a junk-fee ban and PBM reform, and filed a bill to take the sales tax off prescription drugs and diapers.
Public safety: As a former Cook County prosecutor, I sponsored the laws closing loopholes in our grooming statutes and adding deepfakes and tracking to our harassment laws, and SB 2381 to require sex offender registration for adults who secretly record children; the recent arrest of a teacher in my district for filming a student and shows why.
Fiscal honesty: I voted no on the FY26 and FY27 budgets. Post the full budget 72 hours before a vote, rank programs by results, send surplus revenue to the rainy-day fund and pension debt by formula, and stop using one-time money for ongoing costs. Illinois has a spending problem, not a revenue problem.
How would you assess the General Assembly's handling, to date, of the various proposals surrounding a Chicago Bears stadium in Arlington Heights? What proposals would you have been willing to support and in what ways, if any, might you have approached it differently?
The General Assembly had three years to build a framework. Instead, the House passed a 377-page megaprojects rewrite in the final weeks, the Senate could not pass it, and on the last night the Senate passed a different bill drafted over a weekend that the House never took up. Days later the Bears advanced Hammond. That is no way to decide something this big.
Arlington Park sits at my district's doorstep. Taxpayers carrying the nation's highest property taxes should not co-sign a stadium mortgage for one of the wealthiest franchises in sports. I voted no on HB 958 because it let a municipality take title so the team paid no property taxes, cut school districts out, and was written so fast no one could say what revenue it would produce.
I would have supported what the state does for any major employer: the roads and transit the region needs anyway, plus a property tax schedule negotiated with local taxing bodies, no state stadium subsidy and a hold-harmless for neighboring taxpayers, in a single-purpose bill early in session with suburban hearings and Republicans at the table. Instead it became a Chicago-versus-suburbs fight inside the Democratic caucus, and the suburbs lost.
Now roughly three years into the elimination of cash bail in Illinois as part of the SAFE-T Act, how would you assess the success or failure of the criminal justice reform measure? What changes, if any, would you support?
My honest assessment as a former prosecutor: the sky did not fall, but the system is not working the way its supporters promised. I
accept that pretrial freedom should not depend on a bank account. But a judge who finds a defendant dangerous must be able to hold that defendant. The list of detainable offenses is too narrow, the burden on prosecutors too high, and judges say they lack discretion. Police chiefs and state's attorneys describe repeat offenders back on the street within hours and abusers home before their victims are.
I would expand detention eligibility for repeat violent offenders and order of protection violations; restore judicial discretion for defendants who repeatedly fail to appear; require public, county-level reporting on release outcomes and re-arrests; and fund the mandates the Act imposed on local police. I have introduced legislation strengthening penalties for violating orders of protection, supported SB 3329, which bars transferring a firearm to someone under one, and voted no on SB 19, SB 248 and SB 42.
Reform should be measured by whether victims and communities are safer. Where it is not, fix it.
Illinois homeowners face one of the highest relative property tax burdens in the country. What specific proposals could you offer to ease the burden on state residents?
Property taxes are the number one issue at doors. They are high because local governments cover costs Springfield keeps passing down, so relief must start there.
First, stop unfunded mandates. Require a local fiscal impact statement before any mandate gets a vote, and pay the school funding and pension commitments the state already made. No new local borrowing authority without voter approval; I voted no on HB 1158, which put more MWRD bond authority onto Cook County tax bills.
Second, I voted for the senior assessment freeze, property tax relief and tax sale reform. The senior freeze should be a floor, not a ceiling.
Third, put taxpayers in charge of the levy: plain-language disclosure of each district's request before it takes effect, citizen-initiated referenda to lower levies, and the same transparency for TIFs and collective bargaining costs.
Fourth, let voters decide a constitutional amendment on pension reform that pays earned benefits in full and governs only the future.
Finally, stop making it worse. Mega-project assessment freezes shift the burden to everyone else. And make it easier to consolidate Illinois' nearly 7,000 units of local government.
Gov. JB Pritzker recently paused a state initiative granting incentives to data center developers, and residents statewide have concerns about how such developments are affecting their access to water, utility rates, and the environment. How should the state approach data centers going forward?
Residents in Grayslake and Hoffman Estates learned about data center proposals late, with little information on power draw, water use or who pays for grid upgrades. That is why I introduced SB 1050, which lets local governments set standards for the size and concentration of data centers, adopt water protections, and requires a neighboring municipality's consent before approval within three miles of its border or a residential area.
The governor's pause is a reasonable timeout, but a pause is not a policy. The state handed out hundreds of millions in tax breaks without asking what data centers would cost ratepayers.
Going forward: no NDAs between developers and local governments, and public disclosure of projected power and water demand before approval. Data centers pay the full cost of the grid and water upgrades they trigger; I voted no on SB 25 for that reason. Water permits with sustainable limits, closed-loop cooling and no aquifer drawdown. Local control: communities like Volo that want a data center can welcome one; those that do not should not have one imposed by state incentives or preemption.
Illinois can compete for this investment without giving away the grid.
Illinois’ “sanctuary” policies concerning immigration have made it a target for the Trump administration and critics who say they encourage criminal behavior. How do you feel about those policies, and how, if at all, would you change them?
I do not believe most people who came here without status are criminals, and I do not believe local police should be turned into an immigration agency. But the TRUST Act prevents a sheriff from honoring a federal detainer even for someone charged with or convicted of a violent felony. That was a choice the General Assembly made, not a federal requirement, and it is where Illinois law goes too far.
The change I would support is narrow: allow, and expect, local law enforcement to cooperate with federal authorities when the individual has been charged with or convicted of a violent or serious felony. That is a public safety measure, not an immigration position, and most Illinoisans would call it common sense.
This should be about victims and safety, not a political fight with Washington. I would not support changes that discourage victims or witnesses from cooperating with police, and I would not support indiscriminate enforcement. My votes reflect that line: no on HB 2436, which expanded the Cook County public defender's immigration caseload beyond county residents, and no on SB 2339, which restricts how employers respond to federal work-authorization notices.
Many women in the legislature complain about a culture of sexual harassment in Springfield. Do you see evidence of this and, if so, what should be done about it?
Yes. I have heard it from colleagues and staff, and the last decade, from the Madigan era to recent cases, shows it was never a one-off. I was among the first to speak up when the allegations against former Rep. Harry Benton surfaced this summer and demand the Inspector General's report be released.
The Legislative Inspector General cannot issue a subpoena or publish a founded report without sign-off from a commission made up of legislators. Complaints about members are controlled by members.
What should be done: let the Inspector General publish founded reports without legislators' permission; move complaints involving members to an independent entity outside the four caucuses; real anti-retaliation protection for those who report; training that is more than a checkbox; and a statute of limitations of at least two years instead of one.
As a former prosecutor, I treat a complaint as evidence, handled by procedure, not politics. I would report any misconduct I learned of to the Inspector General that day, and to the State Police or U.S. Attorney if it appeared criminal, regardless of party. Culture changes when the powerful stop refereeing complaints against themselves.
Are you satisfied with the state's existing ethics policies for senators and representatives? If so, what about the policies should reassure Illinoisans that elected leaders abide by high standards? If not, what changes need to be made?
No. The reforms after the former Speaker's federal corruption conviction were designed to look like change without giving up control. What should change: An independent Legislative Inspector General with subpoena power who can publish findings without legislators' permission.
A real revolving-door ban. Today the six-month wait applies only to members who leave mid-term; finish the term and you can lobby the next day. Make it a full year for everyone and penalize employers who knowingly violate it.
Close the Snyder v. United States loophole by making clear that accepting a reward for an improper official act is bribery, and extend state racketeering and wiretap laws to bribery.
Real disclosure and recusal: income sources on economic interest statements, disclosure of family members working for the same unit of government, and mandatory recusal for conflicts.
End pay raises buried in last-minute budget implementation bills. Raises should be a separate recorded vote, with the full budget posted 72 hours in advance. I voted against the BIMPs carrying the automatic raise.
Reform will come from voters, not from the people who benefit from the current system.
What personal qualifications do you bring that would make you an effective legislator?
As a Cook County prosecutor, I stood in courtrooms with victims and their families and learned how laws written in Springfield actually play out. That perspective is rare in Springfield.
As founder of Barrington Children's Charities, I built an organization from scratch, learning to bring people together, manage a budget and measure results.
As a Barrington Hills village trustee, I handled the practical side of governing: budgets, roads, public safety and constituents who expected answers.
I know what living paycheck to paycheck feels like. I grew up with a single mom who worked two jobs to keep food on the table and a roof over our heads. When a family says one more fee is the difference between making it and not, I do not have to imagine that. As a mother, I know what families are up against.
In the Senate I have used all of it: laws closing loopholes in our grooming statutes and adding deepfakes and tracking to our harassment laws, SB 939 requiring expulsion of students who commit sexual assault at school, PBM reform, 340B protections and junk-fee transparency. I work across the aisle when it helps the district and vote no when Springfield asks families to pay more.