Mather

Questions and Answers

Candidates met at the Mather in Evanston on January 23rd, 2026.

Questions are in bold. My responses follow.

1. As a freshman, what experience and qualifications do you bring in order to win bipartisan support in the House of Representatives? (one minute)

I’ve been a software writer for the past 25 years. This is an industry where you are considered a Senior after just 3-5 years. I’ve been the Senior developer in various highly regulated domains - finance, insurance, medical research - for 2 decades.

As a Senior developer, I get to describe complex systems to non technical people and I have a knack of - not exactly simplifying - but clearly explaining the pros and cons of how desired changes will affect the current system now and in the future.

I was the voice of reason in a room full of people with disparate interests - management, business, legal, tech - able to steer conversations so that we had productive meetings, meetings that produced concrete action items. I did this by seeing patterns, seeing common ground, and gathering consensus.

I’ve read the job description, to be a Representative to everyone in my district. I will be the Republican candidate in the Illinois Ninth, of course I will work always to get bipartisan support.

2. What issues of environmental protection are most important for Congress to legislate now? (two minutes)

I believe that AI and modern computing are game changing technologies that will only continue to grow, even exponentially. With this growth we have two major environmental concerns - energy and water.

Energy. Demand is increasing and supply is dwindling. Illinois, laudably, has passed legislation directing more investment in clean energy technologies - especially battery technology. Initially this plan called for the closing of several dirty energy plants. However, demand for electricity, particularly from data centers, reversed these closings. We are planning for the ideal without regard for the practical.

The future of energy is in clean energy technologies - we need to plan for the creation of more solar, wind, and water energy plants. At the same time, we need to ensure that we have enough of a supply so that you and I are not paying to cover the needs of these high energy users.

Speaking of high energy users and data centers, I need to pivot to talk about the environmental asset I am most fond of here - our water, our lakes and rivers. The Great Lakes Compact of 2008 prohibits diversions of Great Lakes surface and groundwater outside the basin - “our water stays here”. So, what did we do? We convinced many companies to build their data centers here via various incentives.

A 10k sq ft data center with about 5k servers uses 1 million even up to 5 million gallons of water each day - water used to cool these high energy consuming computers. This water evaporates.

Water cannot be an afterthought, second to electricity. We need to pass legislation to protect our water, arguably our greatest environmental asset.

3. In light of recent foreign policy events in Ukraine, Gaza, Iran, Nigeria, Greenland, and Venezuela, how do you envision the U.S. role in supporting international law and treaties? (two minutes)

Specifically you asked the question is about the US Role in supporting international law and treaties.

I support the administration’s desire to put America First when considering the role of the United States in any global situation. Not America First in the sense of the 1930’s America First Committee but in this sense - do not sacrifice more than is necessary in America’s interest.

Similar to many things that is coming out of this administration, I agree with much of what they are doing but disagree with how they are doing it. Regarding foreign policy I will paraphrase Elliot Abrams, foreign policy analyst for Reagan and both Bush administrations:

The current administration is sacrificing two enormous assets; I would argue, the greatest assets of the United States.

First, we are threatening our alliance system. Something Russia doesn’t have, something China does not have, an alliance system we have had ever since World War II. We seem to be devaluing and threatening those alliances.

Secondly, I believe one of our greatest assets is the association of the United States with the cause of liberty. And we seem to be abandoning that as well.

The U.S. role in supporting international law - we need to be true to our word and stand up for our values.

4. What issue is your number one priority to advance in Congress? (one minute)

The reason I entered this race is to fundamentally restructure and fix Congress - I will do that by Eliminating gerrymandering and and set Term-Limits for Congress members. This is my number one priority and my long term goal.

But if I do become your representative this term, the most impactful thing I could do immediately is restructure the DHS - particularly ICE and CBP. Do not abolish ICE, disarm ICE - if they need armed escorts in Chicago, they can hire local authorities, people familiar with the area, have federal officials work in consort with local authorities.

Many billions of dollars are on the table. Use this money to

• hire local translators
• hire local mental health professionals
• hire armed police escorts

the local police are the only people trained well enough to be armed in these situations. Basically I want to take money from ICE to fund the police.