Jim Edgar | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 1989 | |
| 38thGovernor of Illinois | |
| In office January 14, 1991 – January 11, 1999 | |
| Lieutenant | Bob Kustra |
| Preceded by | Jim Thompson |
| Succeeded by | George Ryan |
| 35thSecretary of State of Illinois | |
| In office January 5, 1981 – January 14, 1991 | |
| Governor | Jim Thompson |
| Preceded by | Alan J. Dixon |
| Succeeded by | George Ryan |
| Member of theIllinois House of Representatives from the 53rd district | |
| In office January 12, 1977 – March 8, 1979 Serving with Chuck Campbell andLarry Stuffle | |
| Preceded by | Max Coffey Bob Craig |
| Succeeded by | Harry Woodyard |
| Personal details | |
| Born | James Robert Edgar (1946-07-22)July 22, 1946 Vinita, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Died | September 14, 2025(2025-09-14) (aged 79) Springfield, Illinois, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | Eastern Illinois University (BA) |
| Website | Official website |
James Robert Edgar (July 22, 1946 – September 14, 2025) was an American politician who served as the 38thgovernor of Illinois from 1991 to 1999. Amoderate Republican, he previously served in theIllinois House of Representatives from 1977 to 1979 and as the 35thSecretary of State of Illinois from 1981 to 1991.
Edgar was born inVinita, Oklahoma, and raised inCharleston, a city inCentral Illinois. Beginning his political career as a legislative aide, he was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives in 1976 and reelected in 1978. In 1979, while still in his second term, Edgar was appointed the director of legislative affairs for GovernorJim Thompson.
Following Secretary of StateAlan J. Dixon's election to the U.S. Senate in1980, Thompson appointed Edgar to serve the remainder of Dixon's term. Edgar would go on to win a full term in1982 and was reelected by a significant margin in1986 in a race complicated by aLaRouchian candidate on theDemocratic ticket.
Edgar ran successfully for Governor of Illinois in the1990 election, narrowly defeating incumbentAttorney GeneralNeil Hartigan. During theRepublican Revolution of '94, hewon reelection in a historic landslide over the Democratic state comptrollerDawn Clark Netsch—winning 101 of the state's 102 counties, includingCook County. He declined to run for a third term in1998 and subsequently retired from public office.
James Robert Edgar was born on July 22, 1946, inVinita, Oklahoma, to Cecil and Betty Edgar.[1][2][3][4] Cecil, a small-businessman fromCharleston, Illinois, died in an automobile accident in 1953, leaving Jim and his two older brothers to be raised by their mother.[5]
To support her children, Betty Edgar worked as a clerk atEastern Illinois University, where Edgar would later attend.[6] While at Eastern, Edgar served as student body president.[6] He graduated with abachelor's degree inhistory in 1968.[4]
Edgar developed an interest in politics at a young age.[5] Though his parents were bothDemocrats, Edgar became aRepublican while inelementary school after following the1952 campaign of Dwight D. Eisenhower.[6][7]
A youngRockefeller Republican, Edgar briefly volunteered for the presidential campaign ofPennsylvaniaGovernorWilliam Scranton in the1964 Republican primaries and supportedNew York GovernorNelson Rockefeller in1968.[5][7]
Following his graduation from college, Edgar served as a legislativeintern and then personal assistant toIllinois Senate Republican leaderW. Russell Arrington despite his mother's wish for him to attend law school.[5] Edgar would later regard the moderate Arrington as his role model.[5]
Following his time with Arrington, Edgar would also work briefly underIllinois HouseSpeakerW. Robert Blair.[5]
In 1974, Edgar ran unsuccessfully in the Republican nomination for state representative from the 53rd district, coming in third place.[8] After the campaign, Edgar worked as an insurance and cosmetics salesperson before briefly serving the National Conference of State Legislatures in Denver.[5]
He ran for the same seat again two years later in 1976 and won.[9] He was re-elected in 1978.[10]
While in the House, Edgar served on the Appropriations II, Human Resources, and Revenue committees as well as the Illinois Commission on Intergovernmental Cooperation.[11] Due to his moderate policy positions, Edgar was often considered a swing vote, especially on the Human Resources committee.[7]
In April 1979, shortly after winning re-election, Edgar resigned his state House seat to accept an appointment from GovernorJim Thompson to be the governor's legislative liaison.[5] Though reluctant at first, Edgar accepted Thompson's offer with an unwritten promise that it would lead to Edgar getting a spot on a statewide ticket later on.[7]
In January 1981, Governor Thompson announced Edgar's appointment asIllinois Secretary of State to fill the vacancy left by incumbent Secretary of StateAlan Dixon followinghis 1980 election to theU.S. Senate.[12][13][14] He won re-election twice in1982 and1986 with his 1986 re-election against theIllinois Solidarity Party nominee Jane N. Spirgel and theLyndon LaRouche-backedDemocratic nomineeJanice A. Hart being the largest statewide margin of victory in Illinois history until the election ofBarack Obama to the U.S. Senate in2004.[15][16]
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During his first term as Secretary of State, Edgar diverged from past practices in the office by keeping many of the Democratic employees hired by his predecessor.[17] He would later comment on his decision by saying "to me, the best politics is good government" and that in his view, as long as the employees did their jobs, he had no interest in firing them regardless of political affiliation.[17]
On policy, Edgar's partial term and first full term were largely defined by his work to toughen Illinois'drunk driving penalties.[5] This included strengtheningbreathalyzer requirements for individuals pulled over for possibly driving under the influence and reforming the state's legal view of driver's licenses to be a "privilege, not a right," thereby allowing licenses to be administratively suspended pending a court date for potentially driving drunk as opposed to the prior system where drivers retained their licenses until their court date.[17][18] Edgar also voiced support for anational 21-year-old legal drinking age and was appointed toU.S. PresidentRonald Reagan's Presidential Commission on Drunk Driving in 1982.[18]
During his second term, Edgar spearheaded a successful legislative battle to pass a bill instituting mandatoryautomobile insurance for Illinois motorists.[5][8] Prior to Edgar's intervention, the bill had been routinely defeated by the state's insurancelobby.[5] Edgar would later pick the Senate sponsor on the bill,Bob Kustra, to serve as hisLieutenant Governor.[5] Edgar also pushed forward an effort to construct a newIllinois State Library as its own building and his efforts to support the State Library during his tenure earned Edgar the nickname of "The Reader" from State Library employees.[8]
On August 8, 1989, Edgar announced his candidacy for Governor of Illinois following incumbent GovernorJim Thompson's decision not to run for a fifth term.[19] Despite instantly becoming theRepublican Party's frontrunner and Thompson'sheir-apparent, Edgar was challenged in the1990 primary by perennial candidate Robert Marshall andconservative political activistSteve Baer.[20] Baer opposed the politically moderate Edgar'spro-choice stance on abortion and his support of making permanent a then-temporary 20% income tax in support of the state's education system.[20] Edgar won the Republican nomination with a little under 63% of the primary vote.[21]
In the general election, Edgar faced DemocratNeil Hartigan, the incumbentIllinois Attorney General and the formerlieutenant governor.[22] A prominent figure in Illinois politics hailing fromChicago's political establishment, Hartigan was the state's highest-ranking Democratic official during the 1980s.[23] As attorney general, Hartigan focused on consumer and disability rights, as well as environmental protection.[24] Running as amoderate Democrat with a focus on fiscal responsibility, he opposed making permanent the state's 20% income tax increase and attacked Edgar as a "tax-and-spend" politician.[20] During the campaign, Hartigan, like Edgar, also supportedabortion rights.[25]
Edgar, meanwhile, campaigned on extending the state's temporary income tax increase with a promise for no new taxes during his term as governor. He also focused on his character as a consistent leader while attacking Hartigan as being an indecisive policy maker who changed his opinions on issues when it became politically convenient, a perspective that had hurt Hartigan in the past.[5][22][26] At one rally towards the end of the campaign, Edgar held up awaffle and joked that it would become thestate seal if Hartigan were elected.[26]
Edgar's campaign was hindered by a poor national environment for Republicans and a desire amongst the Illinois public for a change in leadership following the previous four terms of Jim Thompson.[5][27]
In the two weeks prior to the election, those hindrances paired with poor polling led Edgar to believe he was going to lose. But, despite trailing Hartigan for most of election night, Edgar narrowly won the election by a little over 2% of the vote.[17][28] Edgar's close victory occurred alongside the re-election of incumbent U.S. SenatorPaul Simon in aDemocratic landslide and made Edgar one of only two Republicans to win statewide office in Illinois that year.[29]
In the election's aftermath, a few factors were given credit for Edgar's success: his successful effort to market himself as a candidate representing change for the state despite being a Republican and his strong performance with groups that were not traditionally a part of the state's Republican coalition.[5][29]
Key to Edgar's narrow victory was Hartigan not being able to secure the typical large support for a Democratic candidate among Chicago's Black voters. In an era of Chicago politics defined by racial polarization, this was largely attributed to him originally being a vocal supporter ofthird party candidateThomas Hynes, a longtime ally, against incumbent Democratic mayorHarold Washington, the city's first black mayor, in the1987 mayoral election .[29][30] In addition, during the campaign, Edgar openly opposed PresidentGeorge Bush'svetoing of theCivil Rights Act of 1990 and successfully courted the support of prominent Black leaders, includingLu Palmer.[31][32]
As a result of Hartigan's shortcomings and Edgar's overtures to these longtime Democratic constituencies, Edgar ran stronger in the Black community than any Republican had in decades, earning a quarter of the black vote inCook County.[29][33] Edgar also performed better than Republicans traditionally did amongst Chicago'sLatino voters.[17][30] Edgar's gains amongst these traditionally Democratic groups helped negate his underperformance against Hartigan in other areas of the state, such as Chicago'scollar counties, that would have otherwise resulted in a loss.[29][33]
On January 14, 1991, Edgar took the oath of office as Governor of Illinois and gave a speech focused on fiscal responsibility.[34] During the gubernatorial transition between the 1990 election and his inauguration, Edgar and his staff were made aware of a nearly billion-dollar deficit in state spending that he would have to deal with upon assuming office and though the exact size of the deficit was downplayed by the Illinois State Bureau of the Budget to the public and to the news-media of the time, it was still recognized to be the largest budget deficit in state history up to that point.[35][36] Then, three weeks following Edgar's inauguration, the state began to feel stronger effects of theearly 1990s recession, worsening the state's financial standing further.[37]
To try and correct the state's finances, Edgar's first proposed budget for the fiscal year 1992 included no tax increases and extensive cuts to state spending totaling in the millions of dollars—with the exception of education, which received a slight increase.[38][39] This budget ran into conflict with theDemocrat-controlledIllinois General Assembly and a months-long budget fight ensued between Edgar andIllinois HouseSpeakerMike Madigan over his proposals.[38][40] After months of negotiations, the two reached a compromise in mid-July that included most of Edgar's initial spending cuts, made permanent the temporary income tax increase that had dominated the 1990 campaign, and established property tax caps in all counties exceptCook.[40][35] Edgar would have two more significant budget fights in 1992 and 1993 and the state's financial troubles would dominate much of Edgar's first term.[41][42]
In between budget fights, Edgar also sought to reform theIllinois Department of Children and Family Services, which had been put under court supervision following anACLU lawsuit three years prior to Edgar taking office.[43] Policy changes enacted by Edgar included reorienting the department's priorities around focusing on the best interests of the children they were dealing with as opposed to keeping families together, toughening standards for private agencies and organizations overseeing child-care, and passing a bipartisan package of welfare reforms in 1994 focused on increasing scrutiny in abuse-related death investigations, establishing methods of stoppingchild abuse before it occurs, and requiring the department to draft standardized training procedures and guidelines forcaseworkers.[43][44]
On April 24, 1993, Edgar declaredKane,Lake, andMcHenry counties disaster areas due to flooding.[35] This would be the first of many actions Edgar would take to curb the devastation of theGreat Flood of 1993, later be regarded as one of the worst natural disasters in Illinois history.[35][45] Edgar would mobilize over 7,000 members of theIllinois National Guard to flood duty over the course of the disaster and organize hundreds of inmates from theIllinois Department of Corrections to help withsandbagging andlevee-reinforcement.[46][35] Edgar would also help with sandbagging efforts himself throughout the summer.[45][35]
In 1994, Edgar signed into law Public Act 88-593, abipartisan compromise bill between Edgar and House Speaker Madigan to address the state's developingpension crisis.[2] Prior to 1981, the State of Illinois funded pensions on an "as-you-go" basis, making benefit payouts as they came due, with employee contributions and investment income funding a reserve to cover future payouts.[47] This approach was stopped in 1982 due to strains on the Illinois budget and state contributions remained flat between 1982 and 1995, resulting in an underfunding of pensions by approximately $20 billion.[47] Public Act 88-593 set out a schedule to raise the state's pension funding ratio from the then flat 52% liability to 90% by 2045 with mandatory yearly payments and a 15-year ramp period at the start where the state's payments would begin low and increase at an escalating rate yearly.[48] It would be from this 'ramp' period that the funding plan would gain thecolloquial name 'the Edgar ramp.'[49] The Edgar plan included a provision that state pension payments would be made automatically, just as the state bond payments. Despite being predicted as a bipartisan success at the time, the plan was not able to correct the state's pension issues long-term. It suffered setbacks duringRod Blagojevich's time as governor, when lawmakers underfunded the system by $2.3 billion in 2006 and 2007. This was followed by the 2008 global recession.[50] TheIllinois pension crisis continues into the present day, with Illinois' public pensions being the worst-funded in the nation as of 2023.[51][49]
In 1994, Edgar defeated comptrollerDawn Clark Netsch, to win the re-election in a landslide victory. He won 101 of the state's 102 counties, including the historically Democratic stronghold of Cook County.[52]
At the start of his second term, Edgar passed school reforms including fixing Chicago's failingpublic schools, creating an oversight board and introducing strict academic accountability. These changes improved test scores, attendance and graduation rates. In 1997, he also worked for education funding reforms leading to a law guaranteeing minimum funding for every Illinois student, improving equity and launching the state's first major school construction program.[53][54][55]
Edgar also worked on restoring financial stability of the state. He increased education funding, eliminated unpaid bills of the state and improved bond ratings. He also enacted the first income tax relief for Illinois workers in nearly three decades.[53]
Edgar was also responsible for achieving an upswing in adoptions by streamlining bureaucracy. With First Lady Brenda Edgar, he launched Project Heart (Helping to Ease Adoption Red Tape) to streamline the adoption process. Reforms included faster backgrounds checks and fingerprinting process, new courtrooms to speed parental rights cases, reduced filing fees and waived fees for children with special needs. As a result, adoption times were cut in half, and adoptions rose from 708 to 4,293 during his term.[53]
He also worked on land conservation and outdoor recreation in Illinois. Under his administration in 1996, 19,000 acres of the former Joliet Army Ammunition Plant were converted into theMidewin National Tallgrass Prairie, the first federally designated tallgrass prairie in the U.S., along with designated areas for veterans and economic development. The administration also partnered with theU.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to manage the 13,000-acre Savanna Army Depot, preserving diverse natural habitats and supporting endangered species[53]
During his second term, the relationship between his re-election campaign and Management Systems of Illinois (MSI) came under federal scrutiny. MSI, Edgar's largest campaign contributor, was granted a contract that cost an estimated $20 million in overcharges. Edgar was never accused of wrongdoing, but he testified twice, once in court and once by videotape, becoming the first sitting Illinois governor to take the witness stand in a criminal case in 75 years. In those appearances, the governor insisted political donations played no role in who received state contracts.[56] Convictions were obtained against Management Services of Illinois; Michael Martin, who had been a partner of Management Services of Illinois; and Ronald Lowder, who had been a state welfare administrator and later worked for Management Services of Illinois.[57]
Whilepro-choice, Edgar signed into law the Parental Notification of Abortion Act during his second term.[58]
In 1997, Edgar announced retirement from politics at the end of his second term. If he sought a third term, he was seen by his supporters as likely to win it. Edgar supported Secretary of StateGeorge Ryan to succeed him, and was elected governor in 1998.[59] Edgar was summoned by his supporters and received a presidential invitation in 2003 to enter the race to fill outgoing Republican U.S. Senator Peter Fitzgerald's seat, but he declined.[60][61]
Edgar was a distinguished fellow of the Institute of Government & Public Affairs at theUniversity of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.[62]
In 1999, Edgar was elected a fellow of theNational Academy of Public Administration.[63]
Edgar was named the honorary chairman of theRonald Reagan Centennial Celebration atEureka College, President Reagan's alma mater. To open the Reagan Centennial year in January 2011, Governor Edgar delivered the keynote speech at the concluding dinner of the "Reagan and the Midwest" academic conference held at Eureka College.[64] In September 2011, Edgar helped dedicate the Mark R. Shenkman Reagan Research Center housed in the Eureka College library.[65]
As former chairman of the board of theAbraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation, Edgar underwrote the costs of the traveling trophy for the annual Lincoln Bowl tradition started in 2012. The Lincoln Bowl celebrates the Lincoln connection withKnox College and Eureka College, two Illinois colleges where Lincoln spoke, and is awarded to the winning team each time the two schools play each other in football.[66]
In July 2016, theChicago Sun-Times reported that Illinois Financing Partners, a firm for which Edgar served as chairman, won approval by the state to advance money to state vendors who had been waiting for payments by the state. In turn, the firm would get to keep late payment fees when Illinois finally pays.[67]
Edgar was inducted as a Laureate ofThe Lincoln Academy of Illinois and awarded the Order of Lincoln (the State's highest honor) by the Governor of Illinois in 1999 in the area of Government.[68]
He was a resident fellow at theJohn F. Kennedy School of Government atHarvard University.[69]
A moderate Republican, Edgar supportedabortion rights.[58]
In the spring of 2016, Edgar said that he believed GovernorBruce Rauner should sign the Democratic budget and support the Democratic pension plan.[70] Edgar pushed for a pension bill to save $15 billion back in 1994.[71] "We had a time bomb in our retirement system that was going to go off in the first part of the 21st century," Edgar toldThe State Journal-Register in 1994. "This legislation defuses that time bomb."[71] The legislature passed Edgar's bill unanimously.[71]
In February 2008, Edgar endorsed Republican SenatorJohn McCain of Arizona for President of the United States.[72] Edgar supportedMitt Romney for president in2012.[73] WhenDonald Trump won theRepublican nomination in 2016, Edgar publicly announced that he would not be voting for him.[74] Edgar also supported DemocratsJoe Biden andKamala Harris in the2020 and2024 presidential elections, respectively.[75][76]
In 2020, Edgar toldPeoria-area newspaper thePeoria Journal Star on Trump, "I have been very disappointed. We've had chaos for four years we didn't need to have. I mean, there's always going to be some turmoil, but he stirs it up. He bullies. You can't believe what he says because he'll do the different thing the next day. ... He's bungledthe virus, there's no doubt about that. He continued to stir up division in the country, (when) a president should be trying to bring people together. I mean, the list goes on and on."[77]
Edgar married Brenda Smith in 1967.[78] The two met while going to classes at Eastern Illinois University.[1][78] They had two children, Brad and Elizabeth.[5] Edgar wasBaptist.[79]
Edgar always made a point of being public about the health problems he faced, including an angioplasty, a gall bladder removal surgery and a quadruple bypass surgery.[80][81][82] In February 2025, Edgar announced that he had been diagnosed withpancreatic cancer.[83] In September 2025, Edgar was hospitalized in Springfield due to an adverse reaction to his pancreatic cancer treatment.[1] He died on September 14, 2025, at the age of 79.[84][1]
A few months before he died, as he was undergoing cancer treatment, Edgar said he wanted to be remembered as a "good, good public servant", who "tried to do what he thought was the right thing".[76]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Secretary of State of Illinois 1981–1991 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Governor of Illinois 1991–1999 | |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by Sharon Sharp | Republican nominee forSecretary of State of Illinois 1982,1986 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Republican nominee forGovernor of Illinois 1990,1994 | |
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| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
