Aaron Schock
Aaron Jon Schock is a former American politician who was Republican U.S. Representative for from 2009 until 2015. The district is based in Peoria and includes part of Springfield. He was the first member of the U.S. Congress born in the 1980s as well as the first millennial member of Congress; when he took his seat in 2009 he was the youngest member of Congress, at age 27. Previously, Schock had served two terms in the Illinois House of Representatives, also as its youngest member.
Schock resigned from Congress in March 2015 amid a scandal involving his use of public and campaign funds. A subsequent congressional ethics investigation revealed that he used taxpayer money to fund "lavish" trips and events. In November 2016, a federal grand jury indicted him in connection with the scandal. After he pleaded not guilty, prosecutors reached a deferred prosecution agreement with him in March 2019 whereby all charges were dropped in return for a period of good behavior and payment of $100,000 in restitution. As part of the deal, Schock's campaign committee, Schock for Congress, also pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of failing to properly report expenses.
Despite having a voting record of consistently opposing LGBTQ rights, Schock came out as gay in March 2020 and expressed regret for some of his previous policy decisions.
Early life, education and career
Schock was born in Morris, Minnesota, the youngest of the four children of Janice Marie, a homemaker, and Richard Schock, a family practice physician and former school board member. During his early years, the family lived on a rural farm site where the children were given the responsibility of tending a three-acre patch of strawberries and selling the fruit. When he was in fourth grade, his family moved to Peoria, Illinois. In 1995, he was elected to the executive board of the Illinois Association of Junior High Student Councils.Schock attended Richwoods High School. By his junior year of high school, he had completed nearly all of his graduation requirements, and had few course options available because the school district had recently discontinued most of the Advanced Placement and other advanced courses due to budget cuts. School district policy did not allow him to graduate early, and the board members refused his requests to change the policy. He began attending classes at Illinois Central College in East Peoria, earning dual credits toward high school and college graduation. He graduated from high school in 2000.
Schock received his Bachelor of Science degree from Bradley University in 2002, with a major in finance.
Peoria Board of Education
Schock decided to run for the Peoria Board of Education a few months after graduating from high school because he felt the board needed a more diverse and youthful perspective. After he did not get on the ballot because he did not have the required number of valid signatures on his petition to run for office, he organized a successful write-in campaign, using more than 200 volunteers who visited more than 13,000 households. He defeated the incumbent with 57% of the vote; at age 19, he was the youngest person serving on a school board in Illinois.On July 2, 2003, his fellow board members elected him vice president of the board, on a vote of 4–3. On July 2, 2004, his fellow board members unanimously elected him school board president, making him, at 23, the youngest school board president in Illinois history.
Illinois legislature
At the age of 23, Schock ran for a seat in the Illinois House of Representatives. In the November 2004 general election, he defeated four-term incumbent Democrat Ricca Slone, by just 235 votes out of 40,000 ballots cast, and became the youngest member of the Illinois General Assembly in state history. Five months after taking the office, he resigned from the school board to focus on his job as a state legislator.When Schock ran for reelection in 2006, he defeated Democrat Bill Spears, winning 58 percent of the total vote. He received more than 40 percent of the African-American vote in his district, despite his opposition to race-based affirmative action. During his four years in the state legislature, Schock served on two appropriations committees that were typically reserved for more senior lawmakers, as well as the Financial Institutions, Environment & Energy and Veteran's Affairs committees.
Schock was the chief sponsor of 38 bills, of which 13 became law. The bills dealt with education, child protection, prescription drug savings, veterans' assistance, road construction and high-tech identity theft. Another bill, co-sponsored with Democrat Dave Koehler, expanded the taxation area for the Peoria Airport.
During his time in the state legislature, Schock was involved with Youth for a Cause, Peoria Mayor's Vision 2020, the Peoria Chamber of Commerce, Heart of Illinois Kids Count, St. Jude Telethon V.I.P. and medical mission trips to Mexico and Jamaica.
During his second term as state representative, Schock worked as director of development and construction for Petersen Companies of Peoria,
U.S. House of Representatives
Elections
2008
In his speech announcing his candidacy for Illinois's 18th congressional district, to succeed retiring incumbent Republican congressman Ray LaHood, Schock said,"If China continues to be irresponsible about nuclear proliferation in Iran, we should tell them that... we will sell Pershing nuclear missiles to Taiwan for their defense. Nonproliferation will either be enforced universally or not at all – it is their choice. The Chinese will come around, I have no doubt." His campaign manager described the policy as "well thought out" and Schock first defended the remarks, but Schock later said it was "more in jest" and that he had made a mistake.
Schock easily won the Republican primary in February 2008, with 72% of the vote, beating his opponents Jim McConoughey and John Morris.
Schock drew mixed reaction in late July 2008 when he brought President George W. Bush to Peoria to raise money for his congressional campaign. The city of Peoria provided 38 police officers, 30 city trucks for temporary security barriers, and a number of firefighters, spending $38,252 to facilitate the visit, even though it was a private, paid-admission fundraiser. When requests to compensate the city increased, Schock called it "obviously a political move" and compared the issue to Barack Obama's endorsement of another state senator on the courthouse steps a few years before, for which the city did not request compensation. A city councilman cited an ordinance against political activity by the city, but the mayor of Peoria, Jim Ardis, called the requests "political rhetoric" and said the ordinance did not apply, and that the city did not have a policy addressing a situation where a sitting president visits. Schock later said he would reimburse the city voluntarily, referring to payment for presidential protection as "unprecedented", and saying he believed his campaign was the first in the state and possibly the nation to repay a city for protective services provided to a president.
Schock spoke at the 2008 Republican National Convention.
Prior to the general election, Schock was endorsed by 116 mayors across the district and the Illinois Farm Bureau. Schock's hometown newspaper, the Journal Star, endorsed Schock "on the basis of his potential."
In October 2008, Schock's father testified in a federal court that his son had notarized documents with false dates while helping his parents establish tax shelters.
Schock won the 2008 general election with 59% of the vote, defeating Democratic candidate Colleen Callahan and Green Party candidate Sheldon Schafer. He was only the fifth person to serve the district since 1933. Upon taking his seat in Congress, at the age of 27, he became the youngest member of Congress, supplanting 33-year-old Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, and the first member of Congress born in the 1980s.
In the November 2008 election, Democrat Jehan A. Gordon won Schock's 92nd Representative District seat in the Illinois House of Representatives.
2010
In November 2010, Schock was challenged by Democrat D. K. Hirner, the Executive Director of the Illinois Environmental Regulatory Group and the Green Party nominee Sheldon Schafer. The Journal Star again endorsed Schock, writing, "Schock is a more self-assured, well-rounded candidate than he was two years ago." The endorsement noted that Schock had voted with President Barack Obama more than a third of the time, breaking with GOP leaders on multiple issues, from his support for renewable energy to taming predatory lenders to FDA regulation of tobacco. Schock won with 59% of the vote.2012
For 2012, it appeared that Schock would face Darrel Miller in the Republican primary, but Miller was removed from the ballot in February 2012 due to problems with his petition signatures. In the general election, Schock faced Democrat Steve Waterworth. Redistricting made Schock's district much safer. Most of the more Democratic portions of Peoria were cut out, replaced with Republican-leaning Quincy and Bloomington. On paper, the new 18th was now the second-most Republican district in Illinois; had the district existed in 2008, John McCain would have carried it with 60.7 percent of the vote. By comparison, McCain had carried the old 18th with just over 50 percent of the vote.In April 2012, watchdog groups filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, claiming that Schock violated federal campaign rules when he solicited a $25,000 donation from House Majority Leader Eric Cantor for use in a Republican primary. Schock's campaign stated that it believed the FEC would dismiss the complaint after review. In December 2012, the House Committee on Ethics confirmed that the same matter had been referred to it by the Office of Congressional Ethics. In February 2013, the Office of Congressional Ethics' report was publicly released, which stated there was "substantial reason to believe that Rep. Schock violated federal law, House rules and standards of conduct." At the time of the release, Schock's communications director released a statement saying: "The release by the Ethics Committee of this report from the Office of Congressional Ethics is just one more step in the long process of adjudicating ethics complaints that can be submitted by anyone for any reason. We remain firmly convinced that Congressman Schock will be exonerated when the Ethics Committee examines the complaint and in due course resolves this matter."
Questions have also been raised about a real estate transaction that occurred the month before the 2012 elections. Schock sold his Peoria home to a major Republican donor, who was also one of his campaign supporters, for a price that appeared to far exceed its then market value, and reported as three times its worth. This led to another ethics complaint being filed against Schock by the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
Schock was endorsed by the editorial board of The State Journal-Register, who wrote that Schock "has grown in his two terms in the House, building expertise on budget, trade, transportation and agriculture issues and reaching across the aisle at times to build a solid record." Schock was also endorsed by the Journal Star and the Chicago Tribune.
Schock defeated Waterworth to win reelection in 2012, winning 74% of the vote.