Welch faces rebellion as 26 House Democrats call for new speaker

SPRINGFIELD — House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch’s grasp on the chamber’s top job is tenuous with 26 incumbent and incoming House Democrats saying the supermajority caucus “needs new leadership.”

“We represent a broad spectrum of our caucus, and each have come to this decision for our own reasons,” they wrote in a statement released late Wednesday. “We look forward to a robust race for a new Speaker of the House.”

It comes following months of criticism over Welch’s handling of sexual harassment allegations made against former Rep. Harry Benton, D-Plainfield, as well as a series of critiques over his leadership style and processes during his three terms presiding over the House.

House Democrats will likely have 84 or 85 members in the next General Assembly after a strong showing in Tuesday’s elections. This means that even if no one else in the caucus joins their effort, the 26 holdouts are enough to deny Welch the 60 votes needed to retain the gavel, so long as they stick together and he receives no Republican support.

Multiple sources tell Capitol News Illinois that opposition to Welch among his caucus extends beyond the members who signed the statement.

“I don’t see a path to 60,” Rep. Mary Beth Canty, D-Arlington Heights, one of the signatories, told Capitol News Illinois. “And if it’s true that we’re going to end up with potentially like 85 members, even if you get to 60, I think that’s a problem if you’ve got 25 folks that are going to vote no or vote present, right? That doesn’t lend itself to the ability to have a strong negotiating hand when it comes time for things like the budget and major pieces of legislation.”

The signatories included members of all the regional, racial/ethnic and ideological House Democratic subcaucuses, though nearly three-quarters of the breakaway group are women and a majority are suburban members.

Perhaps most notably, four members of Welch’s handpicked leadership team — Reps. Eva-Dina Delgado of Chicago, Lisa Hernandez of Cicero, Bob Morgan of Deerfield and Katie Stuart of Edwardsville — signed on. Hernandez also chairs the Democratic Party of Illinois.

Benton’s successor, Rep. Jessica Dixon Heitman of Plainfield, also signed the statement.

What comes next

While the vote for speaker isn’t until January, the legislative caucuses typically hold their internal leadership elections when they return to Springfield for veto session in November.

In the past, Welch has aimed to lock down support in his caucus early. In 2024, he released a statement the Friday following the election saying that he’d won enough votes to be reelected to another term as speaker. This time, it won’t be so easy.

Rep. Tracy Katz Muhl, D-Northbrook, one of the signatories, told Capitol News Illinois that there were various reasons why each member signed, but now that they’ve reached the same conclusion, it’s time to turn to “the question of who amongst us is the best to lead.”

“We are so lucky to have such a depth of talent within our caucus,” Katz Muhl said. “There are experienced senior leaders amongst us, especially women, who have lifted up colleagues, who have stood up and protected staff and colleagues, who have mentored us on how to be better legislators. And I’m excited and inspired about the conversation that will happen now about who will lead this new big, beautiful, diverse statewide caucus.”

Welch did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday.

A turbulent year

It’s been a turbulent year for Welch, who was elected in 2021 as the first Black speaker in Illinois history and successor to now-incarcerated ex-Speaker Michael Madigan.

While Madigan’s downfall came as the feds circled in on the bribery scheme that ultimately landed the longest-serving state House speaker in American history behind bars, a sexual harassment scandal in 2018 had already created chinks in the once-impenetrable armor.

Similarly, Welch’s grasp on the caucus started to loosen due to concerns over his handling of sexual harassment allegations. A legislative inspector general report published in July revealed Welch’s office knew about an allegation made by a former district staffer against now-resigned Rep. Harry Benton, D-Plainfield, as early as April 2023 but did not address it with Benton until July of that year.

The staffer did not file a complaint with the LIG, so Welch backed Benton despite knowledge of the allegation. And the House Democratic campaign arm Welch controls ultimately spent $1.4 million to support Benton’s 2024 reelection bid.

He didn’t boot Benton from the House Democratic caucus or strip him of his committee assignments until February, following two additional allegations made by a female lobbyist and a female House district director that the LIG deemed founded.

A Chicago Tribune story published this summer also detailed Welch’s own interactions with the staffer who made the first allegation, including reacting to her Instagram photos with heart eyes and inviting her to a bar through an encrypted messaging app. Welch told CNI earlier this year that he was “embarrassed” by the interactions and apologized.

Some members have also criticized Welch for supporting Rep. Murri Briel, D-Ottawa, who has been accused of inappropriate behavior by multiple former staffers, including her former chief of staff, who said Briel sexually harassed her. Briel denies the claims and received support from House Democrats in her reelection campaign.

Welch’s response was to form a Democrat-only working group this summer to come up with solutions for how the General Assembly deals with sexual harassment and other workplace culture issues. But even that proved problematic as Welch announced it without publicly naming its members, though a list was leaked by an ally of the speaker.

This ultimately led to the withdrawal of three members on the list: Rep. Kelly Cassidy of Chicago, Rep. Gregg Johnson of East Moline and Katz Muhl. All three signed the statement opposing another term for Welch.

Johnson told Capitol News Illinois his decision to sign was based what he perceived as “contamination from the speaker’s office,” when the working group was supposed to be operating independently.

“They weren’t honest with me,” Johnson said. “They just weren’t.”

Other issues

But there are other problems that, to this point, have simmered underneath the surface.

In September, Welch pulled his caucus out of the Democratic Party of Illinois’ coordinated campaign in a dispute over financial contributions. This divorce effectively cut Welch’s members off from the state party’s steep postage discount on campaign mailings.

It came despite Hernandez, a member of his leadership team, serving as party chair.

Welch has also faced internal criticism for heavy-handed member management tactics.

For example, he stripped Rep. Fred Crespo, D-Hoffman Estates, of his committee chairmanships and expelled him from the caucus for working on a budget plan independent of and unauthorized by House Democratic leadership. Crespo, who previously called for Welch to resign, has signed the letter.

Many of Welch’s members — and even Gov. JB Pritzker and his team at times — have expressed frustration with the inconsistent application of the speaker’s unofficial rule that a bill must have 60 Democrats in support before it is called for a vote on the House floor.

The rule presented a major hurdle to getting Chicago Bears stadium legislation out of the chamber and temporarily stymied Pritzker’s effort to regulate intoxicating hemp products.

Welch has also been criticized for lack of communication and members have expressed frustration with processes and procedures during session.

“The whole (Democratic) Caucus has been a circus,” Rep. Larry Walsh Jr., D-Elwood, told Farmers Weekly Review. “There is no organization, no consistency.”

Rep. Sharon Chung, D-Bloomington, said she’s always given the benefit of the doubt but ultimately signed the statement opposing him.

“I think that it’s just seeing all these little things sort of pile up and me realizing that maybe we need to go a different direction, and that’s kind of where I’ve gone,” she said.

Welch focuses on election gains

Welch hasn’t yet addressed the budding rebellion, though the House Democrats’ campaign arm put out a release Wednesday touting Welch as the “winningest Speaker in Illinois history.”

Democrats are set to have the largest House majority either party has ever had under the 118-member, single-member district system that replaced the 177-member chamber in 1983.

The party is set to gain six to seven seats — a product of a favorable national climate, a gerrymandered legislative map that Welch helped muscle through in the first year of his speakership and the money Welch raised for his caucus.

“We set out to protect our incumbents, expand our majority, and make sure members had the resources necessary to compete and win,” Welch said in the news release. “Tonight, we delivered on that promise. Our historic supermajority is not just a reflection of electoral success. It is a mandate to continue delivering meaningful results for the people of Illinois.”

Dixon Heitman and Rep.-elect Maria Peterson of North Barrington, both beneficiaries of Welch-controlled House Democratic money, say he should go.

“I am hopeful that the combination of seeing the 26 names on the letter and the feedback he is receiving individually from an equal or greater number of our colleagues will make it clear that we are all turning our attention towards the future and what our new leadership and caucus will look like,” Katz Muhl said.

Canty, who chairs the House Democratic Women’s Caucus, which comprises a majority of the caucus, said “it is time for us to look to women to lead us.”

“And I think we have a lot of really good members of our caucus, both the women’s caucus and the caucus writ large, that could be good at this job, and I hope that they will consider it,” Canty said.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.