Shane Cultra is an American politician and former Republican member of the

Illinois General Assembly The Illinois General Assembly is the legislature of the U.S. state of Illinois. It has two chambers, the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois Senate. The General Assembly was created by the first state constitution adopted in 181 ...

Early life and career

Cultra was born in

Onarga, Illinois Onarga is a village in Onarga Township, Iroquois County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,368 at the 2010 census, down from 1,438 at the 2000 census. Geography Onarga is located in western Iroquois County at (40.715432, -88.00692 ...

. He graduated from

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

with an agricultural technology degree in landscape & nursery management. He served on the Iroquois County Board for fourteen years including two years as chairman of the board. Cultra, and his wife Virginia, have four children.

Illinois General Assembly

In 2002, he was elected to the

Illinois House of Representatives The Illinois House of Representatives is the lower house of the Illinois General Assembly. The body was created by the first Illinois Constitution adopted in 1818. The House under the current constitution as amended in 1980 consists of 118 re ...

from the 105th district. The 105th district, as drawn at the time, included parts of Champaign, Ford,

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

Livingston Livingston may refer to: Businesses * Livingston Energy Flight, an Italian airline (2003–2010) * Livingston Compagnia Aerea, an Italian airline (2011–2014), also known as Livingston Airline * Livingston International, a North American custom ...

, and

McLean MacLean, also spelt Maclean and McLean, is a Goidelic languages, Gaelic surname Mac Gille Eathain, or, Mac Giolla Eóin in Irish language, Irish Gaelic), Eóin being a Gaelic form of Johannes (John (given name), John). The clan surname is an A ...

counties in east-central Illinois. Cultra was selected by local party leaders in late 2010 to replace Dan Rutherford, who had been elected

Illinois Treasurer The Treasurer of Illinois is an elected official of the U.S. state of Illinois. The office was created by the Constitution of Illinois. Current Occupant The current Treasurer of Illinois is Democrat Mike Frerichs. He was first elected to head t ...

. Cultra resigned from the Illinois House effective midnight January 9, 2011 and was succeeded by his longtime legislative aide Russell Geisler for a single day. On January 10, 2011, Jason Barickman, the Chair of the Champaign County Republicans, was appointed to succeed Geisler for the remainder of the 96th General Assembly and to serve during the 97th General Assembly. During the 2011 decennial redistricting, the 53rd district was redrawn to include portions of Bloomington and Normal while losing Tazewell County. In the 2012 Republican primary, Barickman opted to run for the Illinois Senate against Shane Cultra. Barickman defeated Cultra with 19,713 votes to Cultra's 11,861 votes.

Post-legislative career

In 2016, Lyle Behrends of Ashkum succeeded Cultra as Chair of the Iroquois County Republican Party. That same year, Mike Tilstra, the Mayor of Onarga, chose to step down as Mayor. Cultra ran unopposed in the 2017 election. In the 2021 election, Cultra defeated Sarah Barnett 99 votes to 89 votes (52.66% to 47.34%). On March 7, 2022, Cultra filed with the Illinois Board of Elections to run for the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

from Illinois's 2nd congressional district in the 2022 Republican primary. He finished second of three candidates in the June 28th primary, losing to former Iroquois County Board member Thomas Lynch.

References

External links

Representative Shane Cultra (R) 105th District
official IL House website *
Bills sponsored
*
Committee assignmentsProject Vote Smart: Shane Cultra (IL)
*''Follow the Money'' – campaign contributions for Shane Cultra
200620042002
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cultra, Shane Candidates in the 2022 United States House of Representatives elections County board members in Illinois Republican Party Illinois state senators Republican Party members of the Illinois House of Representatives Living people People from Iroquois County, Illinois 21st-century American politicians Year of birth missing (living people)