David McSweeney (born 1965) is a Republican politician and investment specialist from

Barrington Hills, Illinois Barrington Hills is a village located about northwest of Chicago in the U.S. state of Illinois. Per the 2020 census, the population was 4,114. It straddles approximately over four counties, Cook, Kane, Lake, and McHenry. The Village of Barrin ...

. He served in 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 2013 to 2021.

Early life, education, and career

McSweeney was born in

Park Ridge, Illinois Park Ridge is a city in Cook County, Illinois, Cook County, Illinois, United States, and a Chicago suburb. Per the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 39,656. It is located northwest of downtown Chicago. It is close to O' ...

and attended

Barrington High School (Lake County, Illinois) Barrington High School is a public four-year high school located in Barrington, Illinois, a northwest suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. It is part of Barrington Community Unit School District 220. History Original structure Alt ...

. He earned a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree in

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...

from

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

in 1987 and a

master of business administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

degree from the

Fuqua School of Business The Fuqua School of Business (pronounced ) is the business school of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. It enrolls more than 1,300 students in degree-seeking programs. Duke Executive Education also offers non-degree business education and ...

in 1988. He has worked as an investment banker, financial consultant, and currently as an investment specialist, working for

Banc of America Securities In the English language, banq and banc are coined words pronounced identically to the word "bank". Both terms have been adopted by financial services companies and others to satisfy legal restrictions on the usage of the word ''bank''. The compo ...

until April 2005. He has claimed a net worth in the millions.

Political career

In 1998, McSweeney unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Republican Phil Crane in the Republican primary for the 8th Congressional District in the

1998 United States House of Representatives elections The 1998 United States House of Representatives elections were part of the midterm elections held during President Bill Clinton's second term. They were a major disappointment to the Republicans, who were expecting to gain seats due to the embarr ...

. McSweeney was the Republican nominee in Illinois's 8th congressional district in 2006. He won in the six-way primary but lost to

Melissa Bean Melissa Luburich Bean (born January 22, 1962) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 2005 to 2011. Bean is a member of the Democratic Party. Early life, education, and business career Bean attended Maine East H ...

in the general election with 44% of the vote to Bean's 51%. In 2012 McSweeney was elected to the Illinois State Legislature, representing the 52nd Illinois State House District. McSweeney won the Republican nomination over incumbent

Kent Gaffney Kent Gaffney (born January 3, 1967) was a Republican member of the Illinois House of Representatives from the 52nd district. Gaffney has an undergraduate degree from Purdue University and did graduate studies at the University of Illinois ...

, who had been appointed to the seat after the death of incumbent Mark Beaubien. In the general election, McSweeney defeated Beaubien's widow, Dee Beaubien, who ran as an Independent. No Democrat filed for the seat. McSweeney won re-election in 2014 against Democrat Bill Downs with 70 percent of the vote. McSweeney won re-election in 2016 after running unopposed. On September 5, 2019, McSweeney announced he would not run for reelection to the Illinois House of Representatives and instead focus on running for either

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

against Tammy Duckworth or for

Illinois Secretary of State The Secretary of State of Illinois is one of the six elected executive state offices of the government of Illinois, and one of the 47 secretaries of states in the United States. The Illinois Secretary of State keeps the state records, laws, libr ...

. He was succeeded in the Illinois House by fellow Republican Martin McLaughlin.

Political positions

On April 15, 2013, McSweeney filed a House resolution opposing a

graduated income tax A progressive tax is a tax in which the tax rate increases as the taxable amount increases.Sommerfeld, Ray M., Silvia A. Madeo, Kenneth E. Anderson, Betty R. Jackson (1992), ''Concepts of Taxation'', Dryden Press: Fort Worth, TX The term ''progre ...

in Illinois. McSweeney also led the charge to oppose extending Illinois' income tax hike beyond the 2015 sunset date. He considers himself a strong conservative in both the fiscal and social sense. Rep. McSweeney is Lutheran. In 2014, McSweeney co-sponsored HB 983 which helps prevent local governments from issuing bonds for projects that could result in higher property taxes. The measure went into effect on January 1, 2014. In the spring of 2015, McSweeney introduced a measure to freeze property taxes for one year in townships with less than 100,000 people. In January 2015, McSweeney sponsored HB 173 to ban red light cameras. The legislation included a compromise that exempted the City of Chicago. House Bill 173 passed the Illinois House with 79 votes. McSweeney sponsored a bill that was signed into law on July 26, 2016, that restricted the amount of money that non- home-rule local governments can spend on traveling, meals, and lodging, and bans spending on entertainment. McSweeney supports

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

. In 2019, after two mass shootings in the U.S., McSweeney said he would either sponsor or co-sponsor a measure overturning the moratorium former Governor Pat Quinn placed on capital punishment eight years prior.

Electoral history

References

External links

Representative David McSweeney (R) 52nd District
at the Illinois General Assembly
Illinois States Representative David McSweeney
constituency site
David McSweeney for State Representative
*
Campaign finance (2006 Illinois District 08)
at

Open Secrets ''Open Secrets'' () is a book of short story, short stories by Alice Munro published by McClelland and Stewart in 1994 in literature, 1994. It was nominated for the 1994 Governor General's Awards, 1994 Governor General's Award for English Fiction ...

2012 Candidate questionnaire
at ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

''
2012 Candidate questionnaire
at ''

The Daily Herald ''Herald'' or ''The Herald'' is the name of various newspapers. ''Herald'' or ''The Herald'' Australia * ''The Herald'' (Adelaide) and several similar names (1894–1924), a South Australian Labor weekly, then daily * '' Barossa and Light Heral ...

''
2012 Candidate questionnaire
at the '' Northwest Herald'' {{DEFAULTSORT:McSweeney, David 1965 births Duke University Trinity College of Arts and Sciences alumni Living people Republican Party members of the Illinois House of Representatives 21st-century American politicians People from Park Ridge, Illinois