Sexual harassment has been a pervasive problem in the Illinois speaker’s office since at least 2018. At that time, allegations of sexual harassment led to righteous uproar against then-Speaker Mike Madigan for his failure to provide procedures for victims of sexual harassment to safely report mistreatment and abuse by members of the Illinois House. After that, all elected officials including the speaker had to comply with new ethics requirements. We completed harassment and discrimination prevention training, we all signed our certificates of completion and submitted them, and the speaker’s office updated its harassment reporting protocol and sent it to everyone in the House.
But a victim’s experience reporting sexual harassment in 2026 is no easier than it was in 2018 because the pattern and practice of tolerating sexual harassment still plagues the office today with current Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, whose attitude toward harassment and abuse differs little from that of his predecessor. There is still no zero tolerance for sexual harassment in the speaker’s office. Welch’s call for former state Rep. Harry Benton’s resignation three years after his office received complaints is too late and too minimal of an action for an office that wields so much power and influence.
We cannot accept that. Everyone must work toward zero tolerance, and we can start by investigating the issues the Tribune reported. The speaker’s failure to protect sexual harassment victims certainly requires transparency and answers. At best, his failure to adequately respond to sexual harassment complaints is the consequence of poor management and irresponsibility. At worst, the speaker doesn’t take sexual harassment seriously and his office normalizes such behavior.
Mismanagement and irresponsibility call for a public apology from the speaker to the former staffer, other victims of sexual harassment and the members of the House. Such substantial mistakes require the speaker and anyone in leadership to review, revise and reaffirm harassment prevention policies and reporting procedures. Obviously, the current iteration is insufficient, ineffective and not demonstrative of a zero tolerance policy against harassment.
But what if the speaker normalizes sexual harassment? His actions toward Benton even after his office received complaints about his conduct suggest the speaker didn’t care. Benton remained on committees, stayed in the speaker’s caucus for years, and even received campaign funds from the speaker for his reelection. The Tribune’s report of the speaker using emojis on a former House staffer’s Instagram “stories” and a messaging app to ask her to meet at a bar is concerning and demonstrates inappropriateness and poor judgment. It explains why the speaker’s office treated Benton’s behavior as normal. It corroborates reports that the former staffer’s complaints to the speaker about Benton’s mistreatment fell on mostly deaf ears, resulting in no meaningful action to hold her alleged abuser accountable. The continued harassment and lack of a zero tolerance policy for abuse forced her to resign. The Benton report matters little to the change we need today and the answers we can get now.
As a member of the Leadership Council for Women In Need Growing Stronger (WINGS), which has provided pathways to independence for victims of domestic violence since 1985, I have zero tolerance for sexual harassment. But the speaker doesn’t. And that’s a problem. I don’t believe that I am the only Democrat who is tired of politics getting in the way of protecting victims. I urge my colleagues in the House to call for the speaker’s resignation, renew its call for zero tolerance, and perhaps even push for the state’s first-ever female speaker of the house.
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Rep. Fred Crespo is a Democrat from Hoffman Estates.
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