The 11th, which covers parts of Boone, Cook, Du Page, Kane, Kendall and Will counties, has been represented by Democrat Bill Foster, a 70-year-old physicist and businessman who once worked at Fermilab, since 2013. Foster did not face primary opposition.
Our history with the moderate Foster goes back to the beginning of this smart and decent man’s political career and we’ve endorsed him consistently across the years. We see no reason to stop.
Foster told us about his district’s concerns with affordability and he also noted, as do we, the perils in Democrats making changes to the Supreme Court: “Adding members to the court, for Republicans to turn around and do the same thing when they have power, would only make our legal and political system unstable,” Foster said.
But we also think Foster could be a vital player as a new Congress wrestles with what to do about the troubling rise of artificial intelligence. “I’ve been tracking the development of artificial intelligence since my time programming neural networks at Fermilab in the 1990s, and have been warning my colleagues in Congress about the risks associated with this technology for over a decade now,” he told us. “It’s unacceptable that Congress has sat on the sidelines of this issue for so many years — and we have a lot of catching up to do.”
Indeed we do.
The Republican candidate in the 11th is Jeff Walter, 66, three-term mayor of Elburn and a retired IT consultant. We endorsed Walter in the primary battle by virtue of his relative moderation and willingness to separate himself from some of President Donald Trump’s most harmful economic policies, such as his undermining of free trade. Walter also talks some fiscal common sense. “As mayor of Elburn, I have years of experience managing government budgets and making difficult decisions about priorities,” he told us. “At the municipal level, we operate within a legally authorized budget. We must balance priorities against available resources, plan for long-term needs and remain accountable to taxpayers. Washington needs more of that discipline.”
Amen to that and with a weaker Democratic candidate, Walter would be of interest to us. We also wish he were running for an office in Springfield where he could help curb the excesses of the Democratic supermajority. But he’s not. We see Foster as vital to the House and he has our support.
Bill Foster is endorsed.
Read all of the Tribune Editorial Board’s endorsements for the 2026 Illinois general election here.
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email [email protected].