Ram Villivalam, 39, has represented this district, covering parts of Chicago’s North Side including West Ridge as well as such northern suburbs as Skokie, Park Ridge, Morton Grove, Lincolnwood and Niles, since 2019. As majority caucus whip, he’s part of Senate President Don Harmon’s leadership team and led the upper chamber’s negotiations for the mass transit rescue package enacted late last year.
Giving Villivalam his first general election challenge since winning office is Vince Romano, 53, a Skokie real estate agent who’s run unsuccessfully for the state legislature several times. This is Romano’s first Senate run.
Romano is a harsh critic of Democratic Party leadership in Illinois, saying of Villivalam that his rise within the state Senate is “the exact problem. He’s a leader, and he’s leading us in the wrong direction.”
Of the transit package, which resulted in a record increase in road tolls throughout Illinois, he says bluntly, “It sucks. … One more thing (my opponent) did to make constituents’ lives unaffordable.”
Our view of Villivalam is more nuanced. We don’t love the spike in tolls either, but we believed the transit funding increase was unavoidable (if excessive). The money had to come from somewhere, and Villivalam helped put the kibosh on some truly unacceptable proposals that surfaced in the House — particularly a tax on the unrealized gains of Illinois billionaires.
Romano’s critiques of Democratic Party hegemony in Illinois are well taken, but we consider Villivalam to be an experienced problem solver even if he is philosophically liberal.
We endorse Ram Villivalam.
Read all of the Tribune Editorial Board’s endorsements for the 2026 Illinois general election here.
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