This Quad Cities-area district, which includes Moline and Rock Island and snakes south to Galesburg, is represented by first-term Democrat Michael Halpin, 47, of Rock Island. He faces Republican Brad Beekman, a retired Illinois state police officer who lives outside Bushnell, Illinois.
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Halpin, a state representative before winning this Senate seat in 2022 by 9 percentage points after the district was redrawn, has been relatively low-profile in the state Senate, largely hewing to the Democratic Party line. An exception was his 2025 vote against the Safe Gun Storage Act, which imposes new requirements on gun owners to store firearms safely and prevent access to them from children younger than 18 and beefs up penalties for violations.
We endorsed Beekman, 55, currently a member of the Bushnell-Prairie City school board, in the primary. He tells us he would “bring more balance and diversity (to) the Senate and strengthen the loyal opposition.”
Beekman is harshly critical of the tax-and-spend record of Democrats who dominate state government and in our view would serve as a needed check. We simply need more reasonable Republicans in the legislature, and Beekman fits that bill. Brad Beekman is endorsed.
Read all of the Tribune Editorial Board’s endorsements for the 2026 Illinois general election here.
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